Patent GB-695999-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to apparatus for the automatic serving of meals
IPC: A47F10/06
Filed: 1951-05-15
Abstract: 695,999. Endless conveyers. MECRES SOC. ANON. May 15, 1951. [July 4, 1950] No. 11304/51. Class 78 (i). In food-serving apparatus comprising a conveyer having frames for carrying dining plates to and from dining stations, the frames have claw-like clips for gripping the plate edges, which permit each plate to be slid horizontally from the conveyer on to a dining station transversely of the conveyer and to be slid back again when empty, while preventing longitudinal movement of a plate in its frame, so as to permit each frame to be tilted into a vertical position about a transverse axis without the plates slipping out under gravity. As shown, each plate carrier consists of a U-shaped frame 20, 22, 23 and a cross member 21. Opposed pairs of springy clips 27 are secured to the members 20 and 21 each being adapted to extend underneath, around, and above a part of the rim of a plate 26. Two plates can be inserted in the carrier, one from either side, their movement inwards being arrested by raised portions 25 of the members 20 and 21. The ends of the limbs 22, 23 are bent at 23 and provided with trunnions formed by a sleeve 35 part of which is opened out at 36. The open portions 37 rest on sleeves 38, Fig. 4, carried by a pair of'side chains 50, while a shoe 30 secured to raised portions 25 of the frame carries a roller 33 adapted to run on a series of guide rails 56, 57, 75, 76 and 80, Fig. 6, which determine the attitude of the tray. Plates of food in the kitchen are placed in the carriers at 55a, or at 55 if the vertical portion 58a of the guide rail is replaced by an inclined portion designed to maintain the carriers horizontal. The carriers then travel along rail 57 past customers who remove the plates or place empty plates in unoccupied carriers, the chains 50 being driven step-by-step by successive actuations of a switch 85 adjacent point 55 or 55a, until they reach a reversal pulley 63 which co-operates with a pair of rotating arms 69, Fig. 8, driven in synchronism therewith by a sprocket connection, for lowering the carriers successively from rail 57 to rail 75. As each carrier passes on to rail 75 a cam 73, Fig. 9, pushes the arm 69 to the side against the action of a spring 72, to prevent it from fouling the carriers. When the carriers with the empty plates arrive back in the kitchen the rail 75 curves downwardly at 75a to cause the carriers to swing into vertical position and thus dump the left-overs on the plates. The vertically hanging carriers are then raised by a vertical stretch of the chains 50 past a cleaning brush 77, the carriers being steadied by the guide rail 76. A steeply inclined stretch of the chain 50 then lowers the carriers past a second pair of endless chains 51 travelling at slower speed than the chains 50 through a driving connection between the two chains, and the carriers are transferred to the chains 51 as described below. Chains 51 pass the carriers in closely spaced or contacting relation through a washing machine and a short storage section until they intersect the continuation of the path of chains 50 in a second steeply inclined stretch which raises the carriers from the chains 51 as described below.  Transfer mechanism, Fig. 4.-Each of the sleeves 38 on the chains 50. is provided with an axially sliding internal pin 40 which is normally spring-pressed into engagement with the sleeve 35 on a carrier but is withdrawn at the transfer point by a pair of ramps 90 engaging the ends of a transverse pin 43 passing through the pin 40 and through slots 42 in the sleeve 38. After withdrawal of pin 40 a spur (not shown) on sleeve 35 engages between two pins of the receiving chain 51 while the sleeve 38 is lowered by chain 50 between the ends of the open portion 37 of sleeve 35. For smooth transfer the projection of the speed of the steeply inclined portion of chain 50 on chain 51 is equal to the speed of the latter. Transfer back from chains 51 to chains 50 is a reversal of the above procedure.  In a modification, instead of the carriers being received by their sleeves 35 on the chains 51 the latter are provided with a series of pockets into which the carriers are lowered at one transfer point while they are lifted out at the second transfer point. Specification 649,203 is referred to.