JMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SHAPING SUGAR
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Abram Lyle, senior, of Greenock, in the County of
Renfrew, North Britain, Shipowner and Sugar Merchant, for the Invention of
"JMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SHAPING SUGAR."
Sealed the 30th September 1876, and dated the 29th July 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Abram Lyle, at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 29th July 1876.
ABRAM LYLE, senior, of Greenock, in the County of Renfrew, North Britain,
Shipowner and Sugar Merchant. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SHAPING
SUGAR."
This Invention has for its object the shaping of refined sugar in a simple, rapid,
and economical manner, so as to be at once ready for the market and for the table,
all waste being avoided and extra labor and time dispensed with.
The improved apparatus is designed to form the sugar into small rectangular
tablets, measuring each about one inch square by about a quarter of an inch deep,
but it may be modified to yield other sizes or forms.
The Invention may be carried out in various ways, it being an essential feature
of most of the modifications that the sugar which is taken in a loose and slightly
moist condition, such as that in which it is ordinarily delivered from the centrifugal
machine, is compressed into a series of sinall moulds or shaping recesses by a rolling
movement.
In one modification a flat mould plate of the exact thickness of the intended
tablets and formed with a series of square holes through it slides upon a horizontal
plate or table and under a feeding hopper and receives a quantity of loose sugar, the
depth of which is regulated by the passage of the mould plate under a gauge. The
mould plate then passes under a roller or the roller passes over it, and the entire
depth of sugar is thereby compressed into the series of mould holes. The mould
plate finally moves over an opening or clear space, and a plunger plate formed with
square projections exactly fitting the mould holes is brought into action to push the
tablets down out of the mould plate upon an endless apron or other receptacle.
Several of the mould plates may be dealt with in one machine, and they may be
arranged to have reciprocating motions, or they may be arranged in one or more
endless chains and be moved always in one direction.
In other modifications a drum or cylinder is formed with a number of circular
grooves, and mould cavities for the tablets are formed at the bottoms of the
Povice 811

page_text: grooves. The loosa, sugar is fed or supplied so as to fill the grooves, and is then
by the rotation of the drum brought under the action of rollers which compress it
down into the mould cavities. On reaching a suitable position in the course of
the drum's rotation the moulded tablets are successively delivered upon an end-
less apron or other receptacle by square plungers fitting into the bottoms of the
mould cavities, theso plungers being then moved outwards by the action of fixed
cam surfaces over which the drum moves them or parts attached to them.
In another modification the sugar is rolled down into one or more plain con-
tinuous grooves on a wheel or cylinder, and is at intervals cut out of the grooves in
the form of tablets by knives actuated by cains.
By a modification in which rolling is dispensed with the loose sugar suitably fed
into a tube of the square or other section of the tablet is compressed therein by a
plunger, after which a plunger moving across the bottom of the tube, and of the
thickness of the intended tablet, forces the tablet, out through an opening in the
opposite side, such opening being of course closed during the compressing action.
The sugar tablets shaped in the manner herein-before indicated are finally dried
in stoves or otherwise, and are then ready for the market or table.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Abram Lyle, in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th January
1877.
ABRAM LYLE, senior, of Greenock, in the County of Renfrew, North Britain,
Shipowner and Sugar Merchant. IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SHAPING
SUGAR."
"
My said Invention has for its object the shaping of refined sugar in a simple,
rapid, and economical manner, so as to make it at once ready for the market and
for the table, all wasto being avoided and extra labor and time dispensed with.
Some modifications of my improved apparatus are designed to form the sugar
into small rectangular tablets, measuring each about one inch square by about a
quarter of an inch deep, whilst other modifications are designed to form the sugar
into bars; and the apparatus can be arranged to yield various forms and sizes.
My Invention inay be carried out in various ways, and it is an important feature
of some of the modifications that the sugar which is taken in a loose and slightly
moist condition, such as that in which it is ordinarily delivered from the centrifugal
machine, is compressed into a series of small moulds or shaping recesses by a rolling
movement.
By another modification, which I now prefer, and in which rolling is dispensed
with, the loose sugar suitably fed into a space of the square or other section of the
intended tablet is compressed therein by a plunger, after which a second plunger
moving at right angles to the first forces the tablet out through an opening which
is closed during the compressing action.
Sugar tablets shaped in the manner herein-before indicated are finally dried in
stoves or otherwise and are then ready for the market or table. Or the sugar
may by my improved apparatus be first shaped into bars or cakes to be subsequently
divided by cutting into small tablets suitable for the table.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing the same may
be properly understood, I hereunto append three Sheets of explanatory Drawings
to be herein-after referred to, and representing three modifications of my improved
sugar shaping apparatus. In these Drawings the same reference numerals are
used to mark the same or like parts wherever they are repeated.
