Patent GB-548354-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to dough dividers
IPC: A21C5/02
Filed: 1941-04-03
Abstract: 548,354. Dividing dough. BAKER PERKINS, Ltd. April 3, 1941, No. 4467. Convention date, July 18, 1940. [Class 87 (ii)] The ram 4 moves forward by successive steps with periods of rest but with no reverse movements between the steps and with no pressure exerted on the dough during the periods of rest, whereby the dough is not punished " or "wiredrawn" during delivery from the pressure chamber 2 to the dividing head 5. The ram fills the measuring pocket (or pockets) of the dividing head at each step until the last full charge has been delivered from the pressure chamber, whereupon first the knife 3 and then the ram 4 are withdrawn and dough from the hopper 1 fills the chamber 2. The ram is reciprocated' from the main driving shaft 23 via crank or eccentric 22, link 21, resilient connecting rod 18 (see Specification 397,199), lever 15 pivoted on the machine frame at 16 and sleeve 10 which slides telescopically on a rod 8 connected to the ram. At each movement leftwards the sleeve 10 abuts a collar 9 fixed on the rod 8, and pushes the ram forward to deliver a charge of dough to the dividing head 5. If, at the end of the ram stroke, there is a full charge of dough in the chamber 2, the sleeve 10 recedes idly from the collar 9. If, at the end of the ram stroke, there is not a full charge of dough left in the chamber, the ram (and the lever 15) have moved so far to the left that an arm 53, which is adjustably fixed to the lever 15 at its pivoting point 16, has moved so far downwards that it effects retraction of the knife and ram as follows:-The knife is controlled, via rod 24 and bell-crank lever 25, 26 pivoted at 16 and having a cam roller 27, by two anti-clockwise rotating cam tracks 35, 36. Entry of the roller 27 to the inner (knife-retracting) track 36 is controlled by two switch points 37, 38 pivoted on the cam at 39 and 40. When the arm 53 descends far enough it trips a catch 49 against spring (50) pressure to allow a spring 52 to open the point 37 (as in Fig. 9). The roller 27 then enters the track 36, and as the knife retracts a pin 32 on the lever 25 rocks a finger 30 fixed on a semi-circular section latch pin 12 and turns it into the position shown in Fig. 6, in which the latch pin, which is journalled in the sleeve 10, engages a notch 14 in the rod 8 and locks the sleeve to the rod so that on its next rearward stroke the sleeve 10 will retract the ram, the parts being then in the position shown in Fig. 1; from this position, the roller 27 leaves the inner track and advances the knife, the pin 32 then rocking another finger 29 on the latch-pin 12 to release the sleeve 10 from the rod 8. By appropriate setting of the stop which controls the ejecting plunger 7 (see U.S.A. Specification 1,871,264) the number of strokes made by the ram in one cycle of the machine may be controlled. The arm 53 may be so adjusted that the knife and ram reciprocate through a full cycle with each rotation of the main shaft 23. The dividing head may be of the rotary or reciprocating type. The Specification as open to inspection under Sect. 91 states that certain features of the invention are applicable to hydraulicallydriven dividers in which fluid pressure operates the ram. This subject-matter is not contained. in the Specification as accepted.