Apparatus for conveying and arranging bakery products
AssigneeUnited Bakery Equipment Company, Inc.
InventorsPaul M. Bastasch, John T. McCormick
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for conveying and arranging bakery products such as hot dog buns or breadsticks. The products are delivered with their length dimensions at a variety of angular orientations and some products inverted. An aligning conveyor receives misaligned products on adjacent belts or other drive members which are driven at differential speeds to rotate the products to the proper orientation. Inverted products are conveyed against guide rails which are arranged to interact with the curved edges on the tops of the buns to roll the inverted products over. The products are conveyed in discrete lanes to properly organize them for packaging.
Claims13
A conveyor system operable to roll over inverted bakery products having bottom surfaces and top surfaces with curved edges, said conveyor system comprising:
- a roll over mechanism operable to roll over onto said bottom surfaces inverted bakery products with said top surfaces down, said roll over mechanism comprising:
- a plurality of dividers spaced apart to provide lanes in which the bakery products are received and conveyed one behind the other in columns, said dividers being arranged to engage the inverted bakery products in a manner to roll the inverted bakery products over onto said bottom surfaces and to maintain said bottom surfaces down for non-inverted bakery products with their bottom surfaces already down;
- a first conveyor having a first surface positioned below a first portion of said roll over mechanism, said first surface having a first coefficient of friction, wherein said first coefficient of friction is high enough for conveying the inverted bakery products in a manner such that said top surfaces of the inverted bakery products are engaged by and interact with said dividers in a manner to cause the inverted bakery products to roll over to a non-inverted position;
- and
- a second conveyor having a second surface positioned below a second portion of said roll over mechanism, said second surface having a second coefficient of friction, wherein said second coefficient of friction is less than said first coefficient of friction so as to minimize the chance of an unintended rollover of any bakery product on said second conveyor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.