Figure 1, on Sheet 1 of the Drawings, is a plan, and Figure 2 is a longitudinal
vertical section of one modification of my improved apparatus. Figures to 7
represent separate details.

page_text: In this apparatus a plate 3 (shown separately in plan in Figure 3) of the exact
thickness of the intended tablets, bars, or plates of sugar, and formed with two
sets of mould holes 2 through it, such holes being shown in the Figures as of a form
for producing bars, slides, with an interposed plate 4 (Figure 4) upon a horizontal
plate or table 5 (Figure 5), such table being carried by a pair of cast-iron side
frames 6. The plates 3, 4, and 5 are shown in longitudinal vertical section in
Figure 6 as well as in Figure 2, and in transverse vertical section in Figure 7.
The plate 3 slides under two feeding hoppers 7, and the distances are such that
when one set of mould holes 2 is under one hopper the other set is midway between
the two hoppers. In each hopper 7 the loose sugar is made to descend in a
regular manner by revolving paddles 8 driven by external gearing, and when the
mould holes 2 are under it, as shown at the right hand hopper in Figures 1 and 2,
the sugar fills these holes and lies over them. The plate 3 being next moved to
carry the right hand mould holes towards the middle of the machine, a quantity of
sugar besides that in the holes is carried out through an opening at the inner side
of the hopper. This opening is closed by a sliding plate 9, acted on by a spring
indicated by dotted lines, excepting when the plate 3 is moving the mould holes
to or from the hopper; and the depth or quantity of sugar carried out of the hopper
is gauged by the height to which the plate 9 is lifted. The lifting of the plates
of the two hoppers is offected by cam pieces 10, formed on and moving with the
plate 3 and passing under the lower corners of the plate 9. The sugar on leaving
the hopper 7 passes under a roller 11 (indicated by dotted lines in Figure 2), held
firmly down in bearings fixed to the side frames, and by this roller the sugar is
all compressed down into the mould holes 2 of the plate 3. The roller 11 is cleaned
by means of a stationary doctor 12, which is adjusted in contact with its revolving
surface. The plate 3 continuing its motion carries the mould holes 2 to the middle
of the machine, and there a plunger plate 13, formed with projections exactly fitting
the mould holes 2, is brought into action to push the bars or other compressed
pieces of sugar down out of the mould plate 3 upon an endless apron 14, indicated
by dotted lines and carried by rollers 15, one or more of which are driven so that the
apron 14 takes each set of bars or pieces out of the way of the next set. To admit
of the sugar pieces being pushed down upon the endless apron 14 in this way there
is an opening 16 in the middle of the table 5, and there is also an opening 17 for
the saine purpose in the interposed plate 4. This plate 4 moves with the plate 3,
excepting when the under sides of the mould holes 2 require to be uncovered for
putting out the sugar pieces, and it thus prevents the rubbing of the sugar on the
table 5 when it is being compressed by the roller 11. At the time when the right-
hand mould holes 2 are having the sugar pieces pushed down out of them at
the middle of the machine, the left-hand mould holes are receiving sugar from
the left-hand hopper 7, and the plate 3 being next moved towards the right hand,
the operations herein-before described in connection with the right-hand mouli
holes then take place in connection with the left-hand holes. The several move-
ments are derived from a first notion shaft 18, having on it fast and loose
pulleys for a driving belt, and also a pinion gearing with a spur wheel on a
second motion shaft 19. A grooved cam wheel 20 on the shaft 19 acts on a
rod 21, connected to a lever 22 on a rocking shaft 23, which last has fast on it a
lever 24 connected to the ejecting plunger 13. An eccentric pin 25 on a spur wheel
26 is entered into a slot in a rod 27 jointed to the mould plate 3 and moves this
plate, the slot in the rod 27 causing a pause at each end of the traverse.
interposed plate 4 is moved by means of a gab clutch 28, carried by the pin which
connects the rod 27 to the bracket formed for it on the plate 3, this clutch 28
having two notches, one or other of which engages with a cross bar 29 fixed to
brackets formed at the sides of the plate +. The clutch 28 is fitted with two
triggers 30, 31, which encountering adjustable fixed stops 32, 33, cause the dis-
engagement of the clutch at the proper times, and so that the interposed plate 4,
which is moved by the mould plate 3, may be disengaged therefrom and have its
motion arrested in order to leave an open space under the mould holes 2, when
The

page_text: these are at the middle of the machine. An eccentric 34 on the shaft 19 serves
for giving a step by step movement to the endless apron 14, by mechanism which
will be easily understood although not fully shown in the Figures; whilst a pulley
35 on the same shaft 19 serves for transmitting motion by a belt to the revolving
paddles 8 in the hopper 7.
