Abstract: A bottling apparatus has a frame having a horizontally extending upper portion and a horizontally extending lower portion separated from the upper portion by an open space and an endless conveyor element on the frame having a horizontal lower stretch in the frame lower portion, an upper stretch above the space in the frame upper portion, and upstream and downstream upright stretches extending between and interconnecting upstream and downstream ends of the upper and lower stretches. A drive advances the element continuously in a horizontal transport direction in the lower stretch. A plurality of holders secured to the element each form a transverse row of seats adapted to fit snugly around necks of respective bottles which are loaded into the holders at the upstream end of the lower stretch with mouths of the bottles open upward into the space and the bottles hanging by their necks from the lower stretch.

Abstract: A bottle-capping machine has a rotor rotatable about a substantially stationary horizontal axis and having radially oppositely outwardly directed arms each having an outer end formed as a seat adapted to hold one of the caps. A conveyor moves the bottles through a fitting station below the axis and a downwardly open magazine holding a stack of the caps in a pick-off station above the axis is vertically displaceable between a lower position with the stack engageable with the seat in the pick-off station and an upper position with the stack clear of the seat in the pick-off station. A vertically displaceable stripper element fixed to the magazine is engageable with the cap on the seat in the fitting station to strip the cap from the seat in the fitting station and apply it to the neck of a bottle in the fitting station.

Abstract: An apparatus for filling containers has a frame carrying a plurality of sprockets and an endless conveyor chain on the frame having between two of the sprockets a straight treatment stretch. A succession of holders secured to the chain are each formed with a transverse row of seats adapted to hold respective containers. Respective machines carried on the frame and spaced apart along the stretch clean, fill, and cap containers in the seats. A drive connected to one of the sprockets advances the chain and moves the containers in steps in the seats past the machines. A metering wheel journaled in the frame meshes near one of the machines with the chain such that as the chain is advanced the wheel is synchronously rotated. A movable sensor element synchronously movable with the wheel can orbit on rotation of the wheel past a fixed sensor element carried on the frame to generate an output.

Abstract: A bottling apparatus has a frame and an endless conveyor element on the frame, having a horizontal working stretch extending in a transport direction through a filling station, and carrying a plurality of holder plates each formed with a row of seats adapted to fit snugly around necks of bottles. Couplings releasably secure the holder plates to the conveyor element with the holder plates spaced in the transport direction along the working stretch and the rows extending transverse to the transport direction. A drive advances the conveyor element stepwise in the transport direction in the working stretch and arrests each of the holder plates in the filling station with the bottles in its seats aligned with the fill tubes. A plurality of stationary upright fill tubes in the filling station above the working stretch are aligned with the seats of the holder plate in the filling station. The plates are lifted in the filling station off the conveyor element to engage the fill tubes down into the respective bottles.

Abstract: A bottling apparatus has a frame and an endless conveyor element on the frame and having a horizontal lower stretch, an upper stretch above the lower stretch, and upstream and downstream corners where the element changes direction. A plurality of pairs of upstream and downstream plates are each secured to the element with the plates of each pair having confronting edges each in turn formed with a cutout. The cutouts of each pair form in the straight stretches a seat adapted to fit snugly around a neck of a bottle. The edges are spaced apart at the corners so that, at the corners, they cannot hold a bottle. A drive advances the element in a horizontal transport direction in the lower stretch and separates the plates of each pair at the upstream and downstream corners.

Abstract: Facilities are associated with the discharge end of an article stacker, suitable for use in container-filling applications, so that the articles are discharged from the stacker in discrete groups of N articles each. A system of horizontally extending projections are provided on a pair of cylindrical blocking members that act as escapement devices at the bottom of the stacker. The successive projections on the cylindrical blocking members are cyclically moved into engagement with the lower ends of peripheral rims on the N lowermost articles in the stack, after which the N engaged articles are successively discharged from the bottom of the stacker. During the engagement and discharge of the N lowermost articles, the stacked articles overlying the lowermost N articles are inhibited from downward movement in the stacker. After the discharge of the lowermost N articles, the next N articles in the stack are moved downwardly into operative position for discharge after a predetermined interval.