A new or improved method and machine for filling, or partly filling, containers

摘要

650,503. Filling jars &c. LEVER BROS., & UNILEVER, Ltd. June 11, 1948, No. 15797. [Class 125(ii)] Jars, tins or the like are filled with liquid or paste by applying them to the underside of a rotary plate 2 in line with apertures 4 therein, whereby during the rotation of the plate 2 in contact with a stationary supply plate 15, the jars are exhausted, the vacuum is retained during the passage of the jar to the liquid or paste supply position, and the liquid or paste is admitted to the exhausted jar, the formation of bubbles being thus obviated. The first supply of liquid may be designed only partially to fill the jar, in which case a second exhausting of the jar prior to a second supply of liquid may be provided for. The jars 40 are fed by a belt or chain conveyer 30 to the filling machine, being released one at a time by a cam-operated finger 41 to be entrained by a rotating notched disc 31 which, in conjunction with a guide 33, presents the jars in succession to plungers 5 spaced circumferentially on a plate 3 which rotate in unison with the plate 2. The jars are accurately located on the plungers by pivoted V-guides 37, and, as the aperture 4 passes under a compressed air port in the plate 15, any paste lodging in the throughways of the plate 2 is blown into the jar. A cam-roller 12, belonging to end plunger 5, now raises a sleeve 7 which, through an interposed spring 9, raises the plunger 5 to press the jar resiliently against a pad 52. The aperture 4 then passes beneath an elongated suction port 21 in the plate 15, the exhausted jar being sealed by the plate 15 whilst the aperture 4 is passing from the suction port to the port 22 through which liquid is supplied to the jar under pressure. If a second vacuum stage is to be used, the auxiliary throughway 27 is brought into register with a vacuum port 26 in the plate 15 preparatory to registering the aperture 4 with a second liquid supply port 23. The jar then passes to a pressurerelief port 24 in the plate 15, so that when the cam-roller 12 falls, the jar may be separated from the pad 52 by a rotary notched disc 50 which co-acts with a guide 51 to position the jars on the conveyer 30 for transfer to the machine for applying paper caps as described in Specification 650,504. Paste removed by the suction system is collected in a trap between the filling machine and the suction pump. A small overlap between the application of the suction and the supply of the liquid is permissible, and, if paste is being packed, occluded air may be removed therefrom by feeding the paste as a ribbon through a vacuum chamber.