Bottle unscrambling and erecting apparatus

Claim 1

Apparatus for unscrambling and erecting a plurality of nonvertical bottles comprising: an elongated conveying table which receives the scrambled, nonvertical bottles at one end thereof and transports said bottles in defined and separate paths of travel along the longitudinal axis thereof to the opposite terminal end thereof, said conveyor table having transporting means including a plurality of counter rotating rollers rotatable about axes parallel to the longitudinal axis of the conveyor table, and a plurality of chain drives extending parallel to the longitudinal axis of the conveyor table, with each counter-rotating roller being separated from its neighbor by a chain drive, and with both said rollers and said chain drives extending substantially throughout the length of the conveyor table, and including drive means for driving said chains and the counter rotating rollers; a bottle erecting station located adjacent the terminal end of said conveyor table and including a plurality of bottle stalls at a lower level than said terminal end; pivotal support means located at said station anD struck by the bottoms of non-vertical bottles presented bottom-first to said terminal end and which support means are thereby pivoted out of the path of travel of such bottles; and guide means at said station struck by the bottoms of such bottles falling from said terminal end and which thereby guide such bottles, in an erect condition, into said bottle stalls; said pivotal means also serving to support the necks of nonvertical bottles presented neck-first to said terminal end until said last-mentioned bottles fall from said terminal end, bottoms-first, thereby striking said guide means and being directed, in an erect condition, into said bottle stalls.