Untitled record

(Application filed Aug. 16, 1898.) (No Model.)

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THE NORRIS PETERS CO . PHOTO-LITHO.. WASHINGTON. 0. C.

United States Patent Office.

FRANK 0. WOODLAND, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO HORATIO GATES, OF SAME PLACE.

FEED-CHUTE FOR CROWN BOTTLE-STOPPERS.

SPECIFICATION· forming part of Letters Patent No. 613,349, dated November 1, 1898.

Application filed August 16,1898. Serial No. 688,688. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Frank 0. Woodland, a subject of the King of Sweden and Norway,residing at Worcester, in the county of Worces5 ter and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Feed-Chutes for Crown Bottle-Stoppers, &amp;c., of which the following, together with the,accompanying drawings, is a specification sufficiently full, to clear, and exact to enable persons skilled in the art to which this invention appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to improvements in the construction of that class of conducting T5 chutes or conduits more especially designed for use in feeding what are known as “crown bottle-stoppers” to bottle-stopping machines or means for the automatic manipulation of similar-formed articles for their presentation io in regular order at a position of delivery.

The object of my present invention is to provide a conducting means or chute organized for receiving the articles or crowns in differently-faced relation as they may enter 25 thereinto without regard to their order and adapted for effecting within the chute-the separation and reversal of a portion of said crowns or the partial rotation or turning of the crowns in a manner to bring them all into 30 uniformly-facing relation and regular order at the position of delivery, as more fully hereinafter explained.

Another object is to provide, in a chute of the character described having dual passages, 35 a finger or gate device at the convergent part of the passages to control the action of the crowns and avoid their clogging the passage at the junction thereof.

I attain these objects by .mechanism the na40 ture of which is explained in the following detailed description and illustrated in the drawings, wherein—

Figure 1 is a vertical section of a feedchute embodying my invention, Fig. l^a being 45 the lower end of Fig. 1 continued. Fig. 2 is a transverse section at line V; Fig. 3, a section at line W; Fig. 4, a section at line X; Fig. 5, a section at line Y; Fig. 6, a section at line Z, and Fig. 7 shows a. modification 50 wherein each of the intermediary passages forms a partial twist instead of the entire twist being formed in one of the passages.

The prime feature of my invention consists in a chute or conductor having a throatway for receiving oppositely-faciug crowns and 55 a single delivery-run united therewith by a plurality of intermediate passages, one or more of which are twisted for rotating the oppositely-facing crowns into a common plane.

Referring to parts as shown in the draw- 6b ings, A denotes the exit portion of a hopper of any suitable or well-known construction, for containing the supply of crowns or articles which are deposited therein en masse and from which they fall into the throatway 65 of the chute as they are brought into corresponding relation therewith by agitation of the hopper contents, as heretofore practiced.

B indicates the stoppering-machine collar or point of delivery,which may also be of any 70 suitable or well-known construction, it being sufficient for an understanding of my present invention to simply show the positions at which the articles or bottle-crowns are received and delivered by my improved chute 75 mechanism.

The body C of my improved chute can be of such dimensions and length as maybe required for the particular machine whereon it is in any instance to be employed.. Said 80 body comprises a single receiving orifice or throatway 1, adapted for entrance thereinto of the crown s when facing either in right or left positions and irrespective of order, except the edgewise introduction of the crown. This 85 throatway 1 divides into separate passages 2 and 3, one of which, 3, as shown in Fig. 1 and Figs. 3 to 5, has a twisted section or form of conduit, while the other, 2, passes direct. At their lower portions these passages 2 and 3 90 come together and merge into a single delivery way or run 5, which leads to the place of exit, as the collar-opening. At the dividing part of the throatway I provide deflectors or guides 6, with grooves 7 and 8 at either side 95 which receive the flanges of the crowns and cause all such as are facing in one direction to go down the passage 2 and all such as are facing in the opposite direction to go down

I the passage 3, wherein,,by the twisted form 100

613,349 of such intermediate passage, the crown is reversed in position of facing and runs into the delivery-way 5 in regular order, facing in the same direction as those that come down 5 by the passage 2 and right side up for delivery at the exit B ready to be placed on a bottle by well-known action.

D D' indicate fingers or gates arranged for moving into and from the passages 2 and 3 io at or near the junction of said passages with the single run 5 and serving for alternately arresting the descending crowns in one of the passages while releasing those in the other passage, and vice versa, thus preventing lia15 bility of two crowns meeting or coming together within the convergent space at 4, and thereby clogging the chute when in use.

As herein illustrated, the passages are disposed so that the crowns are separated by 20 deflecting them in a direction flatwise of their disks; but it will be understood that the passages can, if desired, be arranged to separate and bring the crowns together by an edgewise deflection, the turning of one set of 25 crowns or the partial turning in opposite direction of all the crowns for bringing them to uniform relation being effected by the twist of the intermediate passages, as set forth.

In Fig. 7 I have shown an instance in which 30 both intermediate passages 2^m and 3^m are twisted in sufficient degree to turn the crowns which enter the throatway in oppositelyfaced condition to a common plane and then merge at their junction 4 by edgewise con35 vergence into the delivery-runway 5. The dotted lines S indicate crowns as stopped in the passage by the gate D'. The movement of the gates D D' can be effected by any convenient mechanism, as a lever F or levers 40 and connection G, actuated from a moving part of the bottle-stopping machine. (Not shown.) Springs 9 afford a yielding contact in case the gate is caught against the side of a crown.

The passages 2 and 3 may be formed rectangular jn cross-section or of such other form as will allow the crowns to pass smoothly therethrough. In the present drawings they are shown as having a cross-sectional shape 50 somewhat resembling that of the crown, the better to indicate the facing direction of the crowns as they pass the line or position corresponding to the several cross-sectional views, Figs. 2 to 6.

In the operation a crown entering the throatway 1 faced toward the left, as per dotted line at S', Fig. 1, passes down the passage 3 and is rotated by the twist of the passage so that it enters the delivery-run and is de60 liyered right side up, as per dotted line S⁵, Fig. l^a; but if the crown is faced toward the right in the throatway 1 (see dotted line S^s, Fig. 2) then such crown passes down the passage 2 and is likewise delivered right side up 65 at the same position as shown by dotted . lines S⁵.

By making the chute so as to receive the crowns in oppositely - facing positions the probability of a given number of crowns entering the chute from the hopper in anyperiod 70 of time is greatly increased, and by this, in connection with the dual and twisted passages, the feeding efficiency of the apparatus is much enhanced.