Patent GB-1497901-A (GB)
Title: Apparatus for pressing and heat sealing wrapped confectionery products
IPC: B65B11/54
Filed: 1975-04-16
Abstract: 1497901 Apparatus for pressing and heatsealing wrapped confectionery G D SpA 16 April 1975 [17 April 1974] 15620/75 Heading B8C Apparatus for pressing and heat-sealing wrapped confectionery products of predetermined parallelepiped form, the wrapping being of the so-called "soap" style, comprises an intermittently rotatable conveyer 19 provided with pockets 18 to receive and substantially exactly house the wrapped confectionery products, a presser member 21 for pressing the wrapped products in the pockets, and another intermittently rotatable conveyer 49 provided with pockets 50 to receive the pressed, wrapped products from conveyer 19 and to move it past a heat-sealing device, e.g. welding plates 62, 63 prior to discharge through shoot 88. The arrangement is such that each pocket 18 is arranged to receive one of the wrapped products with its major face, upon which the longitudinal overlap of the wrap is formed, exposed for engagement by the presser member, and each pocket 50 is arranged to receive the pressed, wrapped product with its opposed end faces, upon each of which the end flaps of the wrap are superposed, exposed for engagement by the heatsealing plates. The confectionery products may be formed and wrapped using mechanism similar to that described in Specification 1,259,912. This may comprise a channel 2, see Fig. 1, through which a continuous strip of confectionery is fed with the assistance of rollers 5, a cutting device 7 for dividing the strip into parallelepiped-shaped products, an intermittently rotatable wheel 9 provided with pockets 8 for reception of the products, a pusher member 10 for pushing the products out of the pockets into the region between guides 11, a vertical slit 12 through which wrappers are supplied, the wrapping material being fed from reels mounted on reel carriers 13, a rotatable wrapping head 14 provided with fixed and movable folder fingers that oscillate and grippers 15 for partially wrapping the wrappers about the confectionery products, and an extractor 16, which slides radially with respect to wheel 14 for extracting the partially wrapped products, the latter being passed between guides 17 to complete the "soap" style wrap. After passage between guides 17, the wrapped products are inserted into pockets 18 of conveyer 19. The latter is intermittently rotated so that the products pass under presser member 21. The latter, which has a vertical reciprocating motion, operates every time conveyer 19 comes to a halt and serves to flatten the wrappings, enhance the fold lines therein, and fix the thickness of the products. After pressing, the wrapped products are subjected to a heat-sealing operation employing welding plate 28. Under normal operating conditions, plate 28 abuts conveyer 19, but if the latter stops and there is a risk of damage to the products from overheating, the plate 28 may be raised automatically by a device comprising electromagnets 30, springs 32, 34 sleeve 33, shaft 35, and block 36 connected by pivot 37 to a support 38 of the welding plate 28. After sealing of the top longitudinal edges of the wrappings, the wrapped products are cooled by passage under plate 42 through which water flows. The pressed, wrapped products are then passed to discharge station B, where they are transferred to pockets 50 in conveyer 49 in such a way that the tabs on the two minor side faces of the wrapped products lie in the plane of the conveyer 49, as shown. The wrapped products are then passed between welding plates 62, 63 to weld the tabs, cooled between water-cooled plates 80, 81, and discharged to a collating device via shoot 88 by means of an ejector 87. Provision may be made to automatically raise welding plates 62, 63 in the case of a stoppage, the arrangements comprising electromagnet 65, pull rod 66, block 67, and support 69.