GB2103465A - Pie-making apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

Conveying means is provided in the form of a multiplicity of counter-rotating turntables (11 to 19) arranged in a sinuous path between an input (25) and an output (28). Each turntable has peripheral pockets (20) for locating containers and guides (27) pass the containers from one turntable to the next. Pastry (30) is fed by a conveyor (31) and hoppers (33) to containers in the pockets of one turntable (13). Formers (60) actuated by a cam (68) form the pastry into casings at the next turntable (14). Fillings (35) are added through hoppers (39) and then consolidated by plungers (160) at turntable (16) and pastry lids are formed from a sheet of pastry (79) and pressed onto the filled casings by formers (260) at turntable (18). <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Pie-making apparatus This invention relates to pie-making apparatus.

A pork pie conists, usually, of a casing having a meat filling and closed by a lid, the casing and lid being made of pie crust. In manufacture, a pastry casing is formed and then filled, a pastry lid is pressed on the casing and trimmed and the whole is then cooked in an oven.

Commercially, it is usual to provide a production line having several stations feb by an indexing conveyor. The conveyor has formations for receiving containers or "hoops", which are containers without bases. The containers or hoops are manually placed on the conveyor and are indexed to the next station at which a plug of pastry is inserted. At subsequent stations, the pastry is formed into a casing in the container or hoop, the casing is filled, the filling is compressed, the pastry lid is placed on the casing, the lid is pressed in position and trimmed, glaze is added, if required, and the pie is passed to an oven to be cooked.

The indexing nature of the apparatus limits the speed at which the production line can be operated and it is also essential for automatic operations that the conveyor is stopped at precisely the desired position. This is difficult to achieve in practice. The present invention seeks to avoid these problems and provides apparatus, which in the preferred embodiment, can operate as much as three times the rate of production of indexing apparatus.

In accordance with this invention, there is provided pie-making apparatus comprising a multiplicity of work stations and conveying means for passing pie-making containers through said stations, and including means at one of said stations operable to shape a pie casing from pastry being carried by the conveying means, the conveying means comprising several turntables each of which has locating means for locating a multiplicity of containers, the turntables being alternately counter-rotatable and each adapted for passing containers from one turntable to the next so as to convey them from an input to an output of the conveying means, and drive means operable to rotate said turntables continuously.

Reference is now made to the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure lisa plan view of pie-making apparatus according to the invention; Figure 2 is a side view of the apparatus; and Figure 3 is a detail view showing a casing forming device of the apparatus.

As apparent from Figure lithe apparatus comprises conveying means in the form of several turntables 11 to 19 arranged substantially in peripheral contact along a sinuous line. Each turntable has pockets 20 spaced around the periphery, each pocket being shaped and sized to locate a pastry-caseforming container. Drive means (not shown) is pro vided for continuously rotating alternate turntables in counter-rotating directions. the pockets 20 of the turntables 13,14,15,16, and 18 are obscured by overlying apparatus. All the turntables, however have the same construction and additional reference is now made to Figure 3 in this respect.

One of the turntables 14 is shown in Figure 3. The turntable is made up of lower and upper superim posed discs 50, 51. The upper disc 51 is provided with peripheral recesses to define the pockets 20 and each pocket has a peripheral undercut 52 defining a flange 53. This flange is also illustrated in dash iines on the first turntable 11 in Figure 1.

Each container comprises a plastics, disc-shaped base 54, which slots into a pocket 20 and engages beneath the flange 53. The container also comprises a separable "hoop" 55, which seats on a base and is located by the flange 53.

The turntable is carried by a spindle 58 rotatably mounted in the bearings 59, 60. Each such shaft carries, beneath the turntable, a gear (not shown) and the gears mesh for effecting the counter-rotation of the turntables from a common drive motor.

A conveyor 21 is provided between the first turntable 11 and the lastturntable 19. The pockets of the turntables are kept full of container bases, which are returned from the last turntable 19 to the first turntable 11 by the conveyor 21, a screw 21a serving to push the bases onto the turntable.

The input 25 to the first turntable 11 includes a conveyor 26 and screw 26a by which "hoops" are fed to the pockets to engage with the bases. Guides 27 guide the resulting containers from the first turntable 11 to the second turntable which transfers them to the third turntable 13.

Pastry is fed to the containers on the third turntable 13, either manually or automatically, and the containers are then passed to a fourth turntable 14, on which the pastry in the containers is moulded into pastry casings. The casings are filled either manually or automatically on the fifth turntable 15 and the fillings are compressed on the sixth turntable 16. On the seventh turntable, pastry lids may be manually placed onto the filled casings, or this turntable may be a transfer turntable to the eighth turntable where lids are pressed down on the casings. In the embodiment shown, lids are automatically provided on the eighth turntable. The lastturntabletransfers the pies to an output 28, where the hoops with the pies are removed from the bases and passed to an oven for baking. The bases are cleaned and then returned by the conveyor 21.Guides such as 27 are provided to assist transfer of the containers between each pair of adjacent turntables.

Plugs 30 of pastry are fed automatically to the containers on the third turntable 13, in the embodiment shown. The plugs 30 are fed in a single width line by an indexing conveyor 31, so that the plugs are individually fed to a gate 32. A transverse pusher is actuated as each plug reaches the gate 32 to push the plug into a hopper 33. A hopper 33 is provided above each pocket in the turntable 13 to direct a plug of pastry into each container located in the pockets.

The plugs of pastry are shaped on the fourth turns able, in a manner described hereafter, to form casings, and these casings are filled at the fifth turntable. The fillings are also provided as plugs 35 and these are fed by an indexing conveyor 36 to a gate 37 where a transverse pusher 38 pushes the plugs individually into respective hoppers 39 above the pockets of the fifth turntable.

