WO2015028145A1 - Device for drying the exterior of bottles - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a device for drying the exterior of bottles (6) which are being transported in an upright state on a conveyor track (4). The liquid which wets the bottle jacket is blown off by means of air jets exiting annular nozzles (5), and the annular nozzles (5) which are connected to a central compressed air source at least partly surround the bottles (6), a relative movement being carried out between the two parts (5, 6) in the longitudinal direction of the bottles. It is essential to the invention that each of the annular nozzles (5) is connected to the compressed air source via a sealed vertically extendable telescopic tube (9), and the relative movement between the annular nozzles (5) and the bottles (6) is carried out by a stroke movement of the annular nozzles (5).

Description

 Device for drying bottles outside

 description

 The invention relates to a device for drying the outside of bottles, which are transported standing on a conveyor track, wherein the bottle jacket wetting liquid is blown off by means of air jets emerging from annular nozzles and wherein the connected to a central compressed air source annular nozzles surround the bottles at least partially and between the annular nozzles and the Bottles a relative movement takes place in the bottle longitudinal direction.

In general, it is necessary to wash and dry bottles before applying the equipment, especially before labeling. Mostly it is about filled and closed bottles; but the invention can also be applied to open, empty bottles.

A drying device with the features mentioned is known from DE 6603123. In this case, the bottle and the annular nozzle move relative to each other from the bottle neck in the direction of the bottom of the bottle, the annular nozzle by means of a downwardly inclined air jet, the adhering water blows off. In order to ensure that the already dried part of the bottle can not be wetted again by sprayed-over water droplets when the jet of air is strong, the annular nozzles are each combined with an upwardly projecting sleeve. The ring nozzles are practically extended by this upwardly projecting sleeve and the bottles are raised from below into the annular nozzle and the subsequent sleeve and thereby blown dry.

Furthermore, a similar drying device is known from DE 1 958429. Again, the bottles perform a lifting movement, in which they drive from bottom to top in the annular nozzles, so that liquid located on the bottle jacket is blown down.

Not least is known from DE 3008096 a device for the external treatment of bottles, in which a medium is sprayed onto the bottle jacket via ring nozzles, wherein the spray heads are moved by a lifting cylinder over the entire height of the bottles in the vertical direction. Based on these known drying systems, the present invention has the object to reduce the specific energy consumption and at the same time to increase the throughput. Furthermore, the invention should be characterized by space-saving and cost-effective design.

This object is achieved in that the annular nozzles are each connected via a sealed, vertically movable telescopic tube to the compressed air source and that the relative movement between the bottles and the annular nozzles is no longer generated by a lifting movement of the bottles, but by a lifting movement of the annular nozzles.

This results in the following advantages:

The vertically movable telescopic tubes allow a very low-loss flow, because the air always flows regardless of the lifting position straight, namely vertically to the associated annular nozzle. The power requirement for the blower for compressed air generation is thereby significantly reduced.

Furthermore, a vertically movable telescopic tube allows a slimmer construction with a narrow bottle sequence and a higher lifting speed than would be possible with a conventional connection by means of flexible hoses. Thus, in addition to the lower power requirement also results in a higher operating speed of the system, that is, more bottles can be dried than before, in the present embodiment about 16,000 bottles per hour, that is about 4 bottles per second.

Both effects, ie both the working speed and the energy savings are further supported by the fact that the lifting movement of the ring nozzles requires less drive energy than a lifting movement of filled bottles and at the same time can also be carried out with a higher lifting speed.

If the conveyor track of the bottles extends in a circular arc, as is usually the aim for reasons of space, it is recommended in a development of the invention that concentric with the circular-arc-shaped conveyor track and above or below the same a turntable is arranged, which carries the telescopic tubes at its end facing away from the annular nozzles and rotates at the same speed as the conveyor track.

Conveniently, the telescopic tubes are connected with their end facing away from the annular nozzles to a common hollow chamber, which is at least partially in communication with the compressed air source. This allows all telescopic tubes are supplied depending on their circulation position of one and the same source of compressed air and the flow guidance for the compressed air is subject to only small changes in direction, so that you can achieve high flow rates with low drive power.

It is structurally most advantageous if the hollow chamber is formed by a stationary housing and a peripheral with the telescopic tubes connecting wall. This connecting wall expediently has a circular arc-shaped contour and is at least partially sealed in the hollow chamber. It can thus act directly as a side wall, bottom or top wall of the hollow chamber.

