Machine for wrapping sticks of food products
AssigneeAzionaria Costruzioni Macchine Automatiche A.C.M.A. S.p.A.
InventorsMarco Carrara, Daniele Civolani
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In a machine for wrapping sticks of chewing gum, sticks of substantially rectangular outline and relatively small thickness advance singly and in succession on a conveyor, arranged flat and spaced apart at a predetermined first pitch, toward a position where they are transferred to a spacing roller revolving tangentially to the conveyor and presenting peripheral seats spaced apart at a pitch greater than the first pitch; the sticks are taken up at the transfer position by a pick-up and transfer mechanism operating between the conveyor and the seats of the spacing roller, describing a trajectory that includes a movement perpendicular to the plane occupied by the sticks and producing a minimal displacement equating approximately to the thickness of a single stick.
Claims10
A machine for wrapping sticks of food products, comprising:
- a feed unit supplying a succession of single sticks having a substantially rectangular outline and of relatively small thickness, arranged flat on a conveyor and advancing, spaced apart at a predetermined first pitch, toward a transfer position;
- a spacing and wrapping unit by which the sticks are spaced apart at a predetermined second pitch greater than the first pitch, comprising a spacing roller by which the sticks are taken up lying flat into tangential peripheral seats revolving substantially tangential to the conveyor at the transfer position, and a pick-up and transfer mechanism, operating at the transfer position, by which the sticks are picked up and transferred to the spacing roller;
- wherein the spacing and wrapping unit comprises a wrapping roller, and a transfer roller interposed between the spacing roller and the wrapping roller;
- wherein the transfer roller includes a plurality of tangential peripheral seats and, associated with each transfer roller seat, a pusher element, and an alignment mechanism for positioning one of the sticks in the transfer roller seat.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.