Abstract: An apparatus and process for coating an article utilizes a chuck to grip the bottleneck. The chuck includes spring fingers which are positioned to engage the bottleneck at equally spaced locations and which are shaped to fit a recess in the bottleneck so as to hold the bottle in place. The chuck includes a nose which fits inside the bottleneck to center the bottle, and the spring fingers are carried by a collar that can slide up and down to bring the spring fingers into or out of engagement with the bottle. Each of the spring fingers is part of a U-shaped spring member, and another part of each spring member holds a sleeve in place which surrounds the spring fingers and the top of the bottle. The sleeve protects the neck of the bottle from unintentional spray coating.

Abstract: An article transfer system and method and various components thereof that provide various benefits and advantages comprises a conveyor carrying a plurality of article holding devices having an eject feature, a rotary loader for loading articles onto the holding devices carried by the conveyor for transfer through one or more processing stations including, for example, a spray coating station, and a rotary unloader for removing the articles from the holding devices. Provision also is made for selective removal of articles from the holding devices at one or more strategic locations along the conveyor.

Abstract: The unitary spring clutch and actuator assembly has a spring clutch subassembly comprising a shaft for supporting two axially spaced input and output drums which are surrounded by a helically wound spring, one end of which is connected to a control sleeve or collar surrounding the spring. The collar has a stop element which coacts with the actuator subassembly to control rotation of the collar and hence engagement or disengagement of the spring from the input and output drums. The actuator subassembly includes a fixed frame for supporting an electro-magnetic control device which is adapted to engage and disengage from the stop element. The spring clutch and actuator subassemblies are secured together at one end portion of the shaft, which projects through an opening in the frame, and by a retaining member constructed and arranged to engage the tubular shaft and frame. A bearing is interposed between the shaft and frame to facilitate rotation of the shaft relative to the fixed frame.