For reasons of space and sealing technology, it is recommended that the said connecting wall runs approximately vertically and the telescopic tubes are connected to the connecting wall via pipe bends. Of course, it is also readily possible to have the telescopic tubes without pipe bends open directly into the hollow chamber.

A particularly expedient development of the invention consists in that the hollow chamber is subdivided into a region connected to the compressed air source and a region shut off thereof, wherein the blocked region should extend over a rotational angle of the connecting wall of more than 1 00 °, preferably over 150 °. As a result, the telescopic tubes are shut off not only during their feeding into the circular path of the dry blower and during their 'exit from this circular path of the compressed air supply, but also during a considerable peripheral area within the circular path itself. This results in a considerable saving in compressed air and the drive power for the compressed air generator. For the vertical guidance of the annular nozzles and for their linear actuator offer the expert various possibilities. It is particularly useful if the drive is done by vertically movable pneumatic cylinder. Will only one

Pneumatic cylinder per ring nozzle used, it is advisable to additionally store each ring nozzle slidably on at least one vertical guide, so that they always approximately concentric along along its assigned to be dried bottle along. It is expedient to work with two vertical guides per annular nozzle, in particular such that in each case a vertical guide is arranged on both sides of the pneumatic cylinder.

An expedient development of the invention is that the stroke length of the annular nozzles is adjustable. As a result, the stroke length can be optimally adapted to the height of the bottle, depending on whether, for example, piccolo bottles, 0.7 l bottles, liter bottles or magnum bottles are to be blown off.

This adjustment of the stroke length is expediently carried out by the fact that the serving for driving the annular nozzles pneumatic cylinder are mounted on a common turntable, which rotates with the bottle conveyor track, but with respect to its height adjustable. As a result, the upper end of the lifting movement of the annular nozzles can be adjusted in a simple manner and superfluous lifting movements outside the bottle contour omitted.

Furthermore, it is recommended that the pneumatic cylinder and optionally the vertical guides are associated with a circumferential region of the annular nozzles, which is offset radially inwardly with respect to the circular course of the bottle conveyor track. As a result, the pneumatic cylinders and vertical guides are not in the way when the wet bottles are fed to the circular path or the dry bottles are to be led out of the circular path.

In principle, it does not matter for the realization of the invention whether the telescopic tubes are arranged above or below the annular nozzles. The same applies to the pneumatic cylinders for the lifting drive of the ring nozzles. However, since the bottle conveyor takes place approximately at table height, and the arcuate conveying path of the bottles as well as the introduction and removal of the bottles require an underlying drive, it is due to lack of space in Generally useful to position the telescopic tubes for the air supply to the annular nozzles as well as the pneumatic cylinder for the drive above the annular nozzles. Further features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of an embodiment and from the drawing; showing:

Figure 1 is a side overall view of the system;

Figure 2 is an enlarged side view of the ring nozzles;

Figure 3 is a side cutout enlargement of an annular nozzle with its air supply and its drive;

Figure 4 is an oblique view of the air supply and the annular nozzle drive from above;

Figure 5 is an oblique view of the partially open hollow chamber;

6 shows a vertical section through the hollow chamber.

FIG. 1 shows the drying device 1 with a bottle feed track 2 and a bottle discharge track 3. At the level of the aforementioned feed and discharge tracks 2 and 3, the drying device has, in a manner known per se, two star-shaped turntables which store the bottles to be dried remove from the feed belt 2 and transferred into a circular conveyor track 4 within the drying device or transfer the dried bottles from the circular conveyor track 4 out into the discharge path 3. These transport and transfer devices are known in the cellar technology and are therefore not described in detail.

Above the circular conveyor track 4 and concentric with it are numerous circumferentially successive annular nozzles 5 are arranged. These annular nozzles are positioned so that they each correspond to a bottle standing on the circular conveying path 4, that is to say that their longitudinal direction Axial at least approximately aligned with the center of the bottle neck as seen in Figure 2.

The annular nozzles are coupled to the circular conveyor track 4, so run 5 at the same speed as this around a central shaft Z, so that the association between the annular nozzles and their associated bottles is maintained, as is well known.

It is essential that the annular nozzles 5 perform a lifting movement during the circulation of the bottles i o on the conveyor track 4, in the course of which they travel from the bottle head to the bottom of the bottle and thereby blow off the bottles assigned to them from top to bottom. The guidance and the drive of the annular nozzles, in particular their air supply is apparent from Figures 2 and 3.

