GB157074A - Improvements in machines for cleaning milk-cans and other like receptacles - Google Patents

Abstract

157,074. Creamery Package Manufacturing Co. (Assignees of Valerius T. L., and Larsen, O.). Jan. 5, 1920, [Convention date]. Ca n s , cleaning and drying. - Consists in an improved device for cleaning milk and other cans, and comprises means for intermittently feeding the cans forward in an inclined inverted position by a bar mechanism, successively subjecting them to jets of water, steam, and hot air, and delivering the cleaned cans in an upright position at the delivery end. The cans are supplied to the machine on a fixed track of bars 29, 30, 31 and a. guide-rail 32, and are intermittently fed forward by a pair of forwarding bars 33, 34. The bar 33 has a lateral movement damped by a friction device 42, 43, 44, and is pivotally connected by a link 36, to the bar 34 having teeth 37 for engaging the cans, and a connection 40 driven through suitable gearing from an electromotor 45. During a forward stroke of the bar 34, the bar 33 is held, and the bar 34 swings out to engage a can and lift it clear of its track 29; the connection 40 then engages a fixed projection 41 on the bar 33, and both bars now move forward together. On the return stroke, the bar 34 swings in, and then both bars move back together. The cans first pass over a nozzle 64, to which the supply of preliminary cleansing water is regulated by a lever 66 pivoted on the bar 33 being pressed by a can into the path of the operating-rod of a quickacting valve 65. The cans then pass into a housing 9, fitted with partitions 10 with openings 27, baffles 68, and gravity-closed doors, and are. in a compartment 11, subjected to a cleansing by jets of water, continuously fed from drain tanks 13 to a header 21 and apertured pipes 26. In the next chamber 12 the cans undergo rinsing with hot water from pipes and header similar to the above and steaming by means of pipes 69, 73, steam being supplied from a valve 70 controlled from a lever similar to the lever 66. A steam jet is provided for blowing water from the bottom of the can. The cans pass out of the housing, and are dried by jets of air previously forced by a fan 76 over steam-pipes 78 in order to heat it. On leaving the drying-jets, the cans are delivered right end up on to a set of rollers (not shown) by means of the track 29, which is shorter than a resiliently pivoted shelf on which the cans now stand. A pusher rod facilitates the delivery of the cans, and is worked from a pivoted link 88 from the pitman 38. Jets are provided for cleansing the lids, which can be attached and carried along with the cans, or detachably propelled on a belt conveyer passing over sprockets 97, 98 intermittently turned through a pivoted dog on the bar 33.