Patent GB-677174-A (GB)
Title: Machine for cutting and spacing soap cakes
IPC: C11D13/22
Filed: 1950-03-09
Abstract: 677,174. Endless conveyers. PROCTER & GAMBLE CO. March 9, 1950. [March 23, 1949] No. 5975/50. Class 78 (i). [Also in Group V] A soap cutting and spacing machine comprises a conveyer, a platform above and extending across the conveyer, and means for feeding soap bars, side by side, onto the platform, the platform decreasing in width across the conveyer whereby successive feeding movements will deposit successive bars on the conveyer. The conveyer comprises trays 266 with downwardly-extending bases 265, the trays being guided by rollers 269, 270 and the bases between angle irons 267, 268. The chain 260 passes round sprocket wheels 262, 263, the latter on a shaft 144, being the driven sprocket, and lugs 264 on the chain engage the bases 265. The chain moves continuously but there are gaps between the trays 266 and when these gaps pass beneath the platform 247 the feeding means must be suspended in operation. To accomplish this a clutch is interposed between the main driving shaft of the machine and the shaft 144 and the clutch is engaged and disengaged by the action of a cam secured to a gear wheel driven from the shaft 155 and engaged by a roller. The roller is carried on a lever linked to an arm which enters a notch in the driver's clutch member and holds it disengaged, whereby actuation of the feeding mechanism is suspended. As the next tray moves below the platform the cam rotates, causing the arm to leave the notch and restore the drive to the feeding means. The platform 247 has sections A, B, C, D of decreasing width to support four, three, two bars of soap, and one bar, respectively. Five bars of soap are pushed onto section A, one falling off, and one less to each succeeding section, one has falling off, at each movement of the pusher, resulting in the bars of soap being spaced on the tray 266. The pusher comprises arms 271- 275 supported from brackets 280 mounted on a shaft 281 and is moved transversely, i.e. in a direction along the shaft 281, by linkage 301, 298 operated by a cam to give reciprocating action. To prevent the arms from pushing the soap bars back on their return movement the shaft 281 is slightly rotated so as to lift them, for which purpose an arm extends from the shaft and is moved by a link operated by a cam. As the trays pass beneath the platform screws 310 projecting upwards from them, meet projections 253, 254 from the platform, which is pivotally mounted on a rod 252, and so tilt the platform to allow uneven trays to pass freely. The soap to be cut and spaced is initiallv in the form of strips stacked in a hopper 40. A strip is pushed from the bottom of the hopper through cutting wires onto one end of a conveyer belt 77, which is driven intermittently by a pawl and ratchet mechanism actuated from a cam. The soap blocks so formed are carried by the belt 77 till they come opposite feeding mechanism which transfers them to a platform whence the yare again pushed through cutting wires, so having cut into the base which are fed onto the platform 247. The feeding mechanism which transfers soap blocks from the end of the belt 77 comprises a block 177 sliding to and fro on a bar 178 and having pivoted to it at 176 a pusher bar 175. The pusher bar 175 is also fulcrummed at 180 on a bar 182 pivoted at 183 to a bracket 184, and on the backward movement of the pusher bar, the bar 182 is raised by a cam-actuated link 205 and the pusher bar therefore elevated to clear succeeding soap blocks on its return stroke.