Importance

Loading Importance Indicators...

Abstract

A bottle unscrambler has a hopper which rotates while oriented at an angle to the horizontal through a random distribution of bottles at the low portion of the hopper. The bottom of the hopper is bounded by a ring which rotates counter to the direction of rotation of the hopper. The ring has a plurality of radially spaced concentric rows of bottle-receiving pockets which pass below the bottles. Each pocket in the ring removes a bottle from the randomly distributed bottles and carries the bottle up to a position where each concentric row of bottles is dropped bottom first into a plurality of radially spaced chutes, positioned below and separated from the hopper by the rotating ring, from which chutes the bottles in one row are fed to alternate compartments of a bottle stabilizing ring with the bottles from the radially adjacent compartment being dropped and inserted into the alternate spaces between the bottles on the stabilizing ring. The serially combined bottles are then moved about the internal periphery of the machine and brought up to a vertical position where they are transferred to a conveyor belt moving at substantially the same speed to exit from the machine in proper orientation and with a minimum amount of wobble or tendency to fall. The disclosed machine is capable of operating in the range of twice the speed of any machine currently available.

Loading the Abstract Image...

First Claim