Facility for the production of bottles of liquid products, the bottles being formed from thermoformable plastic, the facility including a blowing device for blowing bottles from preforms, with a heating tunnel, a filling and finishing line including bottle filling, sealing, and/or capping stations, with a buffer conveyor interposed between the blowing device and the filling and finishing line, formed mainly as an endless conveyor suitable for receiving bottles, the buffer conveyor including a first section used under normal flow conditions, and a second section complementary to the first section and serving as buffer storage space under conditions of unplanned stoppage of the filling line, the bottle storage capacity of the second section being at least equal to the number of bottles and preforms which can be received in the blowing machine including in the heating tunnel.

A device for transporting a filled container in a rotary device, for example from a rotary filler to a capper, includes a rotary element rotating about an axis of rotation with a holding element for accommodating the container. The holding element is designed such that the filled container is held so that a container axis, which passes through and is perpendicular to a mouth aperture cross-sectional plane of the container, is oriented below the holding element toward the axis of rotation.

A clamping device for holding a container in a container handling device, for example for holding a beverage container by a neck portion, includes a first clamping arm arranged on a support plate pivotably about a first pivot shaft and having a holding portion for contact against the container to be held, and a second clamping arm arranged on the support plate pivotably about a second pivot shaft and having a holding portion for contact against the container to be held. The first pivot shaft and the second pivot shaft respectively have a cylinder pin portion for forming a form closure, radially to the longitudinal direction of the pivot shaft, with a bore in a support of a container handling device.

A method for producing filled containers (16) from preforms (13). Each of the preforms is transferred to a circulating molding and filling element (14) of a molding and filling station and is shaped into the respective container in a subsequent molding and filling process in a mold under the effect of pressure from a supplied filler, wherein the mold is designed in multiple parts, including a base mold (21) and mold sides (19, 20), and each container is clamped between the base mold at the bottom and the molding and filling element at the top at least at the end of the molding and filling process. The container is separated from the respective molding and filling element and the respective mold after the molding and filling process. The mold sides are removed from each container before the molding and filling element and the base mold are separated from the container.

A gripper for a container-transporter includes a system, first and second arms with corresponding inner faces and a controller disposed between the arms to pivot the arms. A spring pre-loads the arms towards one another. Rollers at the control unit rotate about a central control-axis thereof. The faces are shaped such that, in response to the rollers' movement, they carry out an equiangular and symmetric pivoting between an opened and closed position of the gripper.

A device and method for centering a container during travel into a processing region, wherein the device has: a receiving section configured to receive the container; a guiding section configured to guide a translational movement along a defined trajectory between a receiving position and a processing position; a chamber wall having an opening, wherein the receiving section and the guiding section are configured to insert at least some section of the container into the processing region; a sealing device having an inflatable seal, which is arranged in the opening and configured to adopt a sealing position around a container section in the processing position; and a control device, which is in communication with the sealing device and is configured to at least partially inflate the inflatable seal during the translational movement of the container from the receiving position into the processing position.

A bottle neck gripper includes first and second jaw components, each pivotally mounted for rotation about a respective pivot axis, the first jaw component including a first permanent magnet mounted thereon, the second jaw component including a second permanent magnet mounted thereon. The first permanent magnet and second permanent magnet are positioned to be attracted to each other. An attractive force of the magnets urges grip ends of the first and second jaw components toward each other. The pivot axis of the first jaw component is located between the first permanent magnet and the grip end, and the pivot axis of the second jaw component is located between the second permanent magnet and the grip end.

A method of forming and filling a container. The method includes the steps of placing a preform in fluidic communication with an outlet of an injection device of a forming station and forming a container by expanding the preform during a forming step, wherein a forming liquid is injected into the preform through the outlet to expand the preform into the container. The forming liquid is a cleanable liquid. The method further includes a step of transferring the formed container to a concentrate filling station, separate from the forming station and a step of filling the concentrated liquid in the container already containing the cleanable liquid. The step of filling the concentrated liquid is performed in the concentrate filling station.

A gripper arm for a device for gripping, holding and guiding bottle-like containers having a bore to support a bearing pin to pivotably fix the gripper arm in the device and including an energy store for moving a gripping section of the gripper arm by a control cam from an open position into a gripping position and vice versa, wherein the energy store is spring tongue integrally formed on the gripper arm and elastically deflectable so as to operatively engage the spring tongue of another gripper arm of the device in a mirror-inverted configuration. The gripper arms produced from a fiber-reinforced plastic, so as to remain sufficiently free of contaminants and germs, and be easily cleaned as well as being faster and easier to produce.