GB454975A - Method of and apparatus for hardening of icecream and analogous comestible materials by refrigeration - Google Patents

Abstract

454,975. Cooling-chambers for icecream &c. REDDIE, L. N., 6, Bream's Buildings, Fetter Lane, London.-(Vogt Processes, Inc. ; 425, South 5th Street, Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.A.) April 25, 1935, No. 12470. [Class 29] [See also Groups I, VI, XXIII, and XXX] The stream 32 of ice-cream &c. issuing from an extrusion machine and preferably provided with a paper wrapping is fed through an aperture in the wall of a freezing or hardening chamber and conveyed through a tubular casing disposed between two frames 33, 34 and transversely through which cold air is passed. The surface-frozen stream issuing from the casing is cut by a circular saw, which may be heated, into relatively long lengths which fall on to a laterally-moving conveyer D passing through a second casing through which a colder transverse current of air is circulated. Upon exit from the second casing, the completely frozen lengths are further subdivided by a series of reciprocating saws and the pieces pass on to return conveyers and are discharged through another aperture in the wall of the chamber whereupon they are cut into service portions and packed. The conveyers are driven in synchronism through a variable speed gear 271 and reducing gears 273, 275 from a motor 270. The wrapped bar is carried through the tubular casing 78, Figs. 1a, 14, by two coacting and superposed conveyers each including a pair of endless-chains 38 secured to the links of which are brackets 42 carrying finned, trough-like bar supports 44. The rollers 41 of the working runs of the chains are constrained to travel on tracks 35, 35a carried by the frames 33, 34 so that the troughs encircle the bar and grip the overlaps 50 of the paper wrapping. The chains of the lower conveyer carry studs 52, the distance between which depends upon the length of the sections into which the bar is to be cut, adapted to engage projections 103, Figs. 10, 12 on arms 102 keyed to a shaft 101 carried by a counterweighted trolley formed of longitudinal channels 88 and transverse braces 89 and mounted on rollers 91, Figs. 5, 8, and carrying a rotary saw S and its driving-motor 136. The motor is secured to a counterweighted crosshead 133 working in guides formed in brackets 131 supported by the channels 88 and connected to a bell-crank 150 pivoted to a transverse brace of the trolley and carrying rollers 153, 158 which coact respectively with a pawl 154, pivoted on the frame and a transverse channel bar 159 carried by the frame. The part of the ice-cream bar beyond the rotary saw is supported in a groove formed by the normally abutting edges of two longitudinal plates 99 connected by links 96 to the braces 89. In operation, as the trolley reaches the end of its forward movement a roller 105, Fig. 10, on an arm 104 keyed to the shaft 101 engages a stationary cam 109 thus turning the shaft and raising the projections 103 on the arms 102 out of engagement with the studs 52 on the lower conveyer. At the same time the trolley crank 150 engages with the pawl 154 thus depressing the crosshead 133 and the saw and severing the part of the bar supported in the groove. Immediately following the severing operation the plates 99 are opened against the tension of the spring 125, Fig. 8, and given a forward impulse by the engagement of the rollers 130 on the crank-arms 124 with fixed stops 129 on the trolley supporting channels 84 so that the severed length falls into one of the finned troughs 180, Fig. 5, of the laterally-moving conveyer D by which the severed lengths are carried very slowly through the second casing in which the freezing process is completed. The trolley is returned to its initial position by the counterweight 111 against the resistance of a dashpot 121. On emerging from the second casing the frozen bars pass down a plate 207, Fig. 16, into recesses 206 in the peripheries of a series of pairs of slightly spaced wheels 204 and are carried round and severed into shorter lengths by reciprocating saws 205 working in the spaces between each pair of wheels in the manner described in Specification 454,960, [Group XXIII], The short lengths fall on to a conveyer 211, the upper run of which is provided with guard plates 213, which carries them to a discharge conveyer 247 driven at the same speed as the supply conveyers and also provided with guard plates. The discharge conveyer may be driven by an independent motor 276. Specifications 330,886, 332,577, [both in Class 29], 345,850, 350,660 ; 411,788, 424,851, and 424,858, [all in Group XVII], are referred to.