Several mould plates (3) may be dealt with in one machine, and they may be
arranged to have reciprocating motions as in the machine shown on Sheet 1 of the
Drawings and herein-before described, or they may be arranged in one or more
endless chains, and be moved always in one direction. The rollers (11) for com-
prossing the sugar may be moved over the mould plate (3) instead of the latter
moving under it.
Figures 8 and 9, on Sheet 2 of the Drawings, aro vertical sections as at right
angles to each other of a modification of my improved apparatus in which the
loose sugar is compressed by a roller 11 into mould cavities 2 arranged upon a
cylinder or drum 36. This cylinder 36 is placed with its axis horizontal, and is
carried in bearings in side fraines 37, fast and loose pulleys being fitted on one of
its journals for a driving belt. The loose sugar is supplied to the part of the
cylinder 36 which is at any time uppermost by a hopper 7 provided with internal
revolving paddles 8 and with a sliding door or gauge plate 9, which last is adjusted
to regulate the depth of loose sugar in excess of what in the loose stato fills the
mould cavities 2. The rotation of the cylinder 36 in the direction of the arrow
carries the freshly supplied sugar under the roller 11, and as this roller is adjusted
or pressed into close contact with the surface of the drum, or rather with the edge
surfaces of the metal forming the partitions between the mould cavities 2, it com-
The mould cavities 2 are delineated
presses all the sugar into the mould cavities.
as of a shape to form bars of compressed sugar of a length equal to the effective
width of the cylindrical surface; but they may if preferred be shaped to form
square tablets or other pieces. The compressed bars or other pieces of sugar are
pushed out of the mould cavities 2 by means of piston plates 38 fitted in the bottoms
of the cavities, and acted on by studs or pins 39, which project through holes into
the interior of the cylinder 36. These studs or pins 39 have flanges or heads on
their inner end to enter grooves in fixed cam guide pieces 40, so shaped and placed
ns to cause the piston plate 38 of each mould cavity 2 to push out the sugar as the
cavity is by the rotation of the cylinder 36 brought round to the lowest part. The
bars or pieces of compressed sugar so pushed out are received and moved out of the
way by an endless apron 14. The cam guide pieces 40 are carried by a shaft 41 fitted
in bearings in the centres of the ends of the cylinder 36, this shaft 41 being made
to project through one of the cylinder centres so as to be prevented from turning
by an external lever 42, and the cam guide pieces 40 are shaped so as to keep the
piston plates 38 pushed out whilst the rotation of the cylinder 36 carries each some
distance round from the part where the sugar is discharged in order that they may
bo cleaned by passing a doctor 43 fixed so as to bear upon them as they are
carried round. After the piston plates 38 are cleaned they are drawn in by the
action of the cam guido pieces 40. A trough 44, shown in Figure 9, is placed so
as to receive any sugar scraped off by the doctor 43. A doctor 12, shown as fixed
to the top of the hopper 7, is provided for cleaning the compressing roller 11 any
A doctor 45 is also
sugar scraped off it falling conveniently into this hopper.
fitted to bear on the cylinder 36 a little below the compressing roller 11 to cut off
any projecting sugar and render even the outer surfaces of the bars or pieces of
sugar; and a trough 46 is provided to receive what is removed by this doctor.
The cylinder 36 may be modified either by being formed with circular grooves
in addition to or outside of the mould cavities 2, the roller 11 being in such case
formed with circular ribs projecting into the grooves so as to compress the sugar
into the mould cavities at the bottoms of the grooves; or the cylinder may be
formed with continuous plain grooves round it, into which the sugar compressed
by a ribbed roller, the sugar being in such case cut out of the grooves in the forms
of tablets by knives actuated by cams.
