Bottom loader for a conveyor means

Abstract

A loader inserts articles into a conveyor from underneath. Each article is received in a gripper and depends thereform. The gripper is supported from the conveyor facing down at the point of loading (insert station). A predetermined number of articles (here, three plastic preforms to be heated then blown into plastic bottles) is fed by gravity down a chute to a reception point where they are temporarily stopped forming a queue. The reception point is upstream of and lower than the grippers. The loader has a device to grasp a group (the first three in the queue) from the side (or cross-machine direction) and move the group horizontally and lineally downstream to the insert station underneath a corresponding number of grippers while at the same time increasing the center-to-center distances to the same as the center distances spacing the three grippers in the group. The device to grasp thus delivers to the insert station the group with each article or preform in it vertically aligned with (coaxial) and underneath the gripper into which it is to be inserted. The group of grippers is not moving at this time. The article group is released from the device to grasp as a two-stage elevator pushes all articles in the group vertically up into respective ones of the gripppers, opening the gripper to receive the articles in the upward movement. The elevator then retracts by moving vertically down sufficiently while the grippers clasp the articles in response to the retraction. The system resets and the cycle repeats.