Patent GB-1074006-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to installations for filling cheese moulds
IPC: A01J25/11
Filed: 1964-06-26
Abstract: 1,074,006. Filling cheese moulds. N.V. VOLMA. June 26, 1964 [June 28, 1963], No. 26485/64. Heading A28. A machine for filling a whey-curd mixture into similar, open-ended tubular cheese moulds comprises a plurality of sieve tubes 1, Fig. 1, secured, in a circle, around a rotatable, vertical, central shaft 7, supported, at its lower end, in a bearing 13, mounted in a box-shaped base frame 10 having adjustable legs 11. The upper ends of the sieve tubes 1 are connected to a reservoir 2, secured to the shaft 7, and their lower ends co-operate with a stationary table 3, which is connected to the base frame 10 and has an arcuate aperture 4, Fig. 2, through which the sieve tubes come into register with the upper ends of cheese moulds 17, carried on a ring 18, having holes 19 registering with the lower ends of the cheese moulds. The ring is secured to the shaft 7 by elements 20 and a plate 21. A star wheel 22 secured to the shaft 7 and a stationary outer guide strip 23 locate the cheese moulds over the holes 19. A flat-topped piston 24 is reciprocated, between the upper and lower ends of each mould 17, by a rod 28 passing through the corresponding hole 19 and a bearing in the plate 21. The lower end of the rod 28 carries a roller 27, which engages the profile of a stationary cam 26, attached to a casing 29, secured to the frame 10. A star wheel 30 feeds empty moulds 17, from a stationary outer plate 35, on to the plate 18 and into the recesses of the star wheel 22. Another star wheel 31 removes filled moulds on to a conveyer (not shown). The machine is driven by mechanism comprising gear wheels 14, 15 and 16, the star wheels 30 and 31 being driven by gear wheels meshing with gear wheel 14. A quantity of whey-curd mixture is fed into the reservoir 2 and sinks into the sieve tubes 1. At the commencement of operations, the lower end of each sieve tube is closed by the table 3, whose arcuate aperture 4 is closed by a pivoted plate 3<SP>1</SP>. The driving mechanism is started and the sieve tubes 1 move, e.g. anticlockwise, around the table 3. The aperture 4 is opened and extrusion of columns of wheycurd mixture from the corresponding sieve tubes into cheese moulds begins. Each column is received on the piston 24 at the top of its stroke, and when the cheese mould concerned arrives at the end of the arcuate opening 4 the piston is at the bottom of its stroke and the mould is filled. Formation of air pockets in the curd filling the mould is thus avoided. The table 3 then cuts off the supply of whey-curd mixture between the sieve tubes and the cheese moulds. Any exuded whey dripping down the machine is received in an annular gulley 34 and removed. A pressure strip 33 is provided over, and parallel to, the profile of the cam 26 to keep each roller 27 in contact with said profile. Each piston 24 may be reciprocated by hydraulic cylinder mechanism, instead of the aforementioned cam mechanism. The sieve tubes 1 are then rotated intermittently to come into register with the aperture 4 (which corresponds in shape to the crosssection of a cheese mould 17) for a dwelling time corresponding to the time required for a complete downward stroke of the piston 24. The cheese moulds 17 may be cylindrical, as shown, or prismatic openended tubes.