is

page_text: Figures 10 and 11, on Sheet 3 of the Drawings, are vertical sections as at right
angles to each other of the modification of my improved apparatus in which the
compression of the sugar is not effected by rolling. In this machine the hopper 7,
fitted as in other modifications with internal revolving paddles 8, rests on the upper
one 47 of two fixed horizontal plates, 47, 48, fixed to side frames 49. The lower
fixed plate 48 is recessed along its middle part to receive an intermediate moving
plate 50, which fits as tightly as is consistent with easy movement between the
upper and lower fixed plates 47, 48. The upper fixed plate 47 has in it an open-
ing immediate under the hopper 7, and when the intermediate plate 50 is at the left-
hand end of its traverse (Figure 11) the loose sugar descends through that opening
into the space between the two fixed plates 47, 48, to the right hand of the inter-
Imediate plate 50. This plate 50 acts as a plunger or piston and in moving to the
right hand pushes the sugar along between the fixed plates 47, 48, and into a mould
cavity in a vertical mould plate 51, which working in vertical guides is then in
its lowest position with the mould cavity in line with the space between the fixed
plates 47, 48. The plunger plate 50 moves sufficiently to the right to compress all
or most of the sugar that is then between the fixed plates 47, 48, into the mould
cavity of the vertical plate 51, and this plate then rises until its mould cavity is
above the top of the upper fixed plate 47. A small plunger 52 next enters the
mould cavity of the vertical plate 51 and pushes out the bar of compressed sugar,
which is received upon a shelf 53. In Figure 11 the parts are shown in the
positions in which they are when the formation and delivery of a bar of compressed
sugar is just completed, as herein-before described. The shelf 53 is part of a
casting which is adjustably fixed to the end of the machine, and has its inner
face formed to act as the outer guide surface of the vertical mould plate 51, whilst
the inner guide surface for that plate is formed at the ends of the fixed horizontal
plates 47, 48. The movements of the machine are derived from a first motion
shaft 18, having on it fast and loose pulleys for a driving belt, and a pinion which
gears with a spur wheel on a second motion shaft 19. An eccentric 54, on the
shaft 19, by a rod 55, and lever 56, works a rocking shaft 57, having on it a
lever 58, connected by a pair of gab links 59, seen in plan in Figure 12, to a stud
or bar 60, attached to the plunger plate 50. The motion of this plate 50 is stopped
when required by lifting up one of the gab links 59, which is done by an elbow
lever 01 connected by a link to a hand lever 62. The vertical mould plate 51 is
worked by a rod 63 jointed to it, and having at its lower end a slot in which is
entered an eccentric pin on a wheel 64 on a shaft geared by equal spur wheels
to the shaft 19, the slot in the rod 63 allowing of the necessary pause between
the up-and-down movements. The small plunger 52 is connected by links to
levers 65 on a rocking shaft 66 having on it a lever 67 carrying an adjustable
pin which is acted on by a wiper 68 on the shaft 19 so as to cause the ejection
of the moulded sugar at the proper times, the plunger 52 being moved back by a
spring after each action.
Figure 13 shows a modified arrangement for working the ejecting plunger 52,
a grooved cam 69 being substituted for the wiper 68 on the shaft 19, and acting
through a link 70 on a lever 67 fixed on the shaft 66 at right angles to the
levers 65. A slide may be fitted to the bottom of the hopper 7 for regulating the
quantity of sugar passing at each operation down through the opening in the upper
fixed plate 47. The rods 55 and 63 are each formed in two parts with a right and
left screw coupling, admitting of a nice adjustment of the positions of the plates
50 and 51 moved by them.
The plunger plate 50 does not require to be and by preference is not moved
quite close to the mould plate 51, the latter having a cutting or shearing action in
moving up across the ends of the fixed plates 47, 48, which action separates the
sugar in the mould cavity from any sugar in the space between the end of the
plunger 50 and the plate 51. The arrangement renders unnecessary any separate
appliance for cleaning the plunger plate 50, and the other parts are also in their
action self-cleaning, or sufficiently so for practical purposes.

page_text: Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same or carrying it into effect, I have to state that I do not restrict
myself to the precise details herein described or delineated, but that what I
believe to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is-
1. The arranging or combining together of the parts of apparatus for shaping
sugar, substantially in the improved manner herein-before described with reference
to Sheet 1 of the accompanying Drawings.
2. The arranging or combining together of the parts of apparatus for shaping
sugar, substantially in the improved manner herein-before described with reference
to Sheet 2 of the accompanying Drawings.
3. The arranging or combining together of the parts of apparatus for shaping
sugar, substantially in the improved manner herein-before described with reference
to Sheet 3 of the accompanying Drawings.
4. The application and use of a roller for compressing sugar into mould cavities
in a flat plate or in a cylinder, substantially in the manner and for the purposes
herein-before described with reference to Sheets 1 and 2 of the accompanying
Drawings.
5. The arrangements or appliances for cleaning the compressing rollers and the
ejecting piston plates, herein-before described with reference to Sheets 1 and 2 of
the accompanying Drawings.
6. The shaping of sugar by compressing it either by a roller or by a plunger or
equivalent piece into one or more mould cavities in a flat plate, which moves at
right angles to the direction of compression, and through which the compressed and
shaped sugar is ejected by a separate plunger or equivalent piece, substantially as
heroin-before described with reference to Sheets 1 and 3 of the accompanying
Drawings.
7. The arrangement and manner of action of the mould plate (51) in relation to
the plates (47) and (48), between which latter plates the plunger. (50) works, whereby
any separate appliance for cleaning the plunger is rendered unnecessary, sub-
stantially as herein-before described with reference to Sheet 3 of the accompanying
Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, tho said Abram Lyle, senior, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven.