Improvements in or relating to Apparatus for Use in Making Chocolate and the like.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 15th Sept., 1899-Accepted, 18th Nov., 1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Apparatus for Use in Making
Chocolate and the like.
A Communication from Louis BERNHARD LEHMANN, Manufacturer, of Dresden-
Lobtau, Tharandterstrasse, 8/9, in the Empire of Germany.
I, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT, Chartered Patent Agents of 111, Hatton Garden, in
the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to apparatus for use in making chocolate and the like
and refers to means for shaking or vibrating the tables upon which the paste
is placed in moulds or pans in order to cause it to "set" evenly and uniformly
and to cause any air bubbles which may be in the paste to rise to the surface
and escape.
F
The concussion tables hitherto used in the manufacture of chocolate are all,
in spite of the many attempts at improvement, exceedingly noisy and subject
to rapid wear and tear, owing to the hard concussions following each other
in rapid succession, from which the rapidly operating shaft which receives
the shocks also suffers. The present invention relates to a table during the
use of which the noise is considerably diminished, while the operating shaft
is so arranged that its speed may be greatly reduced while the shaft itself is
not exposed to one-sided shocks, by which means a greater duration is secured
for the machine, owing to the improved gearing avoiding the frequent con-
cussion of metal parts. The gearing consists of a belt or flexible connection
in the form of a loop suspended at two fixed points and connected to the plate
of the table and a shaft rotating within the loop with a cam device such as
rollers arranged round it, by means of which the said loop is alternately
extended or pressed outwards owing to which the table is alternately raised and
lowered.
In the accompanying drawings:
!
Figure 1 is a sectional elevation on the line A-B of Figure 2 of an apparatus
illustrating this invention,
Figure 2 is a sectional end elevation on the line C-D of Figure 1, and
Figure 3 a detail view of the belt expanding device.
The table or support e supported on the frame a, guided in the frame b. is
connected by means of vertical bars d with a block or plate e guided in bars f at
the bottom of the frame of the machine, in which block a roller g is arranged.
A belt or other flexible connection passes round this roller forming a
U-shaped loop, the ends of the belt being connected to pins or other supports.
Within the loop rotates the operating shaft provided with a pair of discs or
collars between which are revolvably mounted say two pairs of rollers mm²,
the two rollers diametrically opposite to each other forming an operative pair.
When the shaft k rotates in either direction the pairs of rollers become alter-
natively operative by pressing out the sides of the loop formed by the belt

page_text: (compare Figure 3 with Figure 2), such extension of the belt being of course,
followed by a corresponding shortening of the loop and raising of the block e,
thereby causing the table c to be raised. Each pair of rollers exerts its
maximum effect whenever the plane of the two roller shafts is horizontal
(Figure 3). As this plane moves round the loop becomes contracted, allowing
the table to fall until the next pair of rollers becomes effective. In Figure 2
the table is represented as occupying its lowest position. When two such
pairs of rollers are employed each pair becomes effective twice in every com-
plete revolution of the operating shaft, a shaft revolving at a speed of 200
revolutions will produce 800 lifts of the table.
The quickness of the lowering of the table may be increased by means of
indiarubber rings n, or by springs acting in a similar manner, which are com-
pressed by rods o, connected with the plate, whenever the table is raised, the
re-action of which increases the speed of the descent.
The pins from which the belt is suspended may be provided with nuts or serew-
threaded blocks_p, running on a spindle provided with right-and-left-hand
screw threads. In proportion as these blocks are moved farther apart, the loop
becomes more extended and consequently shorter, and owing to this the lift
of the table becomes less. This can be carried so far that the upward move-
ment of the table becomes equal to zero, so that the operation of the apparatus
can be suspended without any necessity of stopping the rotation of the shaft.
'
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent and in what
manner the same is to be performed Ï declare that what claim is:
-
1. Apparatus for use in the manufacture of chocolate and the like, com-
prising a table or support and means for raising and lowering said table
consisting of a belt or flexible band in the form of a loop the ends of which are
attached to fixed or movable supports, rods extending between the table and
a block resting in the loop of the belt, and an operating shaft revoluble within
the said loop, and provided with a number of rollers mounted around it by
means of which the said loop is intermittently pressed outwards, substantially
as described.
2. In apparatus for the kind described a loop band suspended from screw-
threaded blocks laterally movable on a spindle provided with right- and left-
hand screw threads, in order to regulate, by adjusting the distance between
the two blocks, the length of the loop and with it the extent of vertical lift
of the table, substantially as described.
3. Apparatus of the kind described comprising a table or support, rods, as d,
extending between the underside of the table and a block, a roller, as gon
said block, a looped band or equivalent passing round said roller and secured
to fixed or movable parts of the frame, and a cam device within the loop, and
a rotating shaft for said cam device, substantially as described.
4. The complete apparatus for use in the manufacture of chocolate and the
like, substantially as described or illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 15th day of September 1899.
BOULT, WADE, & KILBURN,
Agents for the Applicant.