GB771054A - Improvements in wrapping machines - Google Patents

Abstract

771,054. Wrapping-machines. ROSE BROS. (GAINSBOROUGH) Ltd. June 16 1955 [June 24, 1954], No. 18504/54. Class 94(1). [Also in Group XXX] A wrapping machine of the kind in which sweets are fed by a conveyer band in close file end-to-end to a transfer station at which the leading sweet passes into the pocket of a rotatable wheel, either directly from the end of the file or by being transferred laterally by a pusher, comprises gripping means adapted, as the leading sweet reaches the transfer station temporarily to arrest forward movement of all but the leading sweet so as to allow relative longitudinal. movement between the leading sweet and the remainder to separate the end face of that sweet from that of the succeeding sweet. In Figs. 1 and 2, the leading sweet 11 of a file is fed horizontally between guides 10 by a, conveyer belt 12 directly into a pocket 13 in a wheel 14. A pair of grippers 16 then grip the second sweet in the file and move backward to draw the remaining sweets away from the leading sweet. The wheel 14 is then rotated one step to position the next pocket in line with the belt 12 and to carry the leading sweet towards a further transfer station at which it is transferred by a pusher 27 to a pocket in a wrapping wheel 26. The grippers are pivotally and slidably mounted on a shaft 17 and spring- urged towards each other. Rollers 18 carried by extensions 19 on the grippers engage an opening cam 21. The grippers are moved forwardly by an arm 22 operated by a cam 24 and rearwardly by a spring 20. In a modification, Fig. 3, the leading sweet 11 is arrested by a movable stop 25 before it has completely entered the pocket 13 and a cam-operated trapping member 127 is then moved into an engagement with the second sweet. The stop is then withdrawn to free the leading sweet for further movement into the pocket by the belt 12. In a further modification, Fig. 6, the leading sweet 11 is arrested by a, movable stop when opposite a pocket 29 in an intermittently-rotatable wrapping wheel 31. The stop is then moved to push the file backwards, the second sweet is trapped by a member 33 and the stop returned to its original position to allow the leading sweet to be moved forward again by the belt 12. The sweet is then transferred to the pocket 29 by a pusher 32. Alternatively, the stop may arrest the leading sweet in advance of the transfer position, the trapping member operating as before and the stop being retracted to allow final movement of the sweet to the transfer position. Specifications 738,302 and 739,911 are referred to.