In the manufacture of drawn, drawn and ironed, and impact extruded metal containers and the like, it is necessary at various strategic locations along the containers' production line to provide one or more container accumulator and storage devices. These devices serve to absorb any excess overflow of containers to and from given processing stations in the processing line so that the overall container processing line will function relatively smoothly and with a minimum amount of malfunctions and jams. The containers are usually deposited in the top of an accumulator and storage device and the containers normally flow under the influence of gravity from the top to the bottom of the device. The accumulator device can, if desired, be equipped with conveyor means for assisting container flow to and through the accumulator and container exiting from the bottom of the device at the proper time.
In the past, these container accumulator and storage devices have been so constructed that the noises and sounds emanating therefrom were quite pronounced due to the containers contacting or banging into each other as they moved through such devices, particularly when the containers were made of metal. The instant invention is concerned with an accumulator and storage device construction that has improved noise and sound attenuating properties and involves concepts constituting improvements over the sound absorbing equipment and/or article handling equipment represented in prior art U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,748,039; 2,420,343; 2,769,211; 2,498,048; 2,870,663; 3,159,238; 3,021,914; 3,351,154; 3,404,928; 3,426,885; 1,966,511; 2,287,823; 2,656,085; 3,821,999; 3,770,560; 3,503,487; 3,712,846 and 3,921,790.