Servo driven ice cream sandwich assembly and wrapping machine

An apparatus for the preparation of a sandwich product comprising:

• a base having an infeed end and a discharge end;
• a sandwich product assembly station comprising an extruder nozzle mounted for discharge of a comestible filling material in the vertically downward direction;
• paired wafer trays for feeding wafers against opposite sides of said extruder nozzle;
• a vertically reciprocable wafer pusher driven by a first servo motor have a wafer pusher blade means cooperating therewith to urge wafers downward into contact with said comestible filling material;
• a sandwich indexing means comprising an indexing wheel rotatably mounted vertically below said sandwich product assembly station, said indexing wheel defining a plurality of circumferentially positioned pockets for receiving and transferring assembled sandwiches for conveyance toward said discharge end, wherein said sandwich indexing means is driven by a second servo motor;
• a conveyor assembly having an input end extending from said indexing means and an output end proximal said discharge end, wherein said conveyor assembly is driven by a third servo motor, said conveyor assembly comprising:
• a movable conveyor means for receiving said sandwiches from said indexing wheel and urging said sandwiches toward said discharge end, including a plurality of lugs projecting from said conveyor means and configured to cooperate with said indexing wheel to engage and urge said sandwiches out of said pockets, and a conveyor track means disposed medially of said conveyor means;
• a wrapping assembly located at the output end of said movable conveyor means, said wrapping assembly comprising a wrapping head having an upper platform, a shaft for the upward travel of a sandwich product to said platform, an elevator means driven by a fourth servo motor for delivery of said sandwich product to said platform, side tucking means reciprocably mounted adjacent said shaft wherein said side tucking means is driven by a fifth servo motor, and pusher bar reciprocably mounted adjacent said platform for urging the wrapped sandwich product off said elevator and toward said discharge end, wherein said push bar is driven by a sixth servo motor;
• a wrapping feeder means, wherein said wrapping feeder means comprises a wrap roller assembly having a first roller, a second roller and a roller knife, wherein a seventh servo and an eighth servo are configured to drive the first and second rollers independently to feed a wrap to said wrapping assembly, and wherein a ninth servo motor is configured to drive a rotary knife configured to cut said wrap.
• a press plate assembly comprising a top plate and at least one delrin pawl, wherein the sandwich is pushed forward and underneath the top plate and the top plate is configured to cover at least a portion of the sandwich, wherein said derlin pawl is configured to raise up when the sandwich is pushed forward and underneath the top plate and then drop down behind the sandwich to resist movement of said sandwich product in a direction opposite said infeed direction when the push bar is withdrawn;
• and
• a controller communicatively connected to each servo motor configured to control the servo motors and timing of each servo motor relative to each other according to a pre-determined program,
• wherein said base comprises a vertical wall member, and wherein said sandwich product assembly station, said sandwich conveyor means, said sandwich wrapping assembly and said conveyor slide means are all mounted in cantilevered relationship on said base.