Bottle conveying and cleaning apparatus

Abstract

A bottle conveying and cleaning apparatus for handling a succession of bottles at high speed. The apparatus comprises a lower portion of a vertical first rotary conveyor which receives the bottles in open-end trailing disposition, reorienting means which changes the disposition of each bottle to open-end radially outward during its conveyance by the first rotary conveyor, a linear conveyor which grasps each bottle at the bottom of the first rotary conveyor while its open end is downward and maintains each bottle in open-end downward orientation while coveying it past cleaning means associated with the linear conveyor, and means for inverting each bottle, removing it from the linear conveyor and placing it on an output conveyor with the open end up. In a preferred embodiment, an upstream portion of the first rotary conveyor also serves as part of a discriminating means for orienting bottles arriving in random orientation to a uniform open-end trailing orientation, guide means are provided for supplying the bottles to the discriminating means in timed sequence, and the bottles are maintained in timed sequence at least until they leave the linear conveyor.