FIG. 2 shows a bottle 6 which has been removed from the feed track 2 in a manner known per se and has been transferred to the circular conveyor track 4. The conveyor track 4 consists of a circumferential around a vertical central shaft Z support plate 4a with numerous circumferentially successive plates 4b, on each of which a bottle 6 stands. I hr is assigned

20 each an annular nozzle 5. This annular nozzle 5 is slidably mounted on a vertical guide in the form of two stationary rods 7a, 7b. These rods are mounted between the support plate 4 a and a concentric, arranged above the annular nozzles 5 turntable 8, said turntable 8 is also connected to the central shaft Z, so that it together with the

25 carrier plate 4a rotates.

The lifting drive for the annular nozzles 5 and their compressed air supply is shown in FIG. It can be seen there that the annular nozzles 5 are each connected to an extendable lower end 9a of a vertical telescopic tube 9. The

30 telescopic tubes are supported in their upper part by an upper turntable 1 0, which is also connected to the central shaft Z. In this way, the annular nozzles 5 can be moved vertically together with the extendable lower ends 9a of the telescopic tubes 9, while they rotate about the central shaft Z. The sliding guide between the telescopic tubes 9 and their extendable

35 lower ends 9a is suitably provided with sealing rings, so that the compressed air flowing in the telescopic tubes can not escape. At the stationary upper end open all telescopic tubes 9 in a hollow chamber 1 1, which is partially connected to a compressed air source, which will be discussed later.

The drive for the lifting movement of the annular nozzles 5 is carried out individually via in each case a vertical pneumatic cylinder 12, which is mounted on the lower turntable 8. By means of these pneumatic cylinders 12, the annular nozzles 5 can be lowered individually from the drawn upper position to near the bottom of the bottle and then back again.

The rotary table 8 carrying the pneumatic cylinders 12 is mounted in a height-adjustable manner on the central shaft Z. As a result, despite the constant pneumatic cylinder, the effective stroke length of the annular nozzles 5 can be easily adapted to the bottle height. In practice, the position of the turntable 8 and thus the upper position of the annular nozzles 5 is selected so that the bottles 6 pass through at a small distance below the lower edge of the annular nozzle 5 so that they can be inserted or removed.

The turntable 8 is coupled to the turntable 1 0, according to Figure 3 by a turntable supporting intermediate sleeve 30. This is maintained between two turntables equidistance and the process of the turntable 8 to adjust the stroke length of the annular nozzles 5 is automatically the telescoping tubes carrying upper Turntable 10 as well as the hollow chamber 14 taken.

The lower end of the lifting movement of the annular nozzles 5 is limited by stop buffer 7c, which can be conveniently attached at the lower end of the guide rods 7a and 7b.

The control of the pneumatic cylinder 12 is carried out by a program control 13 (see Figure 1) in such a way that the annular nozzles 5 are held on transfer of the bottles from the feed path 2 in the circular orbit 4 in an upper position and without compressed air, that the annular nozzles Then during the rotation of the support plate 4 and the lower and upper turntable 8 and 10 are pressurized with compressed air and at the same time down- while blowing the respective assigned bottle dry. Before reaching the transfer station to the discharge track 3, the ring nozzles 5 are then raised again and the compressed air supply is interrupted.

Figures 4 to 6 show the compressed air supply to the various telescopic tubes 9. It can be seen here a stationary housing 14 with a common for all telescopic tubes compressed air port 14 a. This housing 14 is bounded on one side-in the exemplary embodiment on its inside-by a rotatable, circular connecting wall 21, on which the upper ends of the telescopic tubes 9 are arranged via tube bends 9b such that they open into the hollow chamber 11. Said connecting wall 21 is connected to the central shaft Z and rotatably and sealed out in the housing 14 so that they can join the rotation of the telescopic tubes 9 together with the lower and upper turntables 8 and 10, without compressed air from the hollow chamber in the environment exits , For this purpose, at the upper and lower edge of the connecting wall 21 each circumferentially circumferential seals 21 a and 21 b are arranged, which correspond to adjacent circular arc-shaped wall parts of the housing 14, see. FIG. 6.

Inside the housing 14, two shut-off blocks 22 are arranged, which shut off a portion of the hollow chamber 1 1 relative to the compressed air supply. This results in a compressed air port 14a towards open area 1 1 a and a shut off the compressed air area 1 1 b of the hollow chamber. The shut-off blocks 22 are fixedly connected to the housing 14, wherein their side facing the connection wall 21 rests on sliding seals on the connection wall. As a result, the connection wall 21 can rotate without appreciable amounts of air flowing from the area of compressed air 1 1 a into the region 11b of the hollow chamber 11.

