Pattern former for wrapped bakery products

Abstract

A pattern former for assembling wrapped bakery products into predetermined patterns includes a vacuum turntable comprising a perforated plate which is driven by a belt extending around the periphery of the vacuum turntable and actuated by a motor. A first transfer apparatus includes a pusher plate which moves groups of wrapped bakery products onto the vacuum turntable and which retracts to facilitate the formation of a subsequent group of wrapped bakery products as a previous group is being transferred to the vacuum turntable. A second transfer apparatus includes a pusher plate which moves assembled patterns of wrapped bakery products from the vacuum turntable into bakery trays and which is retractable to the facilitate the assembly of a subsequent pattern of wrapped bakery products as a previous pattern is being transferred to a bakery tray.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.