GB2101071A

GB2101071A - A method of protecting individual articles, in a collection of said articles, from one another

Info

Publication number: GB2101071A
Application number: GB08219703A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Edwin Ian Ashworth
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1981-07-10
Filing date: 1982-07-08
Publication date: 1983-01-12

Abstract

To protect an easily damaged article, such as a glass bottle 10, which normally comes into potentially destructive and noisy contact with a plurality of like articles, said bottle 10 has applied to the outer surface of its body 12 a layer 11 of a resilient material which absorbs any damaging forces and noise generated by contact of bottles. Alternatively, the resilient material applied to the bottle 10 may be in the form of axially spaced continuous or broken annular rings or vertical strips. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION A method of protecting individual articles, in a collection of said articles, from one another This invention concerns a method of protecting individual articles, in a collection of said articles, from one another e.g. so that they do not damage one another, more particularly but not exclusively individual glass bottles in a continuous stream of glass bottles conveyed from one part of a glass bottling plant to another part thereof.

In a bottling plant, bottles are conveyed from one stage of the bottling process to another in a continuous stream. Although more recently there has been a trend towards using plastic bottles, the most desirable and widely used material, from the point of view of customer appeal, has remained glass. One of the major disadvantages of using glass bottles is that they are very prone to breakage due to the fact that they knock against one another during what is usually a high speed bottling process. This disadvantage adds considerably to raw material costs in having to replace the broken bottles and the product lost from the bottles when they are broken. It can also mean that production targets are not met. Furthermore broken glass bottles can foul bottle handling equipment and can be a danger to people operating the equipment.

However, by far the biggest disadvantage in using glass bottles is the adverse effect they have on the environment within the bottling plant. It will be appreciated that several thousand bottles conveyed closely together, at high speed, around the bottling plant make a considerable amount of noise. This noise is at such a decibel eve that people working in the bottling plant have to be provided with protective equipment which will prevent temporary or even permanent damage to their hearing.

An object of the present invention is to afford some protection to individual articles in a collection of said articles, such as a stream of glass bottles, to prevent them damaging one another and producing an excessive level of noise when they come in contact with one another, and thereby to overcome the aforementioned disadvantages.

With this object in view the present invention provides a method of protecting individual articles, in a collection of said articles, from one another, more particularly but not exclusively individual glass bottles in a continuous stream of glass bottles, said method comprising the step of applying to part or all of article's outer surface one or more layers of a resilient material.

There may be a variety of ways in which the or each layer of resilient material is applied to the article.

It may be applied to the article in the form of a continuous ring or band around the middle of the article or two or more continuous rings or bands, for example, around the article adjacent its base and/or its top respectively.

Alternatively, the or each layer of resilient material may be applied to the article in the form of one or more broken rings consisting of individual spots, again either around the middle of the article or adjacent its base and/or its top respectively.

As a further alternative, the or each layer of resilient material may be applied to the article as a plurality of spaced-apart vertical strips, that is strips extending between the base and the top of the article.

To facilitate the adherence of the or each ring or strip of resilient material the article may be made with one or more grooves in its outer surface, into which grooves the resilient material is disposed. The or each groove can extend around or along the articles and is advantageously shallow enough to ensure that part of the ring or strip protrudes therefrom.

If the wall thickness of the article is insufficient or the material from which the article is made does not permit the formation of grooves the or each ring or band may be applied to the article by shrinking it thereon.

Where these articles are, for example, glass bottles which are conveyed in a continuous stream in close proximity to one another, in a glass bottling plant, they abut each other by means of the or each layer of resilient material. Therefore the actual surfaces of the glass bottles never come into contact with one another and impact between the bottles, and the noise produced thereby, is absorbed by the or each layer of resilient material.

Advantageously the resilient material is a high impact, low density polymer, PVC or equivalent substance. The polymer or PVC etc, may be applied to the article, for example, by being sprayed thereon, where it is intended to cover only part of the article's outer surface, or by being dipped into a reservoir of said polymer, where it is intended to cover the entire surface of the article.

The invention will be described further, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, it being understood that the following is illustrative and not limitative of the scope of the invention.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is a part-sectional elevation of a bottle around which is disposed a single continuous band of a resilient material in accordance with one preferred method of the present invention; Figure 2 is a view similar to Fig. 1 but wherein the bottle has two continuous spacedapart rings disposed therearound; Figures 3 to 6 are each a front elevation of a bottle illustrating further preferred methods of arranging the resilient material on the bottle; and Figure 7 is a cross-section of part of the wall of the bottle of Fig. 6 illustrating one method of adhering the ring of resilient material to the surface of the bottle.

The article with which the present invention is particularly concerned is a glass bottle and the preferred method of the present invention is particularly but not exclusively directed to protecting individual glass bottles, in a stream of said glass bottles, from one another, which bottles are conveyed from one part of a glass bottling plant to another. The glass bottles can be used for bottling a variety of substances from liquids such as milk and soft drinks to solids such as pickles. Consequently, the bottles can be of any particular size or shape. However in disclosing the preferred method reference will be made to a glass bottle which is normally used for containing soft drinks and which has a body which is substantially cylindrical in shape with a conical neck which tapers inwardly to a mouth over which mouth can be fitted a cap.

