Patent GB-784065-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to apparatus for manufacturing sweets
IPC: A23G3/20
Filed: 1954-03-12
Abstract: 784,065. Moulding sweets. WARREN, C. J. L., and MILROSS, J. W. March 7, 1955 [March 12, 1954; Nov. 10, 1954], Nos. 6558/55 and 6559/55. Divided out of 784,063. Class 87(2). [Also in Group VI] Sweets comprising single edible centres covered with toffee are made in open top moulds 2 forming part of a conveyer 1 by depositing a predetermined quantity of toffee into each mould from one or more containers by means of one or more plunger-cylinder pumps, pressing edible centres into the toffee and depositing further predetermined quantities of toffee into the moulds from which the sweets are ejected when hardened, the clearance between the plunger and the cylinder of the pump being such that the toffee syrup provides the sole sealing medium. Device 5 delivers a predetermined quantity of toffee to each mould 2, device 6 picks up a centre from device 7 and presses it into the toffee and device 5a delivers a second predetermined quantity to the mould which is then cooled by air from an electric fan. The various devices are driven by an electric motor 13 through belt drives 14, 15 and concentric shafts 16, 17 and sprockets 19, 20 joined by chain 21 and shaft 22. Conveyer 1 comprises plates 31 incorporating the moulds 2 and extending between chains 33 supported at one end on wheel 29a mounted on a shaft which also carries ratchet mechanism 29. This mechanism is operated by a chain 28 secured at one end through a spring 30 to a fixed point and at its other end to a bell crank lever 24 connected by a link 27 to an eccentric cam 26 carried on driven shaft 16. As cam 26 rotates it causes chain 28 to be alternately pulled and released so as to drive the conveyer step by step through the ratchet mechanism. Devices 5, 5a contain pumps with plungers each of which draws the hot liquid toffee into a cylinder from a large heated container through holes and then ejects it through a nozzle as described in Specification 784,064 [Group VI]. The centres are picked up by a device 6 comprising a point 68 at the end of a long arm 59a which slides in a rockable sleeved bracket 60 and the forked upper end 61 of a vertical slide piece 62. A rod 63 is secured at one end to a projection 65 on bracket 60 and at its other end slides in a guide piece 66 on arm 59a, a spring being mounted on rod 63 between projection 65 and guide piece 66 to urge arm 59a forwards. A flexible member 69 is secured to a lug 70 on arm 59a and passes round sprocket 71 to an arm 72 linked at 73 to a crank arm on driven shaft 22 so that, as shaft 22 rotates, arm 59a is slid back and forwards. Arm 59a is moved up and down to pick up centres from a turntable 89 by a cam 75, also on shaft 22, engaged by a follower 76 carried on the lower end of a push rod 77 whose upper end is pivoted to a radius arm 79 of which the free end bears against the lower end 80 of slide piece 62. The lower portion of rod 77 may be forked both to embrace cam 75 and to straddle shaft 22. Pivoted to the head of pick-up arm 59a is a double-armed lever 84 whose rearward end carries a stop 87 which engages slide piece 62, as arm 59a is drawn back, so that its front end strips off a centre impaled on point 68. In a modification a suction nozzle may be used instead of pin 68, The Centres are contained in a series of hollows in turntable 89 which is intermittently rotated by a ratchet mechanism. The sweets are cooled by an air blast and are ejected by a cam or inclined plane 98, Fig. 2, which engages ejectors 34 in moulds against the action of springs 35 to eject the sweets on to a conveyer 99a. The moulds may be oiled before the sweets are deposited therein by a brush 102 continuously fed with oil through a tube 104. Brush 102 is mounted on a pivoted arm 101 connected by a link 103 to an arm 48 which is rocked by a cam 26 on shaft 16 so that the moulds are successively smeared with oil by the brush.