US 4,285,653 AGranted

Apparatus for folding food articles in sheet form

AssigneeEtablissements Generaux de Mecanique de l'Ouest

InventorJean A. L. Bronnec

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Abstract

A method of and apparatus for folding food articles in sheet form such as crepes, includes allowing a crepe to drop by gravity from the end of an upper conveyor on which the crepe is transported from a cooking apparatus, catching the crepe in a hollow casing configured to cause the crepe to fold over on itself along a line perpendicular to the direction of movement of the crepe on the conveyor, and passing the folded crepe, folded edge first, between the bite of a pair of vertically displaced, horizontally disposed feed rollers, whose axes are perpendicular to the direction of movement of the crepe on the conveyor, for feeding the folded crepe onto the upper surface of a lower conveyor. To facilitate the folding operation, the crepes traveling on the upper conveyor may be softened prior to the folding operation by passing the crepes through a humidifying tunnel.

Claims16

Dependent claims

Apparatus for folding crepes comprising:

(a) an upper conveyor belt and a lower conveyor belt, each of said belts having upper surfaces for transporting crepes, the upper conveyor belt having an end drum;
(b) a hollow casing positioned below the end drum of the upper belt to catch a crepe as it drops by gravity from the end drum, the hollow casing being configured to cause a crepe, dropped from the end drum of the upper conveyor belt to fold over on itself along a line perpendicular to the direction of its movement on the upper conveyor belt;
(c) a pair of vertically displaced, horizontally disposed feed rollers whose axes are perpendicular to the direction of movement of a crepe on the upper conveyor belt, the feed rollers being adjacent to casing and positioned so that their bite receives the folded edge of a crepe for feeding said crepe onto the upper surface of the lower conveyor belt;
said hollow casing having a base located below the upper surface of the lower conveyor belt and positioned to engage the lowermost end of said crepe as said crepe drops from the end drum of the upper conveyor belt, and an anterior wall connected to the base and extending forwardly towards the bite between said feed rollers.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.