Title: Method and apparatus for regulating orientation of containers or the like

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Abstract: The invention is an apparatus to automatically regulate the orientation of articles having a screw thread at their mouth during transport. The apparatus comprises: a turntable disposed at one side of a conveyor for transporting articles of a constant speed and rotatable in timed relation to the conveyor; a plurality of rotary tables supported by the turntable in circumferentially equidistant arrangement and each rotatable about its axis, the rotary tables being adapted to receive the articles from the conveyor onto the rotary tables; detecting elements disposed above the rotary tables and identical in number to the number of the rotary tables, the detecting elements being adapted to revolve at a speed equal to that of the turntable, each of the detecting elements being engageable with the screw thread around the mouth portion of the article; means for operating the detecting elements to bring each of the detecting elements into elastic engagement with the screw thread around the mouth portion of the article when the article is placed on the rotary table and to disengage the element from the screw thread within a specified angle of rotation of the turntable; drive means for driving the rotary table to rotate the article about its axis upon detecting the engagement of the detecting element with the screw thread; means for stopping the rotation of the rotary table at the position where the detecting element has detected the end of the screw thread as the article rotates; and means for delivering the articles from the rotary tables onto the conveyor at a specified angle of rotation.


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