GB1079167A - Apparatus for dispensing food receptacles - Google Patents

Abstract

1,079,167. Unstacking apparatus. CEASE CENTRAL Inc. June 10, 1965, No. 24611/65. Headings B8C and B8S. Apparatus for supporting a stack of food containing receptacles and successively dispensing individual receptacles from the bottom of the stack comprises means for housing a vertical stack of food receptacles, vertically reciprocable members disposed on opposite sides of the stack - carrying stack - engaging members, a pair of parallel rails in a lower portion of the housing to support the lowermost receptacle of a stack, and means for retracting the stack-engaging members after they have moved downward past the rails and for again projecting them after they have moved back up past the rails. The stack, comprising plates 124 and stack bands 125, is supported on dogs 148, between side walls 121. The dogs are pivoted at 149 on support arms, outside the side walls 121, and vertically reciprocable by means of a motor and a single revolution clutch. Retaining flange members 136 each carry a cam slot 152 in which a pin 150, carried by the dog 148, runs. In the rest position, Fig. 11, the dogs engage under spaced lateral lugs 128 on the lowermost band 125 supporting the stack. When the motor is actuated the supports descend, and hence the dogs, lowering the stack. The lugs 128 pass through complementary notches in rail members 130, supported on the walls 121, the rim of the plate 124, however, being arrested by the rail. The dogs continue to descend, carrying the lowermost band, until the pin 150 engages the bottom of the cam slot 152, when the dogs are swung out and the band falls into the bottom of the housing. The supports then rise, with the dogs maintained in the retracted position by over centre gravity action, until the pins engage a shoulder in the cam slot, projecting the dogs back above the rails 130, on which the stack is now resting. Continued upwards movement brings the dog into engagement with the lugs of the next band, lifting the stack off the lowermost plate 124 which is retained on the rails 130 by a hold-down member 154 pivoted on the side walls 121. The plate 124 is then ejected horizontally by a member (60), Fig. 1 (not shown), sliding in guide rails 158, 159, and actuated by a differential pulley mechanism, to deliver the plate to the front of a cabinet, in which more than one stack may be housed. A closure may be provided to seal off the bottom of the housing, into which the bands fall, to maintain a constant temperature in the housing, and may comprise flexible, slidable, curtain members (90), Fig. 3 (not shown), operated by the supports. The stack bands may be provided with integral buffer members (97), Fig. 10 (not shown), to prevent interference between misaligned adjacent stacks.