US3762306A - Sandwich making machines - Google Patents

Abstract

Successive pieces of baked dough are moved along a main static conveyor surface by fingers projecting upward through a longitudinal slot in the surface. The fingers are connected to and moved by an endless chain. They consist of two types alternately positioned along the chain. One type is used for the coated pieces and has a long upwardly projecting finger. The other type is used for the uncoated pieces and is characterized by a relatively short finger and a horizontal projection sufficient to support the piece. After the alternate pieces are coated, they are moved to a station at which there is a short static conveyor surface above the main surface. Here the chain and main surface approach each other so that the fingers are raised with respect to the main surface. The coated pieces remain on the main surface and pass below the upper surface, but the uncoated pieces are raised to the level of the upper surface. Here they are inverted onto the upper surface by a swinging hook inverter. The fingers of the coated pieces project through a longitudinal slot in the upper surface so as to advance the inverted uncoated pieces coincidentally with the advancement of a coated piece on the main surface; whereupon, when the uncoated piece reaches the end of the upper conveyor, it drops onto the coated piece.

Description

United States Patent m1 Staples 1H1 3,762,306 Oct. 2, 1973 SANDWICH MAKING MACHINES John Arthur Staples, Peterborough Pe28, England [73] Assignee: United Biscuits, Limited, Isleworth,

Middlesex, England {22] Filed: July 26, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 165,970

{75'} Inventor:

Primary Examiner.lohn Petrakes Assistant ExaminerAlan I. Cantor Attorney-Howard H. Darbo et al.

57 ABSTRACT Successive pieces of baked dough are moved along a main static conveyor surface by fingers projecting upward through a longitudinal slot in the surface. The fingers are connected to and moved by an endless chain. They consist of two types alternately positioned along the chain. One type is used for the coated pieces and has a long upwardly projecting finger. The other type is used for the uncoated pieces and is characterized by a relatively short linger and a horizontal projection sufficient to support the piece. After the alternate pieces are coated, they are moved to a station at which there is a short static conveyor surface above the main surface. Here the chain and main surface approach each other so that the fingers are raised with respect to the main surface. The coated pieces remain on the main surface and pass below the upper surface, but the uncoated pieces are raised to the level of the upper surface. Here they are inverted onto the upper surface by a swinging hook inverter. The fingers of the coated pieces project through a longitudinal slot in the upper surface so as to advance the inverted uncoated pieces coincidentally with the advancement of a coated piece on the main surface; whereupon, when the uncoated piece reaches the end of the upper conveyor, it drops onto the coated piece.

4 Claims, 11 Drawing Figures PATENTED BET 21 75 SHEET 10F s FI G.1

PATENTED UB1 2 SHEET 2 BF 5 FIG. 10

1 I J r I 1 SANDWICH MAKING MACHINES BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In order to form sandwich biscuits from a spaced succession of like individual biscuits passing along a conveyor from a common supply all in the same aspect, filling is applied to alternate biscuits only.

The intervening biscuits are turned over while still in contact with pushers which have already been moving them along a stationary track and are deposited on an upper track from which they are each in turn pushed in vertical alignment with the succeeding filled biscuit to drop thereon to form the sandwich.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to sandwich-making machines for making sandwiches from baked dough pieces.

The object of the present Application is to make such machines more suitable for handling fragile pieces and consists essentially in using a conveyor pusher as the fulcrum for turning such pieces over about their trailing edges in their direction of movement.

DESIGNATION OF THE FIGURES FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic side elevation of a sandwich biscuit making machine embodying the invention,

FIGS. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 are fragmentary elevational views in diagrammatic form showing successive operational positions of the machine of FIG. 1 in side elevation,

FIG. 7 shows the equipment utilizedin FIGS. 4 6 enlarged and in greater detail, FIG. 8 is a vertical section taken at line 8-8 of FIG. 7, showing two operational channels side by side,

FIG. 9 is a plan view of FIG. 8,and

FIG. 10 and 11 are vertical sections taken at lines l-- 10 and 11-11 respectively of FIG. 7.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Individual biscuits aremoved along a fixed sheet metal conveyor surface 1, FIG. 1, by spaced upstanding pusher fingers 2,3 carried by an endless conveyor chain 4 upwards within an axial longitudinal slot in the base of the surface 1. I i

The machine will usually have a plurality of parallel conveyors and ancillary equipment.

