Patent GB-201627-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in confectionery-coating machines
IPC: A23G3/22
Filed: 1922-05-02
Abstract: 201,627. Massarella, J. May 2, 1922. Coating confectioners' goods.-A machine for coating " centres " of all sorts, including icecream, with chocolate, icing &c., comprises endless chain conveyers having means for ensuring an abundant supply of coating-material on the coating run, an air supply under exact control, a construction allowing ready removal of the conveyer elements, special constructions of conveyer chain, and other detail improvements. Fig. 2 shows diagrammatically in side view the essential parts of the machine. The centres are received at the front end of the machine from a delivery belt 34 on to a cleaning-conveyer 68, whence they are delivered to the coating-conveyer 74 and thence to the hardening-conveyer 89 and collecting-belt 35. These three conveyers are all composed of separate parallel chains, and their upper rims are maintained flat by means of rollers such as 65', 78 and 87, and in addition in the case of the coating-conveyer, by a shield plate 76 in close contact with the upper run. The coating-material, kept stirred in a tank in the base of the machine, is delivered by means of a bucket elevator into a trough 19 having a delivering roller 21 mounted in its open side, and fitted with scrapers 22, 23, whereby a sheet of coating-material adjustable in thickness is dropped on to the goods. The surplus passing through the upper run of the conveyer is mainly caught by a trough 75 and the shield plate 76 and the remainder by a distributing-plate 79, adjustable in height and in close contact at its front end with the conveyer chains. Somewhat similar plates 92, 91 are employed in connection with the third conveyer 89, and in addition a brush 87<1> for removing surplus material. Towards the rear of the coating-conveyer, a blower 127, having an adjustable slot nozzle 128, directs a blast of air downwardly on to the chains, which blast, passing through the chains, is reflected upwards by the plate 76. The blower 127 is supplied from a blast box 130 in which it is vertically adjustable by means of a rod 133 and the web nut 134, and air is supplied to the blast-box under control of a damper 139, by a fan mounted on the top of the machine and drawing its air supply from the enclosed coating-chamber. In operation, surplus coating-material collecting on the plate 79 and thereby somewhat chilled and thickened, is picked up by the return run of the conveyer and carried upward against the bottoms of the oncoming centres. Similarly, a flood of coating-material is maintained at the junction of the coating and hardening conveyers, and further, under the combined effect of the blast from the nozzle 128 and the reflective action of the shield plate 76, the coating-material on the upper run of the coating-conveyer is maintained in a series of waves. Under the combined effect of these agencies a heavy bottom coating is imparted to the centres and maintained thereon until firm. Subsidiary features of the apparatus just described are the moistening wick 70 set in a water trough 70<1>, the trough 69 for catching adherent matter shaken off by the cleaning-conveyer, an adjustable scraper (not shown) for determining the amount of coating-material carried upward by the front end of the coating-conveyer, and gas burners such as 141, 143, 144 disposed at suitable points to maintain the desired temperature. The conveyers instead of being strictly aligned, as shown, may be in stepped relation, the rear or hardening-conveyer being lowest. All three conveyers are mounted in a common frame, which is removed as a whole for cleaning &c. by simply lifting it out of the machine. The conveyers are actuated by chain drives arranged on extensions of the conveyer sprocket shafts 65, 71, 84 and receiving motion from a shaft having a worm-wheel, which, when the conveyer frame is dropped into position, engages a driving-worm mounted in the main frame. The conveyer shafts may be mounted so as to be adjustable to take up stretch in the chains. The chain employed for the conveyers may be either of the stud and link variety (suitable for coating ice cream), or, as shown in Fig. 3, wire " ladder " chain. In the latter case the chains of the hardening-conveyer are for some purposes, e.g. icing, preferably of wide ladder form, as shown, having very long links 90. Specification 9194/10 is referred to.