Plastic article or earthenware shaping or treating: apparatus – Preform assembly means and means for bonding of plural... – With treatment means other than assembling – bonding – shaping...
Patent
1984-02-22
1986-04-01
Hoag, Willard E.
Plastic article or earthenware shaping or treating: apparatus
Preform assembly means and means for bonding of plural...
With treatment means other than assembling, bonding, shaping...
198377, 425517, 425126S, 425289, A23G 302, A23G 922
Patent
active
045795177
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to processes and apparatus for forming and handling sectioned products, and to the products so formed. In particular embodiments, the invention is applicable for example to the formation of composite products made from sections of extruded material, and is especially useful for the production of composite products made from sections of an extruded foodstuff, e.g. an aerated and/or frozen confectionery material.
It is commonly desired to process extruded materials (or other materials formed in long lengths) after their extrusion or formation by other means, e.g. by changing their shape or adding further components. Handling is relatively simple when it is to be done laterally with respect to the length of the material, but harder when the material is to be sectioned and the cut ends subjected to further processing.
According to this invention, such handling is simplified and made convenient by a conveyor apparatus comprising a line of successive turntables along and on which a long piece of material can be laid; means for cutting the piece material into sections between each pair of adjacent turntables in such a manner as to allow relative separation by rotation of the cut surfaces of sections so cut, and means for rotating the sections so cut through a defined rotation angle in order to present their cut surface laterally (transversely) or approximately laterally with respect to the direction of motion and the line of the conveyor, to allow processing of the cut ends. Preferably the apparatus also includes arrangements to hold the turntables in steady orientation except when they are under operation by rotating means, and means for rotating them at a desired stage of the operation by some desired angle, e.g. 90.degree..
It will be clear to the reader of the above description that the cutting needs to be done in such a way that the cut sections can be independently rotated past each other, so that the cut surfaces of the sections can be separated without signficantly fouling each other. Two examples of ways of achieving this are (a) to make an oblique cut (see FIG. 1 below) or (b) especially for example in the case of soft or compressible materials, to use a thick wedge-shaped cutter which at the same time as cutting creates a gap between the cut sections.
This arrangement of apparatus and handling processes according to the invention has been found useful in allowing the cut ends of the sections to be further treated by auxiliary apparatus located at the side of the conveyor, e.g. apparatus for inserting sticks into the cut ends of an extruded product. The arrangement according to the invention thus allows the use for this purpose of auxiliary apparatus of a form which in itself is conventional. Thus a requirement of awkward processing in the line of the conveyor is avoided.
In one embodiment, the invention provides a plate conveyor suitable for operation in a freezer tunnel, incorporating plates which are easily exchangeable with (for example) conveyor units incorporating turntables as described above. Such exchangeability can be facilitated for example by arranging for the plates to be removably fixed to the conveyor substructure by means of a releasable lug-and-flange fixing located at one side of each removable plate. This can allow release of the plate by upward rotation about the fixing, and its replacement, after location of the fixing, by downward rotation about the fixing.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the releaseable plates can incorporate turntable units as described above.
The invention is illustrated for example in one embodiment by reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 of the drawings shows a fragmentary and diagrammatic plan view of three plate units of a conveyor according to one embodiment of the invention, incorporating turntable units of which four are shown.
FIGS. 2a and 2b show respectively a plan and elevation of a turntable unit from the conveyor of FIG. 1.
Referring to FIG. 1, plates 1,2,3 are shown, and form part of a plate conv
REFERENCES:
patent: 2732925 (1956-01-01), Pechy
patent: 2779453 (1957-01-01), Lippert et al.
patent: 3169494 (1965-02-01), Jernigan et al.
patent: 4159612 (1979-07-01), Johnson et al.
Hoag Willard E.
Thomas J. Lipton
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