Owens-brockway Glass Container Inc.

Stephen M Gerber

George A Nickey

Noel D Wendt

Gregory A Ritz

William R Martin

Ronald E Gast

James Scott Barnes

James A Ringlien

Larry N Shue

William F Mazur

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 indicating concentricity of a rotatable glass flow control tube with respect to its axis of rotation on a tube support frame in a glassware forming system includes a base for securement on the tube support frame and a slide mounted on the base for radial movement toward and away from an outside surface of the glass flow control tube. A roller is positioned on the slide for rolling engagement with the outside surface of the flow control tube as it rotates on the frame, and an indicator is coupled to the slide for indicating radial movement of the slide, indicative of radial movement of the tube outside surface with respect to its axis of rotation, as the tube is rotated on the tube support frame.

Method for centering a glass flow control tube

Apparatus for centering a glass flow control tube

A takeout device ( ) for transferring one or more, usually a plurality, of freshly-formed glass containers (C) from molds ( ) of a section of an I.S. machine to a deadplate ( ) of the machine. The takeout device has an oscillatable arm ( ) that carries a head ( ) from which a tong ( ) for each of the containers is suspended. Oscillation of the arm is powered by a reversible, linearly-acting electrical motor ( ), preferably an a.c. servo motor, that causes a rack ( ) to reciprocate. The rack drives an oscillatable gear ( ) that oscillatingly drives the arm. The motor is mounted at the top of a post ( ) at an elevation above the elevations of the molds and the deadplate, and the motor, therefore, is readily accessible for maintenance and adjustment.

Method and apparatus for transferring articles in unison

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

An helical worm gear conveyor ( ) for conveying a succession of articles (C) along a travel path (A), the conveyor having a first worm conveyor ( ) surrounded by a second worm conveyor ( ). The helixes of the second conveyor are positioned between the helixes of the first conveyor to divide the pockets ( ) defined by the helixes of the first conveyor into a first, article receiving portion and a second portion. The helixes of the second conveyor are laterally translatable relative to the first conveyor, by rotation ( ) or without rotation ( ), to vary the longitudinal extent of the article receiving portions of the pockets, as required for proper conveying of articles of a given size that differs from articles of another size.

Adjustable worm conveyor

A starwheel (10) for serially moving a circumferentially spaced apart series of containers (C) in an arcuate pattern with respect to a stationary container supporting member (12). The starwheel has a turret (58), which is driven about its circumferential axis in an indexing manner by a motor and speed reducer combination (8). Each container is positively restrained during its movement with the supporting member by engagement of the container against a pair of idler rollers (14, 16) by a flight of an endless belt (24), which engages the container at a location generally opposed to the locations of its engagement by the idler rollers. The belt is moved through an endless path during the indexing of the starwheel, and during the intervals between its indexing steps, to thereby rotate the container during indexing and during its inspection or other processing steps, by training the belt around a driven roller (34). The driven roller is driven by the engagement of a driven gear (36), to which the driven roller is attached by a shaft (38), with a driving gear (40) that is rotatably driven by a motor (60). The belt is also trained around a second set of roller idler rollers (26, 28) that are mounted at the free ends of lever arms (30, 32). The lever arms are pivotally connected to each other at an axis away from the locations of the second set of idler rollers. The belt is moved toward the first set of idler rollers to engage a container thereagainst, and away from the first set of idler rollers to permit disengagement of a container therefrom, by the engagement of a cam follower (44) with a cam surface of a stationary circumferential fixed cam (46). The motion imparted to the cam follower is transmitted to one of the lever arms to which the second set of idler rollers is attached by a rod (42), an end of which is attached to the lever arm and the opposed end of which carries the cam follower.

Container handling starwheel

Apparatus for inspecting transparent containers having sidewall portions of differing optical properties that includes a pair of discrete light sources for directing light energy through the adjacent essentially discrete portions of the containers having the differing optical properties. A camera receives light energy directed through the container from both of the light sources as a single image of the entire portion of the container illuminated by both light sources. Commercial variations are detected as a function of variations in light intensity at the camera. The camera includes an array sensor that receives light energy transmitted through both of the container portions, and is scanned at increments of container rotation so as to develop an electronic image of the entire portion of the container illuminated by the light sources. The light sources are coordinated with the imaging electronics such that the electronic image has uniform optical properties in all portions of the image in the absence of commercial variations at the container.

Growing community of inventors

Petersburg, MI, United States of America

Stephen M Gerber