Owens-brockway Glass Container Inc.

Owens-illinois, Inc.

Owens-illinois Glass Container Inc.

George A Nickey

Russell W Heckman

Stephen M Gerber

Noel D Wendt

Gregory A Ritz

William R Martin

Ronald E Gast

James Scott Barnes

Robin L Flynn

Robert C Miller

Terry C Potter

Marshall G Brummett

John M Slifco

James E Taylor

Frederick William Braker

Ronald T Myers

Jeffrey W Cramer

Robert J Burmeister

John E Poole

Dudley T Olson

Dan M Hayes

Walter E Traxler

Mark R Tipping

Richard W Craig

John K Moore

Apparatus for indexing glassware through a series of angularly spaced stations includes first and second arrays of glassware gripping fingers mounted on associated carriers that are rotatable about a common axis, both conjointly and with respect to each other. Each carrier is connected to as associated servo motor, which in turn are connected to a controller for rotating the carriers with respect to each other to grip and release glassware between the fingers, and to rotate the carriers conjointly to index the glassware between apparatus stations. One array of glassware gripping fingers includes coil springs for biasing the fingers toward the fingers of the opposing array for accommodating tolerance variations in the glassware. Drive rollers are located at at least some of the stations, and are pivotal into and out of positions for rotating the containers about their axes for inspection or other purposes.

Method and apparatus for inspecting articles of glassware

An apparatus for delivering a spray of cooling liquid to opposed shear blades of an apparatus for shearing a stream of molten glass into gobs, the apparatus having liquid outlets ( ) that lead to spray nozzles. A liquid is intermittently delivered at a low pressure to the liquid outlets ( ) from separate liquid inlets ( , respectively), each of the outlets ( ) having a solenoid valve ( , respectively), in a line leading thereto. The nozzles that receive liquid from the outlets ( ) are periodically purged of accumulated coagulated coolant or other debris by pumping coolant therethrough at a substantially higher pressure. To this end, each of the liquid outlets ( ) is connected to an outlet from a rodless cylinder ( , respectively), and high pressure air from a common inlet ( ) is intermittently imposed on an inlet to each rodless cylinder ( ) to urge pistons in the rodless cylinders toward the outlets from the rodless cylinders ( , respectively) to expel liquid coolant in the rodless cylinders ( ) toward the liquid outlets ( , respectively) at a substantially higher pressure. A solenoid valve ( ) is positioned in the high pressure air inlets to the rodless cylinders ( , respectively) to limit the pressurization of the liquid outlets ( ) on a timed basis so that nozzle clogging is eliminated.

Apparatus for producing a cooling or lubricating spray

An apparatus for inspecting non-round containers includes a pair of carriages coupled to associated motors for rotation independently of each other on a common axis. Each carriage carries a corresponding plurality of semi-circular gripping fingers, which may be moved toward and away from each other by controlled rotation of the carriages. The fingers are widely separated from each other to accept non-round containers at an in-feed station, and to permit removal of the containers at out-feed and reject stations. For transporting the containers between stations, the finger are brought closely together to grip the containers for indexing, and springs on one of the carriages resiliently urge the associated fingers toward the fingers on the opposing carriage for accommodating size variations among the containers. At inspection stations, the fingers are moved slightly away from each other, but remain together so as to define a circular perimeter for capturing the non-round body and confining the body of the container during rotation. The container may be rotated by a drive roller engaged with the cylindrical container finish. The container finish can be inspected, as can portions of the sidewall, base and heel.

Apparatus and method for inspecting non-round containers

A glass gob delivery system for conveying gobs of molten glass from an oscillating gob delivery chute to a blank mold of a glass container forming machine of the I.S. type. The delivery system comprises an elongate trough that extends downwardly from an inlet to an outlet and a deflector with an inlet near the outlet from the trough and an outlet near the blank mold. The trough has a cross-section in the form of an upwardly facing U whose opposed legs extend parallel or substantially parallel to one another, the spacing between the opposed legs tapering gradually from a greater spacing at the inlet to a lesser spacing at the outlet. The deflector has a curved portion that curves downwardly from a higher elevation at a location near the inlet to a lower elevation at a location away from the inlet and has a cross-section in the shape of a downwardly facing U whose opposed legs extend parallel or substantially parallel to one another, the spacing between the opposed legs of the deflector gradually tapering from a greater spacing at the inlet to a lesser spacing at the outlet. The trough and the deflector are formed from an aluminum alloy with gob contacting surfaces that are coated with a nickel-graphite composition.

Apparatus for delivering glass gobs in a glass forming machines

Glass gob shearing apparatus having opposed shear blades that reciprocate along generally parallel, opposed horizontal paths to periodically bring the shearing ends of the shear blades into partly overlapping contact with one another, to thereby shear a gob of molten glass from a stream of molten glass flowing downwardly between the shear blades. Contact loads between the shear blades are reduced by placing a shim between one of the shear blades, namely the shear blade that is the lower of the shear blades when they are in contact with each other, to thereby impart a slight downward inclination to such shear blade with respect to the other shear blade. Contact loads between the shear blades are further reduced by resiliently mounting the other shear blade to the blade holder to which it is attached, and this is done by positioning curved spring washers between the other shear blade and the blade holder to which it is attached.

