At the present time, containers of the can body member type, sometimes also referred to as cans, are conventionally decorated or coated by continuously moving decorator apparatus, sometimes also referred to as printing or printer or coater apparatus, which has a continuously rotatable container carrying mandrel wheel with circumferentially spaced container carrying mandrel devices for carrying undecorated containers along a first arcuate path of movement from a loading station to a transfer station, with circumjacent ink applying devices being associated with the container along the path of movement thereof to apply ink images onto the outer peripheral container surfaces. Such can body members have a cylindrical side wall portion, a closed bottom end wall portion, and an open rim end portion. The decorated containers are conventionally transferred from the rotatable mandrel wheel to circumferentially spaced support devices on a continuously rotatable container transfer wheel which carries the decorated containers away from the rotatable mandrel wheel along a second arcuate path. The decorated containers are then conventionally directly transferred from the rotatable transfer wheel to longitudinally spaced support pins on a continuously moving container conveyor chain, sometimes referred to as a deco chain, by which the decorated containers are carried to and through an ink curing and drying oven. Because of the numerous parts of the deco chain, there is a tendency for them to wear out and break down when operated at high speeds of 1,200- 1,400 containers per minute in a continuous operation. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,445,431 to Stirbis, which is incorporated herein by reference thereto, there is disclosed a disk transfer system used as part of a can decorating or coating system. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,565,713 to Schultz, which is incorporated herein by reference thereto, there is disclosed a vacuum belt system for use in removing containers from the deco chain and carrying them through an ultraviolet radiation curing oven. The advantages resulting from the inventions in these patents were not completely realized for there still existed problems in transferring the containers from the vacuum disk transfer in the Stirbis patent to the vacuum belt in the Schultz patent. Also, when operated at the foregoing high speeds, there may not be sufficient time to cure the ink on the decorated can.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds