US 4,286,938 AGranted

Oval dish former

AssigneeService (Engineers) Limited

InventorGeorge Ryckman

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Abstract

An oval dish forming machine has two revolvable wheels each of which is supported on a structure permitting the wheel to move in an eccentric pattern so that discs of clay on carriers on the wheels may be formed in desirable oval shapes. One of the wheels comprises a first or spreading station where the disc of clay is subjected to a rolling extruding action of a cone-shaped roller which squeezes the clay against the carrier to form a desirable oval shape. The carrier and the initially shaped clay is then manually moved to a second or finishing station where a dumbbell shaped roller engages the clay shape on the carrier and rolls the excess clay from the shape to the desired configuration of the oval dish. The dumbbell shaped roller is stopped in the last revolution of the wheel so as to smooth the clay by a sliding action. Motion of the two shaping and finishing rollers is controlled to properly process and shape the clay so as to insure the removal of air and excess moisture therefrom. The wheels in both stations are driven simultaneously by a common driving mechanism through eccentric motion devices.

Claims15

Dependent claims

An oval dish forming machine for shaping clay on molds, said machine comprising a pair of spaced rotatable mold supports, means for rotating said mold supports and simultaneously imparting eccentric motion thereto, a pair of spaced work heads pivotally supported on said machine with their free ends movable toward and away from said mold supports in arcuate patterns, a roller shaping tool and means on one of said work heads mounting said roller shaping tool for rotary motion, said means being movable in a rocking action and means for imparting rotary movement to said roller shaping tool, means for imparting rocking motion to said means mounting said roller shaping tool, a second roller shaping tool and means on the other one of said work heads rotatably mounting said second roller shaping tool, means for imparting motion to said work heads arranged to move said work heads on said arcuate patterns, the axis of rotation of the roller shaping tools being inclined to the vertical with the inclination of the first roller shaping tool being less than that of the second roller shaping tool whereby in use the first roller shaping tool is operative primarily to spread said clay over said rotatable mold support and the second roller shaping tool is operative primarily to finish the surface of the clay spread by the first roller shaping tool.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.