Emhart Glass S.a.

Robert J Lockhart

F Alan Fenton

Gary R Voisine

Steven J Brown

Timothy A Ringuette

An apparatus for manufacturing strengthened glass containers, and more particularly the construction and operation of a bottom cooler in an apparatus for thermally strengthening glass containers in a glass container manufacturing line at a location intermediate the hot end and the cold end. Glass containers formed at an I.S. machine are conveyed through a special tempering Lehr that heats them uniformly to a high temperature that is short of temperatures at which they may become deformed. Subsequently, the glass containers are rapidly thermally strengthened in a cooling station in which the outer and inner surfaces including all areas of the glass containers are simultaneously cooled to a temperature below the Strain Point of the glass used in the glass containers, with the bottom coolers being used to cool the bottoms of the glass containers.

Bottom cooler for a post-manufacture glass container thermal strengthening station

A mechanism for delivering a cooling fluid to the interior of a formed bottle has an upper cooling tube assembly secured on a vertical post. The upper cooling tube assembly has a plenum chamber having a bottom wall and at least one vertical cooling tube is mounted on its bottom wall. The cooling tube is mounted on the plenum chamber with a quick release mechanism.

Cooling tube mechanism for an I.S. machine

A pushout mechanism includes a pusher finger assembly which utilizes air jets to facilitate the location of bottles with the pockets defined by the fingers. The air jets are defined by in a projecting post in an orifice member which can be quickly released from the arm of the finger. The location of the air jet can, accordingly, be quickly adjusted by substituting an orifice member having a shorter or longer post.

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Middletown, CT, United States of America

Robert J Lockhart