GB1191743A - Apparatus for Applying Separator Sheets to Food Portions - Google Patents

Abstract

1,191,743. Packaging. HOBART MFG. CO. 25 July, 1967 [8 Aug., 1966], No. 34095/67. Heading B8C. [Also in Divisions B4 and F2] A machine for applying sheets of separator material to successive portions of food, e.g. meat patties has adjustable stops 45 so that a sheet 5 fed on to a pair of trap doors 32a, 32b is arrested in the path of a falling patty P pressed from a mould 22 by piston 24. When the patty is resting on the trap doors they are opened and allow it to fall on to a conveyer 40 that may move each patty away separately or collect them in stacks. Pre-cut sheets may be used or in a preferred arrangement the sheets may be cut from a roll of material just before they are fed. The roll (R), Fig. 2 (not shown) is locked on to a shaft (73) (see also Division F2), the rotation of which is restricted by a thumb screw brake (78) and the web is fed between connected rollers 100, 102. Roller 102 has a blade 125 (see also Division B4) and cuts a sheet once each revolution. Spring biased ball members 129 lift the web from behind the knife and brush 128 flicks the edge up to ensure correct feeding on to conveyer 142 beneath guide plate 130. A small toothed pulley attached to roller 134 and a larger one attached to roller 120 are connected by a timing belt so that conveyer 142 is moved faster than the roller 102 and the sheet is accelerated into its position above the trap doors 32a, 32b. The mould 22 reciprocates between a patty receiving and a discharge position above the trap doors and has a synchronized drive connection to rollers 100, 102 and conveyer 142. Thus each sheet of web material is fed so that it is positioned on the doors ready for the patty.