The shut-off blocks 22 are positioned on the circumference of the connecting wall 21, that only those telescopic tubes 9 are acted upon with their associated annular nozzles 5 with compressed air, which are absolutely necessary to blow the bottles dry. Thus, not only that circumferential area is shut off from the compressed air supply, where the bottles are introduced into or out of the circular conveying path 4 of the drying device, but also a considerable peripheral area within the Blow-off device shut off from compressed air supply. Suitably, the peripheral region, in which the blowing takes place, limited to a rotation angle of less than 250 °, preferably even less than 200 °. This results in an enormously high energy savings in compressed air generation.

In Figures 2 and 3, an additional function of the drying device is shown, which only comes into play when empty, unsealed bottles are to be dried. For this purpose, small lifting pistons 20 are mounted on the lower turntable 8 coaxially with the bottleneck. These lifting rams can be driven by pneumatic cylinder down into the neck of the bottle to hold the bottles in the rotation of the conveyor track 4 together with the turntables 8 and 10, in particular to prevent an outdoor tilting due to centrifugal force.

In the above, the invention has been described in the dry-blowing of bottles. It is of course also within the scope of the invention, instead of drying bottles other containers by the ring nozzles 5 are adapted to the container contour.

Claims

claims 1 . Apparatus for drying out bottles (6) standing on one side  Conveyor (4) are transported, wherein the liquid in the bottle jacket is blown off by means of annular nozzles (5) exiting air jets and the connected to a central compressed air source ring nozzles (5) the bottles (6) at least partially surrounded and between the two parts (5, 6 ) a relative movement takes place in the longitudinal direction of the bottle, characterized  in that the annular nozzles (5) are each connected to the compressed-air source via a sealed, vertically extendable telescopic tube (9) and that the relative movement between the annular nozzles (5) and the bottles (6) takes place by means of a lifting movement of the annular nozzles (5). 2. Apparatus according to claim 1,  characterized,  that the conveyor track (4) of the bottles (6) extends in a circular arc, that concentric and above or below a turntable (1 0) is arranged, which carries the telescopic tubes (9) at its end facing away from the annular nozzles (5) and at the same speed as the conveyor track (4) rotates. 3. Apparatus according to claim 2,  characterized,  in that the telescopic tubes (9) with their end remote from the annular nozzles (5) are connected to a common hollow chamber (11) which is at least partially connected to the compressed-air source. 4. Apparatus according to claim 3,  characterized,  in that the hollow chamber (1 1) is formed by a stationary housing (14) and a connection wall (21) running around the telescopic tubes (9). 5. Apparatus according to claim 4, characterized, that the circular arc-shaped connecting wall (21) is rotatably guided and at least partially sealed in the hollow chamber (1 1). 6. Apparatus according to claim 4,  characterized,  the connection wall (21) acts as a side wall, in particular as a lower and / or inner side wall, of the hollow chamber (11). 7. Apparatus according to claim 4,  characterized,  the connecting wall (21) runs approximately vertically and the telescopic tubes (9) are connected to the connecting wall (21) via pipe bends (9b). 8. Apparatus according to claim 3,  characterized,  in that the hollow chamber (1) is subdivided into a region (11a) connected to the compressed-air source and a region (11b) shut off from it. 9. Apparatus according to claim 8,  characterized,  that the shut-off area (1 b) is associated with a rotation angle of the connection wall (21) of over 100 °, preferably over 150 °. 1 0. Device according to claim 1,  characterized,  the lifting movement of the annular nozzles (5) is effected by vertically acting pneumatic cylinders (12). 1 1. Device according to claim 1,  characterized,  in that each annular nozzle (5) is displaceably mounted on at least one vertical guide (7). 12. Device according to claim 1,  characterized, that the stroke length of the annular nozzles (5) is adjustable. 13. Device according to claim 10 and 12,  characterized,  in that the pneumatic cylinders (12) are mounted on a common turntable (8), which in turn is height-adjustable relative to the conveyor track (4) for the bottles (6). 14. Device according to claim 13,  characterized,  in that the turntable (8) is rigidly connected to the turntable (10) carrying the telescopic tubes (9) and is mounted in a height-adjustable manner on a central shaft Z together with it. 15. Device according to claims 1 0 and 1 1,  characterized,  in that the pneumatic cylinders (12) as well as the vertical guides (7) for the annular nozzles (5) are positioned in a peripheral region of the bottles (6) facing the center of the bottle conveyor track (4) relative to a circular-arc-shaped bottle conveyor track (4) , 16. Device according to claim 10,  characterized,  in that the telescopic tubes (9) and the pneumatic cylinders (12) are arranged above the annular nozzles (5).