Referring additionally to Figures 2 and 3, above the fourth turntable 14 is provided a disc 40 supported on columns 41,42 upstanding from the turntabie, so that the disc 40 rotates with the turntable.

The disc carries formers 60 around the periphery.

Each former comprises a vertically oriented cyclinder 61 secured to the disc 40 and reciprocably housing a plunger 62. The plunger has a portion 62a projecting upwardly from the cylinder terminating in a part-spherical housing 63 for a bearing ball 64. The lower end part of the plunger projects from the bottom of the cylinder and carries a forming head 65 of generally cylindrical shape, but with a slight taper, the head reducing in diameter away from the plunger. A spring acts on the plunger to bias the forming head to a raised position, as shown.

Each forming head is located above a corresponding pocket 20, so that, in use, the head can be lowered into a hoop 55 to form a pastry casing therein.

Lowering of the head is effected by an arcuate cam 68 carried on a frame 69 and bearing on the ball 64 to move the plunger 62 against the spring bias. The cam actuates each of the formers in turn as the turntable 14 rotates.

The taper of the forming head assists removal of the head without damaging the casing formed and in addition, an end part 65a of the head is capable of slight axial movement relative to the rest of the head to define an annular gap. This gap is open through the head to the exterior of the casing being formed, so as to reduce suction in the casing with resultant risk of damage.

The turntable 51 is subjected to uneven forces at the periphery as the formers are operated. Extra support is provided, directly beneath the pockets 20, by balls 73 rotatable in housings 72, fixed to the bottom of the turntable. The balls 73 ride in a circular bearing track 74.

The filled casings from the turntable 15 are passed to the turntable 16 where the fillings are consolidated. To effect consolidation, there is provided above the turntable 16 a disc 140 carrying pressurising devices 160 in a similar manner to the formers 60 for forming the casings. These pressurising devices are of the same construction as the formers 60, except as regards the operating head, and they are actuated by an arcuate cam 168. There is, however, provided in addition a toothed wheel 170 rotatable with the disc 140 and turntable 16 by being fixed to an upward extension of the shaft 158, which is obscured in Figure 2.The wheel meshes with a cog 171 fixed to the upward plunger extension of each pressurising device 160, so that, as the turntable revolves, each plunger and its head are caused to rotate about there own, common axis. Thisfacili- tates consolidation of the filling and also helps to separate the head from the filling on retraction.

the seventh turntable 17 transfers the filled cas ings to the eighth turntable 18. A sheet of pastry formed is by rollers (not shown) and continuously fed by a conveyor 79 to the eighth turntable for forming pastry lids. The pastry sheet passes over each container as it enters the eighth turntable and the part covering the container is cut off to form a lid, this lid being pressed onto the filled pastry casing in the container and simultaneously shaped.

The cutting, pressing and shaping step is effected by formers 260 carried by a disc 240 in a similar manner to the forming of the casings, the formers being actuated by an arcuate cam 268. The pastry sheet, with the lid cut out of it, is picked up by a further conveyor (not shown) at the opposite side of the container and carried to a scrap bin orto a station for recycling.

The last turntable 19 simplytransfersthe pies in the containers to the output 28.

Claims (11)

1. Pie-making apparatus comprising a multiplicity of work stations and conveying means for passing pie-making containers through said stations, and including means at one of said stations operable to shape a pie casing from pastry being carried by the conveying means, the conveying means comprising several turntables each of which has locating means for locating a multiplicity of containers, the turntables being alternately counter-rotatable and each adapted for passing containers from one turntable to the next so as to convey them from an input to an output of the conveying means, and drive means operable to rotate said turntables continuously.

2. Pie-making apparatus according to Claim 1, wherein each turntable has pockets spaced around the periphery for carrying the pie-making containers.

3. Pie-making apparatus according to Claim 2, wherein each pocket has a rebate for locating a container base and a flange overlying the rebate for locating a hoop which defines the side walls of the container and seats on the base.

4. Pie-making apparatus according to any preceding claim wherein the means for shaping the pie-casing comprises a mu ltipiicity of formers each located above a corresponding locating means for a container in a corresponding turntable, the formers being movable with the turntables, and each former comprising a reciprocable forming head movable towards the corresponding locating means for form- ing a pastry casing from pastry carried in a container at the locating means

5. Pie-making apparatus according to Claim 4, wherein the reciprocation of the forming heads is effected in progression by means of a cam relative to which, the turntable, is movable.

6. Pie-makingapparatus according to Claim4 or 5, comprising a multiplicity of pressurising heads each located above acorresponding locating means in another turntable located between the formers and the output, the pressurising heads being mov able with said otherturntable, pressu rising head being reciprocable and movable towards the corres ponding locating means for compressing filling pre viously added to a pastry casing carried in a con tainer at the locating means and previously formed by one of said formers.

7. Pie-making apparatus according to Claim 6, including conveying means associated with a turntable located between those turntables associated with the formers and the pressurising heads for conveying fillings to the formed casings.

8. Pie-making appartus according to Claim 5,6 ar 7, including conveying means associated with a turntable located between the input and the turntable associated with theformers, for conveying pastry to the containers.

9. Pie-making apparatus according to Claim 5, 6, 7 or 8, including shaping means for pressing pastry lids onto previously formed and filled casings, the shaping means comprising shaped heads each associated with a corresponding locating means of a corresponding turntable and movable therewith, the shaping heads being reciprocable and movable towards the corresponding locating means.

10. Pie-making apparatus according to Claim 6, wherein each pressurising head is rotatable about its own axis and transmission means is provided between the corresponding turntable and eahc head for effecting such rotation as the turntable rotates.

11. Pie-making apparatus constructed substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.