Glass gob shear blade mounting apparatus

An invert arm assembly for a glass container forming machine of the I.S. type, the invert arm assembly having an opposed pair of invert arm segments that are movable toward and away from one another and define one or more neck ring assembly receiving apertures when the invert arm segments are disposed adjacent to one another. A neck ring assembly is placed in each aperture and is locked in place with respect to the invert arm segments. Each neck ring assembly can be removed from the aperture in which it is located by inserting a portion of a hand tool in a portion of the invert arm segments to unlock the neck ring assembly from the aperture without moving the invert arm segments with respect to one another.

Quick change invert arm assembly

A parallel shear apparatus (20) for simultaneously shearing a plurality of streams of molten glass (A, B, C) into gobs comprising opposed carriages (22, 24) which are repetitively moved along rectilinear opposed paths toward and away from one another. Each of the carriages carries a plurality of shear blades (40a, 40b, 40c/42a, 42b, 42c) which cooperate with one another to shear the glass streams into gobs when the carriages are positioned close to one another. The shear blades carried by each of the carriages have internal flow passages (66) to permit the blades to be internally liquid cooled by liquid entering the carriages from inlet lines (52, 56), and the blades carried by one of the carriages (22) are biased by compression springs (82) into contact with the blades carried by the other carriage (24) to prevent excessive contact loads between the blades in their shearing positions. A contact lubricator (88) is provided to lubricate the contact surfaces of the blades carried by one of the carriages (22) by contact with such blades. The shear apparatus is employed in a method for shearing streams of molten glass by moving the carriages toward and away from one another to repetitively bring the free ends of the shear blades into partly overlapping relationship.

Glass gob shearing apparatus with contact lubricated blades and method

A method and apparatus for forming a shrinkable sleeve of plastic material and applying it as a label to a glass or plastic container. The plastic is fed from a source, cut to successive lengths, wrapped about successive mandrels and sealed to form each sleeve. Thereafter each sleeve is transferred from the mandrel onto an overlying container. The mandrels are circumferentially positioned on a turret, and a combined heat seal bar and tucker bar is associated with each mandrel to bond the overlapping ends of the severed length of plastic material to one another. A stripper transfers each sleeve that has been so formed from a position on the mandrel axially onto an overlying aligned container while the path of the container overlies the respective mandrel for a portion of its movement by the turret.

Apparatus for forming and applying a shrinkable sleeve on a container

A system for inspecting and sorting molded containers, such as glass bottles that includes a finished product inspection station for inspecting containers transported in sequence along a predetermined path, identifying containers to be sorted from the path on the basis of container mold of origin, and providing an electrical signal indicative of such containers. A conveyor is disposed adjacent to the container path downstream of the finished product inspection station, and is responsive to an electronic control signal for selectively removing a container from the path as the container passes adjacent to the conveyor. A timer receives the electrical signal from the inspection station, and applies the electronic control signal to the conveyor after a time delay coordinated with distance between the inspection station and the conveyor, and velocity of travel of containers along the path between the inspection station and the conveyor.

Inspection and sorting of containers

An oven for preheating glass containers in which the containers are moved through the oven on a conveyor with the conveyor moving at a linear speed that is in excess of the permitted speed of the container movement. This permits the containers to produce a 'gear effect' rotation of the containers that are guided on the conveyor by side rails that are spaced apart a distance greater than the container diameter. A source of heated air is directed against the shoulder of the container by an adjustable nozzle and another nozzle is directed against the heel so that these areas of the container will be preheated so that the shrinking of a plastic label about the container will be uniform.

Preheat oven for glass containers

The present invention relates to improved apparatus for forming a tubular plastic sleeve immediately prior to its application to a rigid base article, such as a glass or plastic bottle. A rectangular blank of plastic material is wrapped around a cylindrical mandrel and seamed lengthwise thereon to form the tubular sleeve. The mandrel has a plurality of spline-shaped grooves in its curved peripheral surface and a stripper ring mounted to closely surround such peripheral surface to be slidable thereon. The ring has a plurality of internal lugs which slidably fit within the spline-shaped grooves. The mandrel has a lineal array of vacuum ports for retaining the leading and trailing edges of the plastic blank on the mandrel for its wrapping thereon, and an axial resilient strip mounted in the curved peripheral surface of the mandrel for operation of a movable, axially-extending sealing bar thereagainst. A wedge-shaped expansion member is also mounted in a wedge-shaped channel or groove in the mandrel peripheral surface between a pair of spline-shaped grooves. The expansion member is adapted to be moved vertically with respect to the mandrel for contraction of the mandrel diameter to release the newly-formed sleeve for its removal therefrom. The sleeve is then applied to a glass or plastic bottle for heat shrinking thereon in a thermoconstrictive operation. The apparatus is especially adapted to forming a wide range of thicknesses of a variety of heat-shrinkable thermoplastic materials into suitable tubular sleeves for telescopic mounting on such containers in a rapid, efficient manner.

Apparatus for forming tubular plastic sleeves for application to bottles

Organic hygroscopic powders are preconditioned to render them free flowing and to facilitate their electrostatic application to preheated workpieces. The preconditioning technique includes drying the powder prior to electrostatic application to remove moisture and break up agglomerates using a fluidized bed drying process with concurrent mechanical agitation to form a substantially dry, free flowing powder.

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Maumee, OH, United States of America

George A Nickey