PICK UP AND ENROBING APPARATUS FOR RECEIVING HORIZONTALLY DISPOSED STICK MOUNTED CONFECTIONS AND COATING SAID CONFECTIONS

摘要

1308713 Coating confectionery POLARMATIC CORP 27 Oct 1970 [16 June 1970] 50955/70 Heading A2A [Also in Division B8] In apparatus in which a confection such as ice cream is extruded, cut into slabs 16, and fitted with sticks 13 in a unit 10 and then passed by a conveyer 12 comprising flat plates 14 through a freezer 18, the conveyer, on emerging from the freezer is approached by a pick-up conveyer comprising an endless chain 42 running over sprockets or pulleys 28, 29, 30, 32 and carrying plates 48, Fig. 5, on which clamps 44 are pivotally mounted at 65 and adapted to remove the confections from the conveyer 12. The pick-up conveyer may pass over a fifth sprocket between the sprockets 28, 40. A clamping jaw 70 pivotally mounted at 73 on each clamp 44 is turned in the anticlockwise direction, as seen in Fig. 5, by an edge cam (not shown) engaging a projection 86 so that it is held by an overcentre spring 80 in an open position to allow a stick 13 to enter the clamp, and as the latter approaches the sprocket 32 another edge cam 100 engages the projection 86 to turn the jaw so that it clamps the stick 13. Slabs 16 which may be stuck to the plates 14 are released by a tapper mechanism 111. The slabs are conveyed around the sprocket 32 to a point at which a guide bar 46, which holds the clamps in the horizontal position, terminates allowing the clamps to swing to a vertical position so that the slabs are dipped in a coating tank 114 filled with chocolate, butterscotch, &c. A guide bar 118 returns the clamps to the horizontal position until they are clear of the tank after which they are again allowed to swing to the vertical position over a drip pan 120 and during their passage through a chilling tunnel 25, after which the jaws are released by a cam 124 to allow the slabs to fall onto a conveyer 26, an air jet from a nozzle 128 impinging on the sticks to ensure that they all extend towards the same side of the conveyer.