Successive pusher fingers 2, 3 rising from the lower run of the endless conveyor chain 4 push successive biscuits from the bottom of a single biscuit stack in a magazine 6 to which are supplied biscuits stacked with their eventual outer surface facing downwards. This is illustrated in FIG. 2.

Filling is deposited on alternate biscuits conveyed by pusher fingers 3 by conventional coating equipment indicated at 7. Thereafter the intervening uncoated biscuits carried'by pusher fingers 2 are turned over backwards about their trailing edges.

In application, Ser. No. 162,062, of a prior inventor the fulcrum for the trailing edge was the leading edge of the succeeding coated biscuit.

In the present arrangement the shoulder of the pusher finger 2 with which an uncoated biscuit is in contact acts as the fulcrum for turning the biscuit over.

As before there is a lateral lifting'flange 8 at the lower end of a swing or crook 9. Member 9 is mounted on and is freely pivotal about a horizontal spindle in a stationary support. The lifting flange 8 receives the leading edge of the biscuit and swings upwards due to the biscuit movement, pulling the moving biscuit edge upwards and to the rear until the biscuit passes the vertical and drops'backwards; see FIGS. 4, 5, and 6. Prior to the time that this turning took place, the pushers 2 raised the uncoated biscuits to a level above the conveyor surface 1 and about at the elevation of a conveyor surface 11.

In position to receive the falling biscuit is the upper horizontal conveyor surface ll, above the conveyor surface 1 along which the coated biscuits pass. The uncoated reversed biscuit is now behind its pusher finger 2 (as seen in FIG. 6) and is picked up by the succeeding pusher finger 3, already pushing the succeeding coated biscuit, so that both biscuits are then pushed along one above the other. When the end of the upper conveyor surface 11 is reached, the uncoated biscuit drops onto the coated lower biscuit to form the sandwich as indicated in FIG. 6.

The sequence of operations described above can be controlled in various ways, and the preferred manner illustrated in the accompanying drawings will now be described in detail.

FIG. 2 shows the biscuits with their flat eventually inner surfaces uppermost in the stack in magazine 6. The biscuits are taken from the bottom of the stack one by one by the successive pusher fingers 2, 3, 2, 3 etc.

It will be seen that two forms of pusher finger occur in sequence.

The pusher fingers 2 have a supporting surface normally aligned with the conveyor surface 1 and a pusher shoulder sufficiently high to push a single biscuit. The pusher fingers 3 normally extend above and below the conveyor surface 1 and have a shoulder high enough to push two stacked biscuits when free to do so, as will be seen later. Pusher fingers 2 are large enough in the horizontal directions to support and carry biscuits independently of conveyor surface 1 when the biscuit is raised above that surface as described below.

FIG. 3 shows the biscuit passing under the known coating equipment 7 comprising a hollow cylinder 12 formed with four equispaced radial cylindrical apertures therein containing pistons 13 controlled from a central shaft by eccentrics arranged to withdraw each piston as it passes under a filling reservoir 14 so that the piston sucks a pat of filling into its aperture.

The gradual outward stroke of each piston forces out a pat of filling. When the piston is over the biscuit as shown in FIG. 3 the pat of filling is deposited byscraper 15 onto the biscuit. The piston spacings equal the spacings of alternate biscuits.

Beyond the coating equipment 7 is the biscuit turning device 8 10. It will be seen fromFIGS. 1 and 4 that the conveyor surface 1 gradually dips as it approaches the turning device 8 10, while the upper conveyor surface 11 is horizontally in line with the previous part of the surface 1.

