Patent GB-948261-A (GB)
Title: Apparatus for depanning, slicing, dispensing and packaging baked goods
IPC: B65B5/06
Filed: 1960-02-02
Abstract: 948,261. Packaging-machines; unpacking; stacking; gripping articles; endless conveyers AMERICAN MACHINE & FOUNDRY CO. Feb. 2, 1960 [Feb. 2, 1959], No. 3738/60. Headings B8A, B8C, B8H and B8P. [Also in Division A4] A machine removes rolls &c. from baking pans, assembles them in groups and either places them in a carton or forms them into stacks for subsequent wrapping on other apparatus (not described). It may also slice the rolls horizontally. The machine is fully adjustable for various roll sizes, types and arrangements. Removing from pans; grippers.-The filled pans are advanced on a conveyer 78 and the foremost and that following it are halted by oscillatable stops 98, Figs. 5, 6. Grippers at station E then descend to engage the rolls and deposit them on a conveyer 300. The machine may handle round or elongated rolls separately or joined in groups by webs of dough. The grippers are mounted as units on an interchangeable bar 138, Figs. 5, 6, and for individual round rolls comprise jaws 182 pivoted on a member 166 and linked by a cross-rod 190. A pneumatic motor 172 opens and closes them. The member 166 is joined by parallel linkage to an element secured to the bar 138 and may thus rise as the jaws contact a pan during lowering. The bar 138 is mounted on linkage 144, 158 for retaining the orientation of the grippers as the links rotate to the dotted line position of Fig. 6. For groups of elongated rolls joined side by side, the gripper arrangement, is similar to that described except that the jaws comprise bars at the ends of levers pivoted to members such as 166 (Figs. 10-12, not shown). Symmetrical groups of four round rolls are handled by four gripper jaws 280, Figs. 13, 14, pivoted on a cruciform member 272 secured to an element 268, the equivalent of the element 166. A further cruciform member 284 has its arms connected by rods 282 to the jaws and is rotated relative to the member 272 to operate, by a pneumatic motor 290. Linkage 266 permits the jaws to rise as before, when contacting a pan. A bar 260 (Fig. 5 only), may descend to clamp a row of rolls adjacent those being gripped to break any dough connection between the rows. Grouping for packaging or stacking, slicing.- As the rolls advance with the conveyer 300, they are spaced and levelled transversely by rods 336, Figs. 5, 6, mounted on a bar 316 which reciprocates to cause them to move at a greater speed than the conveyer. They thus overtake the rolls and with their widened end portions 338, space them as they are retracted. The rolls may then be sliced by known means S, Fig. 2, comprising hold-down belts and rotary knives 340 operating between the rows to leave a hinge between roll halves, or by another known device H incorporating a transverse horizontal saw band for operating on all rolls of a row simultaneously. The conveyer 300 now carries the rolls between converging belts 372, and a central spacing chain 380, Fig. 18, to pusher means for inserting them into a carton or moving them to a stacking position The pusher plates 420, 422 (see also Figs. 19, 20), are mounted by links 446, 454, on horizontally slidable carriages 450 and are raisable vertically during a return stroke by pneumatic motors 460. Cartonning.-In cartonning, the pusher 420 places a group of rolls on the base of an openfronted carton K and the pusher 422 moves a group up a ramp 428 and along a reciprocatable guide 528 to form a second layer in the carton. The cartons are advanced by conveyer belts 486 and checked by reciprocatable fingers 502, Figs. 18, 20, for filling. A belt 549 holds the rolls and cartons down while a plough 548 folds up the open side 630, Figs. 18, 27, prior to discharge from the machine. The cartons are held in a magazine Z in flat form with their sides 626, 628, folded on to the base, Figs. 23, 27. A gripper 606 to which suction is applied by a pump 594, pulls off the bottom carton by engaging its wall 628 and in so doing partially opens it up. Fingers 632 on sleeves 638 slidable on and rotatable with a rod 640, enter between the walls 626, separate to set them up fully and then move inwards again to allow the carton to drop on a belt 558 for transmission to the belts 486. Photo-electric means 680 controls suction to the gripper 606 to render it inoperative when the carton feed path is full. Stacking.-The pusher 420 feeds its group of rolls on to a plate 684 overlying the belts 486. The plate then rotates 180 degrees, Fig. 32, to deposit the group upside down on the belts opposite the pusher 422. There they are retained by the fingers 502 until a further group is stacked on them by the pusher 422. Specification 948,262 is referred to.