Patent ID: 6951451

Claim:
A press for flattening dough pieces comprising: a main frame supportable on a floor of a workplace; a sub frame supportable by said main frame; adjustment mechanisms positioned between said sub frame and said main frame to permit leveling and adjustment of said sub frame relative to said main frame; attachment mechanisms for securing said sub frame to said main frame following adjustment of said sub frame relative to said main frame; a conveyor belt formed at least partially of a plastic material movably carried on at least one of said frames and presenting an upper horizontal surface along at least a portion of its length; at least one upper and one lower, vertically opposed, movable platens carried on at least one of said frames; both of said platens being movable in a longitudinal horizontal direction parallel with a moving direction of said upper horizontal surface of said belt; said upper one of said platens being movable in a vertical direction toward and away from said conveyor belt; a linear actuator drivingly connected to said two movable platens; a first servo motor drivingly connected to said linear actuator; a carriage to which said two movable platens are mounted; at least two linear guide rods supporting said carriage for linear movement; a loading system for loading dough balls onto said moving upper surface of said conveyor belt; said loading system comprising a transport mechanism arranged to receive dough balls in a sequential stream and to deliver said dough balls to said moving conveyor belt at a speed equal to a speed of said upper surface of said conveyor belt; said transport mechanism comprising a drop tube having an upper opening for receiving said sequential stream of dough balls, a pocket wheel positioned below an open bottom end of said drop tube and above said upper surface of said conveyor belt, said pocket wheel having a plurality of depressions in an outer circumference thereof to receive dough balls from said drop tube, and a second servo motor drivingly connected to said pocket wheel; and a belt splicing hot press carried on at least one of said frames operatively engageable with said belt to splice together severed ends of said belt to form a continuous endless belt.