Patent GB-833214-A (GB)
Title: Improvements relating to the removal of articles, such as confections, from rubber moulds
Inventor: JAMES STANLEY ROBERT
IPC: A23G3/02
Filed: 1955-08-24
Abstract: 833,214. Removing moulded sweets &c. from  m oulds. CLARNICO Ltd. Nov. 23, 1956 [Aug. 24, 1955], No. 24339/55. Class 87(2). [Also in Group XXX] A machine for removing moulded articles, e.g. sweets, from flexible rubber moulds comprises an intermittently moving conveyer, composed of a series of mould carriers, which, on its lower run, presents inverted filled moulds successively to an ejecting station where weaves operate to deform the moulds and there to eject the sweets while, on the upper run, moulds are loaded on, or unloaded from, the conveyer. The moulds are held on plate-like carriers 18, which span the space between parallel endless chains 5, the edges of the moulds being gripped by plates 19 by the action of springs 21 which surround stems 20 projecting from the plates. The chains 5 are advanced intermittently by a pawl 11 on a rocking crank 12 actuated from an eccentric 13 on the main shaft 15. At stations A and B, on its upper run of the chains, Fig. 1, the plates 19 are caused to release the moulds by the upward pressure on the stems 20 of a fixed track 23, acting through rollers 22 on the ends of the stems. At the same time the moulds are emptied at station C on the lower run of the chains. A grid 24 is raised to support the mould by the action of a cam 25 keyed to a lower lay shaft 26 and then a plate 29 is lowered by a cam 27 on an upper lay shaft 28. Plungers 30 pass through openings to the carrier 18 and press on the backs of the cavities of the rubber mould which (the sides being supported by the grid) deform and push the sweets out, a belt 32 carrying them away. As the cams 25, 27 continue to rotate the grid 24 drops and the plate 29 is restored by springs 35. The plungers may be carried round with the carrier 18 and, at the station C, depressed by a plain plate. In another embodiment, Figs. 5, 7, the ejecting plungers 130 project from a plate 129 which is suspended from rockers 138 keyed to a shaft 140. Cams 137 on a shaft 128 act on rollers 138A on the ends of the rockers 138 to lower the plate 129 and displace the sweets. The plate 129 is raised again by the action of other cams 142, on the shaft 128, on arms 141 keyed to the shaft 140, which is turned in the direction to raise the rockers 138. The mould support is a plate 124 with studs 124A spaced to bear on the mould between the cavities, and it is raised by the action of cams 153, rotating with shaft 115, on rockers 147 which, through links 149, raise the plate 124 through slides 150. The rockers 147 are moved to lower the plate by the action of cams 144 on arms 145. The extent of movement of the mould support is adjustable, since the links 149 are pivoted to blocks 148 slidable in slots 147A in the rockers 147 by screws 151 operable by hand wheels. The chains 105 which drive the mould carriers 118 are given intermittent motion by a Geneva mechanism comprising a star wheel 110 on the sprocket wheel shaft 109 co-operating with a pin 111 on a toothed wheel 112 meshing with a similar toothed wheel on the shaft 128. In this embodiment the moulds are held in the carriers 118 without actual clamping by tongues 119 and they are slid on and off the chains mechanically. An endless chain 217A is moved transversely above the conveyer chains by sprockets on a bracket head 215A. One of the sprockets 216A is driven, through bevel gearing 222A, !23A from the shaft 128. The chain 217A carries at least one pusher 218A which by linkage is held perpendicular to the lower straight run of the chain so that, as it circulates, empty moulds are pushed from the conveyer chains 105 on to an unloading conveyer comprising intermittently-moving chains 200A. The sprockets 201A of these chains are driven by rocker and pawl mechanism 204A, 205A from an eccentric 207A on a layshaft 208A which is driven from an electric motor through a drive incorporating a synchronising device. A similar mechanism loads filled moulds, the components being correspondingly numbered but having the suffix B. Specification 833,213 is referred to.