Process and apparatus for coating the surfaces of containers with a material

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Containers or bottles to be coated are conveyed along a suitable line (not shown) and then transferred by a loading means (not shown) into a coating plant such as shown in FIG.
1.
The plant includes a means for transporting a plurality of containers continuously at predetermined intervals while rotating the containers about horizontal axes.
In the embodiment as shown in FIG.
1, the transporting means comprises a container-transporting mechanism and a container-rotating mechanism, in which the container-transporting mechanism includes a chain means 2 for transporting a plurality of holders 1 supporting containers 13 and a motor 3 for driving the chain means 2, while the container-rotating mechanism includes gears 5 each rotatably mounted onto a shaft 4 pressing a container 13 onto a holder 1, a chain means 6 engaged with the gears 5 for rotating the respective containers and a motor 17 for driving the chain means 6.
The arrangement, however, is not limited to that illustrated and any other device may be used for transporting the containers.
For example, as a container-rotating mechanism, there may be used wheels, which rotatably support the containers, and a belt means frictionally engaged with the wheels.
With the aid of a transporting means as mentioned above, the containers go firstly through a primer zone 20 while being rotated about their horizontal axes.
In the primer zone the respective containers are applied with a priming agent, by any suitable means.
In the embodiment as shown in FIG.
1, a cloth 8 is arranged to be wetted by capillary action with a priming agent stored in vessels 7 and to be contacted with the surfaces of the containers being transported so that the priming agent in the cloth is applied onto the surfaces of the containers.
After the primer zone, the respective containers go through a preheating zone 9 so as to dry the priming agent.
The containers then one by one change their direction of travel from the horizontal direction to the vertical direction so that they are applied with a coating liquid material flowing downward continuously, according to the present invention