A can body take-away assembly for a can bodymaker with a vertically oriented reciprocating, elongated ram assembly and a domer is provided. The take-away assembly includes a drive assembly and a can body transport assembly. The drive assembly includes a motor and a support member. The take-away assembly motor is operatively coupled to said support member and structured to move said drive assembly support member in a generally horizontal direction The can body transport assembly includes a number of gripping assemblies. Each gripping assembly is coupled to said drive assembly support member. Each gripping assembly includes a number of pairs of opposed gripping members sized to grip a can body. The gripping assemblies are structured to travel across the path of said ram assembly and to selectively grip a can body.

The present invention has an object of providing a seaming device that can prevent the leakage of a lubricating oil from the in-machine housing of a chuck unit into a seaming operation space, prevent the occurrence of a defective product contaminated by the lubricating oil, and eliminate heat elongation due to heat generation to accurately maintain a seaming dimension. Provided is a seaming device (100) including: a chuck unit (320) that positions a lid (F) mounted on a can C; and a seaming unit (410) that seams the lid to the can, wherein the chuck unit has a spindle (325) having a chuck (321) for positioning the lid attached at a lower end thereof, a bearing (326) that rotatably supports the spindle, and a non-contact type oil seal mechanism for sealing between the spindle and the in-machine housing at a position below the bearing.

A device for inhibiting rotational motion of an article to be processed comprises a pressure plate assembly including a generally ring-shaped guide assembly. The guide assembly has and at least two guide pins extending from a first side in a transverse direction. The guide assembly further includes at least two resilient devices positioned over a respective one of the at least two guide pins and a container guide having an aperture for receiving an open end of a container moving in a first direction and for aligning the open end with a processing device. The container guide is positioned adjacent to the first side of the pressure plate assembly. At least two resilient devices are configured to be compressed in response to movement of the container guide in a first direction and are configured to decompress in response to movement of the container guide in a second, generally opposite direction.

A rotary manifold includes a manifold assembly outer body assembly with a generally toroid outer body, a number of manifold assembly outer body assembly bearing assemblies, a number of seals, and a number of fluid couplings. The manifold assembly outer body assembly body defines a number of radial passages. A generally toroid manifold assembly inner body defines a number of right angle passages. The manifold assembly inner body is rotatably disposed within the manifold assembly outer body assembly body. Each manifold assembly inner body passage inlet is discontinuously in fluid communication with the manifold assembly outer body assembly body passage outlets. Each manifold assembly inner body passage outlet is discontinuously in fluid communication with the process shaft assembly body passages inlets.

An infeed assembly for a necker machine includes a full inspection assembly wherein the full inspection assembly is structured to be coupled to a necker machine frame assembly.

A forming assembly for use in a can bodymaker includes a stationary assembly and a moving assembly movably coupled to the stationary assembly. The stationary assembly and the moving assembly are a unified assembly that is structured to be selectively coupled to a mounting assembly body of the can bodymaker. The moving assembly is structured to be selectively coupled to a ram drive assembly of the can bodymaker and moved with respect to the stationary assembly thereby.

A system for performing necking operations on a can body includes a necker machine and a positioning system. The necker machine includes a frame; a processing arrangement having a plurality of components movable relative to the frame for performing the necking operations on the can body, and a drive motor having a shaft operatively coupled to the processing arrangement for moving the processing arrangement relative to the frame. The positioning system includes: an encoder associated with the drive motor for monitoring a rotational displacement of the shaft and a controller in communication with the encoder and the drive motor. The controller is structured and programmed to: receive an input from a user, the input being indicative of a desired movement of the processing arrangement relative to the frame, and to operate the drive motor using feedback from the encoder such that the desired movement of the processing arrangement is achieved.

A distributed drive assembly for a necker machine having a frame assembly and a plurality of modules, each module having a number of drive shafts, the number of drive shafts of each module interconnected via a gear train with the number of drive shafts of the other modules of the plurality of processing modules. The distributed drive assembly includes: a plurality of drive sub-modules, each drive sub-module having: an input shaft; a first output shaft operatively coupled to the input shaft; and a second output shaft operatively coupled to the input shaft. For a first drive sub-module: the input shaft is structured to be operatively coupled to, and driven by, a main drive assembly motor, and the first output shaft is structured to be operatively coupled to, and drive, an associated first drive shaft of the number of drive shafts of a first module of the plurality of modules. For a second drive sub-module: the input shaft is operatively coupled to, and driven by, the second output shaft of the first drive sub-module, and the first output shaft is structured to be operatively coupled to, and drive, an associated first drive shaft of the number of drive shafts of a second module of the plurality of modules that is separated from the first module by at least one other module.

A quick-change vacuum starwheel assembly including at least one of a quick-change height adjustment assembly or a quick-change vacuum starwheel mounting assembly.

A container-handling apparatus, in particular a closing machine for closing cans or similar containers with a closure cap. A transfer element is provided between at least two adjacent container-closing positions. The transfer element surrounds at least part of the circumference of the respective container carrier and is provided so as to rotate with, i.e., revolve with, the container-closing positions. Furthermore, the upper side of the transfer element forms a transfer plane for transferring the upright containers in a planar manner from the transport plane onto the transfer plane spanned by the transfer element. The transfer plane and the transport plane are coplanar, spanning a common plane.