GB1268968A - Apparatus for trimming containers - Google Patents

Abstract

1,268,968. Trimming cans. REYNOLDS METALS CO. 15 July, 1969 [17 July, 1968], No. 35666/69. Heading B3W. Cans 26 to be trimmed are supported in cradles 42 on a rotatable head 40 and rotated above their axes while being moved by the head along an arcuate path near the arcuate cutting edge 46 of a fixed sickle blade 45. Each can is mounted on a holder 43, Fig. 17, which is aligned with a back-up device 50 on the head 40 which enters the can body and carries a blade 52 which is radially outwardly displaceable to co-operate with the blade 45 to trim an annulus 32 from the can, Fig. 5. Each holder 43 includes a vacuum cup 104, for engaging the can base 30, mounted on a rotatable shaft 101. Each back-up device is telescopic and is moved axially to enter a can by engagement of rollers 55 on the device with a cam plate 53 on the machine frame. Engagement of a stop 141 on the device 50 with an annular stop 140 on the main rotary shaft 35 on which the head 41 is mounted limits axial movement of the device. The blade 52 is a disc rotatable in a holder (207), Fig. 14 (not shown), which is slidable transversely of the device. In operation, cans are fed to position A of the head 41 by a screw conveyer 80 and a star wheel 76 positively geared to the main shaft 35. A guide 160 supports the cans as they are moved by the star wheel 41. As a can strikes the edge 235 of a guide 161A vacuum is applied to the vacuum cup 104 of its holder 43 and air is blown through the associated back-up device which is in its retracted position. At position B the can is still being rotated and the back-up device 50 has been advanced until the stop 141 has engaged the stop 140. Between positions B and C the can is rotated against the arcuate cutting edge 46 while continued axial movement of the device 50, through a bellcrank (215), Fig. 14 (not shown), displaces the blade radially outwardly to co-operate with the edge 46. Trimming continues to a point between positions C and D. By position D the device 50 is being retracted and the supply of vacuum to cup 104 and of blower air to the device have been cut off. The can falls into a shoot 60 and is removed while the device 50 is retracted through a fixed stripper ring 144 which knocks the annular waste 32 into a shoot (not shown). An air jet (134), Fig. 19 (not shown), may assist waste removal.