GB672742A - Improvements in machines for moulding and wrapping plastic material, for example-butter - Google Patents

Abstract

672,742. Wrapping butter. BRECKNELL, MUNRO & ROGERS, Ltd., and LAWSON, C. W. Oct. 23, 1950 [Oct. 22, 1949], No. 27163/49. Class 94(i) [Also in Group V] Butter is fed into a chamber 5 in an intermittently rotating moulding cylinder 1 by a screw 10. The cylinder is rotated through 90 degrees and the moulded block of butter is expelled from the chamber by a piston 6 into a wrapping pocket 30, the side walls 34, 36 of which temporarily open out by means of a cam 41 to receive the block. The pocket 30 is held stationary while the cylinder is rotated to move the piston 6, which has a cylindrical end surface, past the wall 34 of the pocket with a continuous wiping action. After the cylinder has moved through about 30 degrees, the wrapping element 3 then rotates through 90 degrees at a faster rate than the cylinder so that they travel through a quarter revolution in the same time. Prior to the butter being expelled into a pocket, a wrapper is lifted from a magazine 18 by a suction roller 16 and placed on guide rails 17. The lefthand end of the wrapper is then seized by a gripper 19 which moves it across the mouth of the wrapping pocket, and then releases it. As the piston 6 moves across the front wall 34, a spring-mounted blade 35 moves across to fold the left-hand side of the wrapper over the block. The righthand side of the wrapper is folded over the block by a member 45 pivoted about an axis 4. This member starts to move under the block, just before the wrapping element 3 begins its quarter revolution, in order that may help the blade 35 to support the block. The wrapping of the ends is completed, the block, compressed and the fully wrapped blocks delivered to a conveyer. The piston rods 58, Fig. 6, of the pistons 6 have slidable end members 61, to enable the length of each piston rod to be varied and thus individually adjust the amount of butter each chamber receives. The innermost positions of all the pistons, and thus the depth of the chambers, are simultaneously adjusted by a wheel 71 which effects longitudinal movement of a member 69, Fig. 6, having four wedge surfaces. The pistons are moved inwardly and outwardly at their charging and discharging positions by fixed and movable cams 88, 95, 79 and 85 which engage rollers 63 on the piston rods. The mechanism for intermittently rotating the moulding cylinder 1 is described with reference to Figs 12, 12a (not shown). Lubricating oil may be contained in a sealed casing 97.