UNIT AND METHOD FOR STORING AND DISTRIBUTING CONTAINERS, AND FILLING PLANT

• Main Authors: FIEGLER, Rudolf, RAITH, Stefan, ZOELFL, Markus, LINDNER, Peter
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 15.01.2020
• Subjects: APPLYING CLOSURE MEMBERS TO BOTTLES JARS, OR SIMILARCONTAINERS; BOTTLES, JARS OR SIMILAR CONTAINERS; CLEANING, FILLING WITH LIQUIDS OR SEMILIQUIDS, OR EMPTYING, OFBOTTLES, JARS, CANS, CASKS, BARRELS, OR SIMILAR CONTAINERS, NOTOTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; CONVEYING; FUNNELS; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL; LIQUID HANDLING; OPENING CLOSED CONTAINERS; OPENING, CLOSING; PACKING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PNEUMATIC TUBE CONVEYORS; SHOP CONVEYOR SYSTEMS; STORING; TRANSPORT OR STORAGE DEVICES, e.g. CONVEYORS FOR LOADING ORTIPPING; TRANSPORTING

The present disclosure describes a storage and distribution unit for a container filling plant and a method for storing and distributing the containers. A store is provided, which comprises storage areas for containers, the storage areas being distributed in a grid pattern, a container feed for connection to a discharge line section of a filling line, and a container outlet for connection to inspection units. The storage and distribution unit comprises a robot for putting filled containers into storage by transferring them from the container feed to the storage areas as well as for taking the containers out of storage by transferring them from the storage areas to the container outlet. Making use of a programmable control unit, the robot can be controlled for selectively taking the containers out of storage independently of the moment in time at which and/or the sequence in which they have been put into storage.