Patent GB-190716720-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to Machines for Manufacturing Sweetmeats and the like.
Inventor: JENNER EDWARD JOHN
Filed: 1907-07-22
Granted: 1908-07-09
Abstract: 16,720. Jenner, E. J., and Jenner, R. C. July 22. Moulding candy. - Relates to a candy - making machine of the type wherein the candy material is shaped into stick form and twisted by means of revolving fluted rollers, and is then cooled and automatically cut into lengths. A shaft 21, carrying a worm-wheel in gear with a worm 26 on the main shaft 25, drives the wheel 17 through a pinion on its lower end, and thus actuates a number of pinions 28, gearing with the wheel 17 and connected by universal joints with tapered fluted rollers 33, the lower ends of which have studs bearing in hubs mounted in trunnions 36 rotatively engaging frames 37 slidable in guides on a plate 39 by means of screws 41 so as to vary the size of the opening between the interlapping rollers 33. The partly reduced and twisted material passes from the rollers 33 through an annular plate 44 to interlapping rollers 62 having grooves of graduated lengths on their surfaces, so as to provide a surface partly smooth and partly fluted ; they rotate more rapidly than the rollers 33 in order to draw out the material into a thinner stick, and bear on balls mounted in sockets 60 in a plate which can be rotatively adjusted on a plate 45 by slot and screw devices in order to vary the amount of interlapping of the rollers and thus alter the size of the opening between them. Mounted between plates 64, 75 are a set of rollers 82 having surfaces partly grooved, and tapering towards their lower ends and widening again ; they interlap and rotate more rapidly than the rollers 62, and have similar screw devices for radial adjustment. The finally reduced and twisted candy passes through a guide tube attached to the lower surface of the plate 75, and thence to a series of endless conveyer bands mounted on diagonal drums 95, 96, 97, the drums 97 carrying two bands, the whole being driven from the shaft 125 through a bevel wheel 129. The triangular spaces between the conveyer bands and the cooling-table 11 are filled by smaller conveyer bands and by triangular plates. A flat bar 108 attached to an adjustable spindle 104 receives intermittent semi-revolutions from the shaft 125 through a shaft 111 carrying a mutilated gear-wheel 112 which engages a rack bar 114 sliding in guides 113 on balls 116 and. carrying a pawl 118 which engages a ratchet 117 on a shaft 122 carrying a wheel 123* gearing with a wheel 124* on the shaft 104. The bar 114 is connected by a spring to the fixed guides 113, so that when it has been withdrawn by the wheel 112 and released the action of the spring impels it forward, thus causing the pawl to rotate the ratchet and impart through the gear wheels 123*, 124* a semi-revolution to the bar 108. A pin on the bar 114 works in a slot in a swinging arm 119 on the shaft 122. Pivoted on the frame, and adjacent to the end of the bar 108 is a bar 138 carrying two arms 139, 148, the arm 139 being bent so that its end is close to the bar 108 and provided with a projection 146, against which works a roller on a projection 144 of the arm 148. Springs 147,149 connect the members 138,139 to the bar 148, to which is pivoted an arm 152 for the purpose of co-acting with a similar device on the bar 108 in order to stretch the candy at the part where it is to be cut between a cutter on the end of the arm 148 and cutters on the end of the bar 108. The object of the stretching is to obviate the formation of thick ends on the stick by the shrinkage of the severed parts of the warm candy. The stretching and cutting are effected by the rotation of the bar 108 and by its impact on the end of the arm 139. The severed stick which has been kept in its twisted form by the relative motion between the conveyer bands and the bar 108, is liberated by the further rotation of the latter and is carried forward to the cooling-table 11, which may be hollow and suitably cooled, and over which it is carried by slats 173 mounted between moving chains 171. The cooled stick drops into a receiver 189, Fig. 19, provided with spaced transverse ribs or corrugations on its surface where it is cut into suitable lengths by a series of cutters 197 adjustably mounted on a shaft 192, which is intermittently oscillated so as to operate the cutters. This motion is imparted by a gear-wheel 198 driving a wheel on a stud shaft 200 carrying a stud 206, which moves an arm 203 pivoted to a crank arm 202 on the shaft 192. When the stud 206 releases the projection on the arm 203, a spring 207 withdraws the latter and raises the cutters, at the same time tilting the pivoted receiver 189, to discharge the sticks, by means of a projection 213 which, during the return of the arm 203, engages a spring-controlled stop 212 on a shaft 211, rotating the shaft and thus actuating the receiver 189 through the links 209, 210. The sticks are discharged on to an inclined board 213<1>, and the receiver is restored by a spring 208. In another form of cutting-device, the cooled stick is delivered between two sets of circular revolving cutters adjustably mounted on adjacent shafts. In a third form a number of chopping-blades are mounted on a shaft and attached to fingers which are intermittently raised and released by a revolving stud so that the blades fall on the stick of candy in a receiver which is intermittently tilted by another finger on the revolving stud. The reducing rollers 33, 62, 82 may be heated by gas pipes 215, and are driven by the shafts 25, 125 through suitable gearing and the vertical shafts 90, 130, which are provided with coupling-clutches. The rollers 82 may be replaced by a frame supporting four rotating rollers having peripheral grooves and so disposed that the four grooves combine to form a circular orifice, by which the candy is moulded to a circular form. When a stick of triangular cross-section is desired, three revolving rollers with flat peripheries may be arranged so that the peripheries enclose a triangular space, through which the candy may be drawn. A flat stick may be formed by passing the material between two rollers adjustably spaced so as to provide a rectangular orifice between them. A number of such sets of rollers may be arranged directly under the hopper when untwisted candy is required. The guide bar 108 may be replaced by spaced rollers or rods 234, 235, Fig. 20, mounted in heads 236, 237 provided with cutters 241, 242, and intermittently rotated by a shaft 240, which corresponds to the shaft 104 of the bar 108 and carries a gear-wheel actuating gear-wheels on the spindles of the rollers 234, 235. The rotation of the rollers imparts a rolling motion to the sticks when resting on the diagonal conveyers before being carried forward. The subsidiary belts and plates which fill the triangular spaces between the cooling-table 11 and the diagonal conveyers, may be dispensed with by replacing the diagonal conveyers with two endless belts, one twice as long as the other and having their delivery ends in line and close to the front end of the cooling-table. A board c, Fig. 29, is placed between the conveyers and the cooling-table, and over it is mounted a bar a, pivoted at its ends, and serving to hold the stick of candy after it is released by the bar 108, which is diagonally disposed relatively to the belts. When the stick has been carried by the belts into parallelism with the slats 173<1> of the cooling-table, the bar a is automatically rotated to allow the stick to be moved on to the slats 173'. The bar a is then released, and a spring returns it to its operative position.