Thus the pusher fingers 2, which follow a horizontal course and are adapted to support a biscuit, carry the uncoated biscuits from the supporting surface 1 to the supporting surface '11 above the level of surface 1 along which the coated biscuits are still being pushed-by the shoulders of the pusher-fingers 3. The fingers 3 have a height which is sufficient to span both surfaces 1, 11.

In the path of the pusher flngers'2 is the lateral lifting flange 8 of the L shaped swing or crook 9. The front edge of each uncoated biscuit rides in turn onto the support flange 8 as the crook 9 swings down about its spindle after the previous biscuit fell over backwards.

Comparing FIGS. 5 and 6 it will be seen that as the biscuit passes the vertical just after the position shown in FIG. 5, the pusher finger 2 continues to draw the trailing edge forward until what was the leading edge is well over the conveyor surface 11 whereupon the pusher finger 2 disengages from what was the trailing edge. The uncoated biscuit is left lying on channel 11 ready to be picked up and pushed along by the top of the long succeeding pusher finger 3 which now completely protrudes above the conveyor surface 1 and also extends above upper surface 11 due to the dip of the conveyor surface I.

As shown in FIG. 5, the succeeding pusher finger 3 pushes the two biscuits along, one above the other, until the upper uncoated biscuit reaches the end of surface 11 whereupon said biscuit drops cleanly onto the coated biscuit below. The accurate closure of the sandwich is assisted by a stationary top guide 16 which holds the upper biscuit from inclining downwards until it is about completely off the end of the surface 11 (FIG. 6);

The completed sandwich now passes under a pressure member 17 (FIG. 7) which presses the upper biscuit onto the filling and determines that the sandwich has the correct thickness.

It will be seen that the pusher fingers must simultaneously extend through slots in both surfaces 1, l l. The cross-sectional design of the equipment for this purpose is shown in FIGS. 8 11 which are cross-sections of the enlarged and detailed side elevation of the sandwich-forming part of the machine shown in FIG. 7.

The surfaces 1 comprise spaced longitudinal runners 21 of sheet metal each carrying a longitudinal wall 22, adjacent pairs of which define a way, including surface I, having sides guiding the biscuits such as 23, FIG. 8. The biscuits are normally carried by the runners 21, but in FIG. 8 they are carried by the pusher fingers 2 since the runners 21 of conveyor surface 1 have moved downwards at point 8 8. The pusher fingers 2 and 3 for a number of parallel ways are carried by cross beams 18 secured to the conveyor chain 4.

The swinging crooks 9 are carried vertically offcenter by right-angle supports 24 journalled on shaft 10. The supports 24 are slotted as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, and are located by pins extending horizontally from a rotatable frame member 19.

The bottom of crooks 9 are bifurcated to straddle the tops of the pusher fingers 2, 3.

FIG. 10 shows the two superposed conveyor surfaces 1, 11 carrying coated and uncoated biscuits respec tively, between common side walls 27 depending from a gantry 28.

FIG. 11 shows a completed sandwich being compressed between the base of conveyor surface 1 and the pressure member 17 while travelling under control of pusher finger 3.

I claim:

I. In a biscuit sandwich making machine for making sandwiches from a plurality of biscuit pieces, which machine comprises a first generally horizontal static conveyor surface with a longitudinal slot therein, an endless conveyor having a run thereof below said surface, said conveyor having spaced pusher fingers upstanding through said longitudinal slot, said endless conveyor moving said fingers in a path in a given direction with respect to said static surface, means at a first position along said path to deliver biscuit pieces to said path so that said fingers push biscuit pieces along said static conveyor surface, filling depositing means at a second position along said path in said direction from said first position for coating biscuit pieces which are in front of alternate pusher fingers, and an inverter device positioned at a third position along said path in said direction from the second position for inverting the alternate uncoated biscuit pieces onto the coated pieces, said inverter device comprising a finger pivotally mounted above said conveyor surface, extending downwardly from said mounting, and having a lip at its lower end, which lip extends in the opposite of said direction, the improvement comprising:

at said third position there being a second static conveyor surface above and approximately parallel to said first conveyor surface, said second surface having a slot therein parallel to the slot in the first conveyor surface, the difference in elevation between said surfaces forming a space only slightly greater than the height of a coated biscuit piece, said second surface having an entering end and a discharge end in said direction from said entering end,

