AUTOMATIC CONTAINER ACCOMMODATING DEVICE

PURPOSE:To make energy saving feasible and improve productivity by constituting the device so that containers on an alignment screw are held as a whole and the holding means is reciprocated between the alignment screw and a case. CONSTITUTION:A star wheel 51, while rotating, separates an individual container b one by one out of a group of containers and accommodates the containers into recess 51A. A star wheel guide 53 prevents the containers b from flying out of the recess 51A. As the star wheel 51 rotates, the container b in the recess is rotated and transferred to one end of an aligning screw 61, is held between an outer circumferential screw and an alignment screw guide 63, and is transferred to the other end with the further rotation. Since the pitch interval is gradually narrowed, the intervals between adjacent containers gradually narrow and finally come to direct contact with each other. When a specified number of containers are brought into direct contact with each other in this way, the rotation of the aligning screw 61 is stopped, a holding means holds the aligned containers b as a whole and accommodates them in a case. At this time, a moving means reciprocates the holding means between the alignment screw 61 and the case.