Patent ID: 8365904

Claim:
Apparatus comprising a device for conveying sticks for inserting into ice cream bodies, said device comprising guide means in which the sticks are supplied in the form of an elongate stack of sticks, and from which guide means the sticks are destacked singly, the guide means further comprising a vertical front plate, a horizontal guide plate wherein the stack of sticks rests directly on the horizontal guide plate and is fully supported thereby and an exit aperture between a lower edge of the front plate and the guide plate, the exit aperture having a height at least as great as a thickness of one stick and less than combined thicknesses of two sticks, said device further comprising an endless conveying belt, said conveying belt comprising a plurality of attachments having pockets, wherein each attachment pocket has a longitudinal surface forming a plane supporting surface generally perpendicular to the guide means and parallel to a direction of conveyance and having a leading edge and a trailing edge for housing a part of one stick, wherein the stick rests directly on the plane supporting surface and is fully supported thereby, and each attachment pocket furthermore has at least two guide pins projecting upwards on each side of said longitudinal surface, wherein the at least two guide pins are on opposite sides of the longitudinal surface and generally parallel to one another with front guide pins disposed along the leading edge and back guide pins disposed along the trailing edge spaced from one another defining the attachment pocket therebetween for receiving the one stick, wherein the guide pins on at least one side of the longitudinal surface are arranged along each end of the longitudinal surface of the attachment pocket, wherein the height of the front guide pins, in the direction of the conveying belt, is lower than the height of the back guide pins and tops of the back pins are spaced a distance from the conveying belt between the guide plate and the lower edge of the front plate, wherein the attachment pockets are not flanked by solid bars, said destacked sticks being deposited in a pocket on an attachment on said conveying belt as the attachment is moving past the exit aperture of the guide means.