said lip of said inverter device being at about the ele vation of the second static conveyor surface,

said endless conveyor means sequentially moving the coated biscuit pieces through said space between the two static conveyor surfaces and moving the uncoated biscuit pieces to the entering end of the second static conveyor surface at about the level thereof so that at said third position said inverting device deposits said uncoated biscuit pieces in inverted position onto said second surface, said pusher fingers pushing one of said coated pieces being sufficiently long to extend through the slot in said second surface to engage and to push the inverted uncoated piece ahead of it whereby as the uncoated piece reaches said discharge end it descends onto the coated piece being pushed by the same finger.

2. A machine as set forth in claim 1, wherein the pusher fingers normally pushing the uncoated pieces have carrier means forming a part thereof to support and carry said uncoated pieces, said run of said conveyor means and said first surface approaching each other at a location adjacent said entering end of said second surface whereby the fingers are raised with respect to said first surface and the carrier means lifts the uncoated pieces above said first surface.

3. A machine as set forth in claim 2, wherein said second surface is relatively short in length and said entering end is about at said third position.

4. A machine as set forth in claim 1 including a static guide member above said second surface at said discharge end a distance just sufficient to permit the uncoated piece to move between the second surface and the guide member whereby the uncoated piece is held substantially parallel to said second surface until it about completely leaves said second surface.

* l il

Claims (4)

1. In a biscuit sandwich making machine for making sandwiches from a plurality of biscuit pieces, which machine comprises a first generally horizontal static conveyor surface with a longitudinal slot therein, an endless conveyor having a run thereof below said surface, said conveyor having spaced pusher fingers upstanding through said longitudinal slot, said endless conveyor moving said fingers in a path in a given direction with respect to said static surface, means at a first position along said path to deliver biscuit pieces to said path so that said fingers push biscuit pieces along said static conveyor surface, filling depositing means at a second position along said path in said Direction from said first position for coating biscuit pieces which are in front of alternate pusher fingers, and an inverter device positioned at a third position along said path in said direction from the second position for inverting the alternate uncoated biscuit pieces onto the coated pieces, said inverter device comprising a finger pivotally mounted above said conveyor surface, extending downwardly from said mounting, and having a lip at its lower end, which lip extends in the opposite of said direction, the improvement comprising: at said third position there being a second static conveyor surface above and approximately parallel to said first conveyor surface, said second surface having a slot therein parallel to the slot in the first conveyor surface, the difference in elevation between said surfaces forming a space only slightly greater than the height of a coated biscuit piece, said second surface having an entering end and a discharge end in said direction from said entering end, said lip of said inverter device being at about the elevation of the second static conveyor surface, said endless conveyor means sequentially moving the coated biscuit pieces through said space between the two static conveyor surfaces and moving the uncoated biscuit pieces to the entering end of the second static conveyor surface at about the level thereof so that at said third position said inverting device deposits said uncoated biscuit pieces in inverted position onto said second surface, said pusher fingers pushing one of said coated pieces being sufficiently long to extend through the slot in said second surface to engage and to push the inverted uncoated piece ahead of it whereby as the uncoated piece reaches said discharge end it descends onto the coated piece being pushed by the same finger.

2. A machine as set forth in claim 1, wherein the pusher fingers normally pushing the uncoated pieces have carrier means forming a part thereof to support and carry said uncoated pieces, said run of said conveyor means and said first surface approaching each other at a location adjacent said entering end of said second surface whereby the fingers are raised with respect to said first surface and the carrier means lifts the uncoated pieces above said first surface.

3. A machine as set forth in claim 2, wherein said second surface is relatively short in length and said entering end is about at said third position.

4. A machine as set forth in claim 1 including a static guide member above said second surface at said discharge end a distance just sufficient to permit the uncoated piece to move between the second surface and the guide member whereby the uncoated piece is held substantially parallel to said second surface until it about completely leaves said second surface.

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