(19)
(11) EP 0 693 425 A3

(12) EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION

(88) Date of publication A3:
03.04.1996 Bulletin 1996/14

(43) Date of publication A2:
24.01.1996 Bulletin 1996/04

(21) Application number: 95304996.2

(22) Date of filing: 18.07.1995
(51) International Patent Classification (IPC)6: B65B 43/30
(84) Designated Contracting States:
AT BE CH DE DK ES FR GB GR IE IT LI NL PT SE

(30) Priority: 19.07.1994 EP 94305288

(71) Applicants:
  • UNILEVER PLC
    London EC4P 4BQ (GB)

    GB IE 
  • UNILEVER N.V.
    NL-3013 AL Rotterdam (NL)

    BE CH DE DK ES FR GR IT LI NL PT SE AT 

(72) Inventors:
  • Haddow, Philip Gordon
    Tile Hill, Coventry CV4 9EF (GB)
  • Mitchell, Roderick Leslie
    Markfield, Leicestershire LE67 9UW (GB)
  • Seaward, David Robert
    Kingshurst, Birmingham (GB)
  • Vernon, Geoffrey William
    Saunderton, High Wycombe, Bucks HP14 4JE (GB)

(74) Representative: Gura, Henry Alan 
MEWBURN ELLIS York House 23 Kingsway
London WC2B 6HP
London WC2B 6HP (GB)

   


(54) Handling partly completed containers


(57) Successive flat skillets (S) are picked from a stack (12) and fed to a conveyor (2) by a mechanism which has devices gripping adjacent side faces to a fold line of a skillet to open the skillets to their tubular form during the transfer movement. The gripping devices (22,24) pivot on an axis coincident with the skillet fold line to allow the skillet to be opened to its full tubular form without distortion. The mechanism is so arranged that the skillet reservoir stack (12) can be oriented in a plane substantially parallel to the conveyor path for the opened skillets, in order to minimise space requirements.






Search report