Confection conveyor
AssigneeFMC Corporation
InventorStephen D. Cross
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An improved carriage for use in a conveyor for transferring frozen confections includes a pair of scissorable tong-receiving arms. A pair of tongs are detachably mounted on the arms in a manner which facilitates rapid replacement of the tongs. Each tong is pivotable on a pin extending transversely of the arms and is held by a spring clip that remains attached to the arm during removal and replacement of the tong. Preferably, the clip is generally U-shaped and attached to the arm such that the inner wall thereof abuts against the inner surface of the tong. Such inner wall has an inwardly bent tip which snaps into place against the tong when the tong has been pivoted into alignment with the arm.
Claims7
An improved conveyor for conveying frozen confections of the type including endless conveyor means, a plurality of carriages mounted in series on said endless conveyor means, each of said carriages including a pair of tong-receiving arms pivotally mounted for scissor type of movement, and a tong mounted to the outer end of each of said pair of arms, said tongs including means at their outer ends for grasping the frozen confection to be conveyed, wherein the improvement comprises means for detachably mounting each of the tongs to an associated arm of the carriage, said mounting means comprising spring clip means provided at the outer end of the arm, said spring clip means including a resilient upstanding wall terminating in an inwardly projecting upper end portion and a second upstanding wall opposed to and spaced from said resilient upstanding wall, and pin means for pivotally and detachably connecting said tong to said arm for rotation about an axis which is transverse of said arm and inwardly of said spring clip means, said tong having a shape to be received between the upstanding walls of said spring clip means with said inwardly projecting portion of said resilient wall normally maintaining said tong in alignment with said arm but permitting said tong to be pivoted in one direction on said pin means to disengage the tong from said spring clip means, said tong being pivotable in the opposite direction on said pin means and permit said tong to be snapped into place within said spring clip means.
An improved carriage for a transfer conveyor adapted to transfer products, such as frozen confections, from a first area to a second area, said carriage including a carriage frame, a pair of tong-receiving arms, a tong mounted to the end of each arm, each arm being pivotally connected at its rear end to said carriage frame so that the arms are mounted in opposed relationship to pivot in a plane in a scissor-like manner, and means for detachably mounting the tongs to the outer ends of said arms including a spring clip fixed to the projecting end of each arm, each spring clip including a resilient wall extending in parallel spaced relationship to a fixed wall at the projecting end of the associated arm, and means associated with each arm and tong for pivotally interconnecting the tong and arm to permit the tong to rotate about an axis which is normal to said resilient wall fixed wall and parallel to the plane of motion of the arms and to be received therebetween, said resilient wall flexing to permit said tong to be snapped into alignment with said arm.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.