Roll-forming apparatus

A roll-forming apparatus for association with a conveyor for forming a design in a raw dough roll transported by the conveyor, comprising:

• a stop gate movable into and out of an interfering position in a path of the raw dough roll for temporarily stopping the roll while the roll maintains sliding contact with the conveyor;
• an imprinter mounted proximate the conveyor and repeatedly movable between a registered position in preparation for imprinting a design on the roll before it leaves the stop gate and an imprinting position for imprinting a design on the roll after it has left the stop gate and is conveyed to the imprinter by the conveyor;
• a first motor for moving the stop gate out of the interfering position to permit the roll to be conveyed to the imprinter by the conveyor;
• sensor apparatus for non-contact sensing the arrival of the raw dough roll at the stop gate;
• a controller for recognizing the positioning of the imprinter in the registered position;
• the first motor moving the stop gate out the interfering position in synchronism with the imprinter in response to the controller recognizing the positioning of the imprinter in the registered position after a predetermined time delay after the sensor apparatus non-contact senses the arrival of the raw dough roll at the stop gate, whereby the raw dough roll is conveyed to the imprinter by the conveyer and imprinted with a design in the imprinting position of the imprinter.

A roll-forming apparatus for association with a conveyor for forming a design in a raw dough roll transported by the conveyor, comprising:

• a stop gate movable into and out of an interfering position in a path of the raw dough roll for temporarily stopping the roll while the roll maintains sliding contact with the conveyor;
• an imprinter, having a plurality of offset imprinting faces and a plurality of sensed elements each corresponding to one of the offset imprinting faces, mounted proximate the conveyor for continuous rotation thereby repeatedly moving each of the offset imprinting faces between a registered position in preparation for imprinting a design on the roll before it leaves the stop gate and an imprinting position for imprinting a design on the roll after it has left the stop gate and is conveyed to the imprinter by the conveyor;
• a first motor for moving the stop gate out of the interfering position to permit the roll to be conveyed to the imprinter by the conveyor;
• sensor apparatus for non-contact sensing the arrival of the raw dough roll at the stop gate;
• a sensor element disposed at a fixed position relative to the sensed elements, the sensor element for non-contact sensing the sensed elements;
• the sensor element activated after a predetermined time delay in response to the non-contact sensing of the raw dough roll at the stop gate by the sensor apparatus;
• the first motor moving the stop gate out the interfering position in synchronism with the imprinter in response to the sensor element non-contact sensing one of the sensed elements corresponding to the registered position of one of the imprinting faces of the imprinter, whereby the raw dough roll is conveyed to the imprinter by the conveyer and imprinted with a design by the one of the imprinting faces of the imprinter in the imprinting position thereof.

A roll-forming apparatus for association with a conveyor for forming a design in a raw dough roll transported by the conveyor, comprising:

• a stop gate movable into and out of an interfering position in a path of the raw dough roll for temporarily stopping the roll while the roll maintains sliding contact with the conveyor;
• an imprinter, having a plurality of offset imprinting faces, mounted proximate the conveyor for continuous rotation thereby repeatedly moving each of the offset imprinting faces between a registered position in preparation for imprinting a design on the roll before it leaves the stop gate and an imprinting position for imprinting a design on the roll after it has left the stop gate and is conveyed to the imprinter by the conveyor;
• a first motor for moving the stop gate out of the interfering position to permit the roll to be conveyed to the imprinter by the conveyor;
• sensor apparatus for non-contact sensing the arrival of the raw dough roll at the stop gate;
• a controller for recognizing the positioning of the imprinting faces in their respective registered positions;
• the first motor moving the stop gate out the interfering position in synchronism with the imprinter in response to the controller recognizing the positioning of one of the imprinting faces in its registered position after a predetermined time delay after the sensor apparatus non-contact senses the arrival of the raw dough roll at the stop gate, whereby the raw dough roll is conveyed to the imprinter by the conveyer and imprinted with a design by the one of the imprinting faces of the imprinter in the imprinting position thereof.