The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 25, 1997
Filed:
Nov. 18, 1994
Stephen M Gerber, Petersburg, MI (US);
Owens-Brockway Glass Container Inc., Toledo, OH (US);
Abstract
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.