GB873329A - Improvements in and relating to an apparatus for filling liquid or plastic material into freezing cells of a refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

873,329. Ice-making. HOYER, O. G. Dec. 11, 1959, No. 42273/59. Class 29 A machine for filling ice-cream into the freezing cells of a refrigerator comprises a vertically movable filling unit (Fig. 2) having a plurality of filling tubes 22 for pouring the material into the cells 2 from the bottom thereof, means, 101, 102, 104, for moving the filling unit up and down, a pump 9 (Fig. 3) associated with 'each filling tube 22, a common drive-shaft 12 for all the pumps, driving means for the shaft including a clutch 55 (Fig. 7) and means for engaging and disengaging the clutch in timed relation with the movement of the filling unit. The machine is similar to that described in Specification 744,583 and includes a rotary table 1 with radial lines of filling cells 2, which sit in an annular freezing tank 3 surrounded by an insulating wall 4. The filling head is described in Specification 860,529 and includes three side-by-side tanks 23 each of which feeds a different ice-cream to one of the three pumps 9 associated with each cell 2, each pump having a separate filling tube 22. Alternatively, the cells may be filled with only one type of material (Fig. 11, not shown). The drive to pump-shaft 12 is taken through an infinitely-variable belt-gearing 121, 122 and bevel-gearing 115, 116, to a vertical shaft 64 extending throughout the length of a housing 73, 87, 81 which forms part of the filling head and is moved up and down by a bellcrank 103, 104 rocked by a cam 102 on a continuously-driven shaft 101. The upper part 73 of the housing contains a magnetic clutch (Fig. 7) which transmits the drive through bevel-gearing 70, 71 to the pumpshaft 9. The clutch is actuated electrically by switches 155, 156 (Fig. 14) controlled by a cam 157 on a shaft 146 rotating synchronously with the main shaft 101. To ensure that ice-cream flow stops suddenly at the end of the upward movement of the filling head, the portion 21 of the head above each filling tube includes a retractable plunger 45 in a bore 46 (Figs. 3 and 14) perpendicular to the direction of flow and these plungers can be retracted in unison by a splined shaft 47 engaging all the plungers 45 and driven by a pneumatic ram 50 controllable by solenoids 181, 182 in the circuits associated with the switches 155, 156. Movement of the head can be arrested, at will, by the manual closing of a switch 194 which actuates a ram 113 to lock the bell-crank 103,104 out of contact with the cam 102. Specification 800,105 also is referred to.