Patent GB-166296-A (GB)
Title: Improved machine for the manufacture of nut confection and the like
IPC: A23G3/20
Filed: 1920-02-10
Abstract: 166,296. Stephens, A. J., (Pennsylvania Chocolate Co.). Feb. 10, 1920. Depositing-machines; casting confectionery.-A machine for making nut confection, particularly nut chocolate, comprises co-operating automatic means for intermittingly depositing measured quantities of plastic confection, translating the deposits to another position, and intermittingly depositing nuts thereon. In the machine described, means are provided for feeding and positioning trays successively beneath a confection container, a nut-container, and a second confection container, whereby a layer of confection is deposited, a lay of nuts is deposited upon and tamped into this layer, and a final layer of confection is deposited upon the nuts. The trays are fed along adjustable guides 4, Fig. 1, to a conveyer 3 on a table 2 which is reciprocated vertically by cams on geared shafts 9 - - 9<d>, and the conveyer is intermittingly moved by sprocket and ratchet gearing 30, 36, operated by a crank-disc and connecting-rod 26, 27, so that it is stationary when the table is in its elevated position beneath the confection and nut containers 5, 5<a>, 6. The trays are fed from the guides 4 by a felt-covered roller 47 intermittingly operated from the ratchet gearing and are received by inclined supports 62, Figs. 5 and 7, which are moved about their pivots 60 to release, the trays and deposit them on the conveyers when the table rises by means of adjustable nuts on bolts 64 carried by the table, the trays being pressed downwards by a resilient finger 66<a>. The containers 5, 5a are similar and the confection is deposited therefrom in measured quantities through nozzles 87<a>, Fig. 9, by an oscillating feeder 68 operated by cranks on shafts 72, Fig. 1, geared with the shafts 9, 9<d>. Each container is provided with a screen 82, a stationary plate 83 with transverse passages, and two plates 84, 85, which are oscillated between the plate 83 and the plate that carries the nozzles by means of a cam and crank-pin on a shaft 93 operated by a, rack-bar and a crank-arm on the shaft 72. The plate 84 contains transverse spaces into which webs arranged between pairs of apertures in the plate 85 project. The nuts are discharged through a valve 97, Fig. 12, to a hopper 101 mounted on a traversing carriage 98 and are swept by a cylindrical brush 104 mounted on the carriage into apertures in an auxiliary table 102. The valve is opened by levers operated by a cam on a shaft 115 and the carriage is oscillated across the table by a link 113 and crank arm 114 on the same shaft, which is driven by sprocket rearing from a shaft 125 connected by a clutch and bevel gearing with the shaft 9<c>. The brush is rotated by a pinion 112 gearing with a fixed rack 100<a>. Spring-controlled shutters 103 are opened to allow the nuts to fall, when the table 2 is raised, by levers 138, 138<a>, operated by a slide which is oscillated by a cam on a shaft 143 driven from the shaft 125. The nuts are pressed into the confection bv a plate 146, Fig. 1, reciprocated by a crank-shaft driven by sprocket gearing from a shaft 155 geared with the shaft 9<d>.