GB1305028A - - Google Patents

Abstract

1305028 Making sandwich biscuits UNITED BISCUITS Ltd 28 Sept 1970 [30 July 1969] 38132/69 Heading A2A [Also in Division B8] Pieces of biscuit for the manufacture of sandwich biscuits are delivered by a conveyer 5, Fig. 5, over fixed guide rods 6 to a main conveyer comprising a stationary surface 2 slotted for the passage of pusher fingers 1X, 1Y which are mounted on an endless chain and convey the biscuits along the surface 2. A milled or roughed part 4 of the surface 2 prevents sliding of the leading edge of a biscuit delivered as shown at Bl, and a stationary plate 3 arrests any biscuit that lodges on top of a pusher finger whereby that biscuit is subsequently engaged by the succeeding finger. The fingers convey the biscuits to a station at which a coating of cream &c is applied to alternate biscuits. Further stations are provided, as in Specification 1262472, at which a pivoted finger turns over each uncoated biscuit and places it on the following coated biscuit, the top biscuit of each sandwich so formed is aligned over the bottom biscuit, and the sandwich is compacted by downward pressure. The coating station comprises a cream hopper 8, Fig. 11, with a rotary mixer 10, and a rotary mould/ejection roller 7 which has diametrically opposite recesses (not shown) in its surface. A plunger in each recess is retracted by a fixed, adjustable cam as the recess moves under the hopper so that the recess is filled with cream. After the recess has emerged from the hopper, past a scraper 15, the plunger is released so that the cream filling for an individual biscuit stands proud of the roller surface to be removed by a scraper 34 which is pivotally mounted so that it becomes effective to remove the cream only if lifted by a biscuit. If a biscuit is missing, the cream remains on the roller until removed by a roller 12 which returns it to the hopper. Means are provided to lift the scraper 34 slightly in synchronism with the passage of the fingers 1 so that if a biscuit is missing the scraper does not foul the corresponding finger. The conveyer 5 and subsequent parts of the apparatus are adapted to deal with seventeen parallel files of biscuits.