Patent GB-1183081-A (GB)
Title: Fully Automatic Toaster
IPC: A47J37/08
Filed: 1967-03-10
Abstract: 1,183,081. Automatic toaster. MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO. Ltd. 10 March, 1967 [24 March, 1966; 19 May, 1966; 24 May, 1966; 11 Aug., 1966], No. 11470/67. Heading A4D. A toaster comprises electric heater means for toasting slices of bread, thermostat means for terminating a toasting cycle, a bread carriage cyclically movable from a non-toasting position to a toasting position and then back to said non-toasting position, spring means for normally biasing said bread carriage to its non- toasting position but allowing said bread carriage to freely move to its toasting position due to the gravity of bread upon placement thereof on said bread carriage, electromagnetic means for moving said bread carriage to its non-toasting position, lever means having two mutually parallel levers operatively engaged by said electromagnet means for causing the cyclical movement of the bread carriage, latch means for locking the bread carriage with bread loaded thereon in its non-toasting position in co-operation with said electromagnet means, unlocking means for releasing the bread carriage from its locked state when bread is unloaded from the bread carriage, and balancing means for holding said unlocked bread carriage in its uppermost position. The bread carriage 1 (Fig. 2) is supported by a parallel linkage 2, 3; the upper bar 2 is pivoted at 5 and carries a cranked extension 6 within the casing 11, and the lower bar 3 is supported at 8 in the slot 7 and extends across casing 11 (Fig. 6). When the bread carriage 1 descends under the weight of the bread the crank arm 6 lifts, and rotates the L-shaped direction changing lever 19 (Fig.9) in an anti-clockwise direction about its pivot 20. At the same time, spring 23 moves the guide bar 16 of the solenoid 14 to the right, and the tongue 31 on bar 16 presses on a cam surface on the inside of the latch 27 and lifts it until the tongue 31 drops under the bottom surface 32 of latch 27 as shown in Fig. 6. This movement of the bar 16 also removes tongue 40 from contacts 38 (Fig. 8) and current is passed through the heaters 10. At the end of the toasting period, contacts (not shown) are closed by the application of a timetallic strip and the solenoid 14 is energised. The bar 16 is pulled to the left and locked by latch 27 engaging tongue 31 as shown in Fig. 8. At the same time, tongue 40 opens contacts 38 and spring 23 rocks lever 19 in a clockwise direction to cause lug 22, pressing down on crank 6 (Fig. 9) to raise the bread carriage 1. As the bread carriage is raised, the portion of arm 8 within the casing 11 turns and a leaf spring 46 welded thereto is brought down to the dotted position in Fig. 17 on the inside of latch 27. Removal of the toasted bread from the carriage causes the left hand end thereof (Fig. 2) to tilt upwards and the bar 8 to move to the left hand end of the slot 7 on thecasing 11 as shown in Fig. 2 which corresponds to the right hand end of the slot 7 as shown in Fig. 17. This pushes the latch 27 sideways and releases the notch 33 from tongue 31, which then engages the inside cam surface of latch 27, ready to raise the latch as described above. When the bread carriage descends again. The bread carriage is balanced in its upper unloaded (i.e. tilted) position by springs 47 (Fig. 6). The bread carriage is prevented from descending due to unintentional shock in its tilted position although the latch 27 has been unlocked, since when the bar 3 is to the left of the slot 7 in Fig. 2, as it is in the tilted position of the bread carriage, the downward path of the right hand end of bar 3 (in Fig. 2) is blocked by a ledge 49 (not shown).