Referring to the drawings, the preferred method of protecting the bottles comprises the step of applying to part of each bottle a layer of a resilient material.

As illustrated in Fig. 1, in one preferred method this layer is applied in the form of a continuous band 11 around the middle of the body 1 2 of the bottle 1 0. The resilient material is a high impact, low density polymer or PVC. It is applied to the bottle 10, for example, by spray, after the bottle 10 has been cleaned or at the point of manufacture and prior to the bottle 10 being conveyed together with a multitude of other like bottles through the stages of being filled, sealed labelled and packed. For safety reasons the polymer is nontoxic, has a high shelf life once having been applied to the bottle 10 and can either be transparent or coloured as desired.

The band 11 of resilient material absorbs impacts between the bottles as they are conveyed through the bottling plant and therefore greatly reduces the possibility of the bottles being damaged. Furthermore, the noise of such impacts is absorbed by the band 11 and therefore the level of noise in the bottling plant is greatly reduced. From the point of view of packing the bottles into cartons, the cost of, and effort involved in, this is greatly reduced since it is no longer necessary to provide cardboard partitions between the bottles to prevent the bottles from knocking against one another during handling and thereby possibly breaking. The band 11 of resilient material on each bottle 1 0 takes the place of the partitions.

In a second preferred method as illustrated in Fig. 2, two continuous rings 1 3 and 14, each of resilient material are disposed around the bottle 10, one 1 3 adjacent the base of the neck 1 5 of the bottle 10 and the other 1 4 adjacent the base 1 6 of the bottle 1 0.

Further different methods of applying the layer of resilient material are illustrated in Figs. 3, 4 and 5.

In the method illustrated in Fig. 3 the resilient material is applied in the form of two broken rings 1 7 and 1 8 each consisting of individual spots of material around the bottle 10 adjacent the neck 1 5 and the base 1 6 of the bottle 1 0 respectively.

In the method illustrated in Fig. 4 the resilient material is applied in the form of a plurality of parallel vertical strips 1 9 arranged around the bottle 10 in two groups 20 and 21 adjacent the neck 1 5 and the base 1 6 respectively.

In the method illustrated in Fig. 5 again the resilient material is applied in the form of two broken rings 22 and 23, but the rings 22, 23 each consist of horizontal strips 24 and are disposed around the bottle 10 adjacent the neck 1 5 and the base 1 6 respectively.

The resilient material which is applied to each bottle 10 illustrated in Figs. 3, 4 and 5 is a high impact, low density polymer or PVC sprayed onto the bottle 1 0.

Illustrated in Figs. 6 and 7 is a bottle 10 which is formed with a pair of annular grooves which facilitate the adherence of the resilient material. The grooves are located in wall 25 of the bottle 10 respectively adjacent the neck 1 5 and the base 1 6 so as to receive respective annular rings 26 and 27. Each groove has a shallow U-shape cross-section (see Fig. 7) so that the respective ring 26 (or 27) of resilient material protrudes therefrom.

The invention is not confined to the precise details of the foregoing and variations can be made thereto within the scope of the invention. Thus, for example, the or each groove can extend between the base and the neck of the bottle and there may be any desired number of grooves of any desired cross-sec- tion. Where the wall thickness of the bottle is insufficient to allow the formation of grooves the or each ring or band may be applied to the article by shrinking it thereon. The resilient material can be applied to the bottle so that it covers the entire surface of the body from the base to the neck.

Claims

1. A method of protecting individual articles, in a collection of said articles, from one another, more particularly but not exclusively individual glass bottles in a continuous stream of glass bottles, said method comprising the step of applying to part or all of the article's outer surface one or more layers of a resilient material.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the or each layer of resilient material is applied to the article in the form of a continuous ring or band around the middle of the article or two or more continuous rings or bands around the article adjacent its base and/or its top respectively.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the or each layer of resilient material is applied to the article in the form of one or more broken rings, consisting of individual spots, either around the middle of the article or adjacent its base and/or its top respectively.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the or each layer of resilient material is applied to the article as a plurality of sp.aced-apart strips.

5. A method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the strips are arranged so as to be parallel with one another vertically of the article and around the article in two groups adjacent its base and its top respectively.

6. A method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the strips are arranged horizontally around the article in two groups adjacent its base and its top respectively.

7. A method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the strips are arranged so as to extend vertically between the base and the top of the article.

8. A method as claimed in claim 1 or 2 wherein the or each ring or layer of resilient material is disposed in one or more grooves in the article so as to protrude therefrom.

9. A method as claimed in claim 1 or 2 wherein the or each ring or layer of resilient material is applied to the article by shrinking it thereon.

10. A method of protecting individual articles, in a- collection of said articles, from one another substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.