Abstract: As the bottles go through the bottle washing machines the inside of each bottle is sprayed at various locations at each of which the bottle conveyor travels an arcuate path, the center of which is generally coincident with the center of the rotary spray pipe. The rotary spray pipe is provided with rows of aligned spray nozzles each of which lines up with the neck of a bottle in the conveyor as it passes over the spray area. A header surrounds the pipe at each nozzle location with a segment of the header removed to allow the nozzles to spray the adjacent bottles as the nozzles pass the cutout section. For the remainder of a revolution the nozzle is blanked off by the header. The bottles are always synchronized with the nozzles since the conveyor sprocket rotates with the spray pipe. A backflush pipe is fixed below and communicates with the header so water can be flushed through the nozzles in reverse direction for cleaning.

Abstract: The metal stem of the gripper head assembly incorporates a flexible rubber section which permits limited movement of the gripper to align the gripper with the bottle while any necessary or desirable vertical movement is accommodated by vertical movement of the metal stem against the bias of the spring. The flexibility afforded by the rubber is adequate for self-alignment purposes but is not great enough to allow pendulation or swinging of the bottles during horizontal transport.

Abstract: Labels are removed from the bottles as they stand generally upright in the conveyor pockets at the bottom of the curved guide where they pass under the high volume nozzles fed by a supply manifold approximately at the center of the curvature of the solid guides. At the time of label removal the bottles are under the liquid level of the caustic bath in the bottle washing machine. The open slot on the bottom of the solid curved guide leads to a suction channel which pulls the labels from the caustic solution as fast as they are flushed off the bottles. The suction channel is tapered to obtain substantially equal suction across the slot. Since the bottles are moving on a curved path as they pass under the jet, there is an effective dwell during the flushing and a single nozzle can accomplish more flushing action than in prior designs.