Dough piece imprinter and controls therefore
First Claim
1. A dough imprinting device for use in combination with a conveyor means for imprinting characters onto dough pieces being transported by said conveyor means, said dough pieces being arranged in lines of a plurality of dough pieces substantially parallel to the direction of movement of said conveyor means and said dough pieces being spaced apart in direction along said lines, said device including separate sensor means for each line of dough pieces on the conveyor means sensing the position of each of the dough pieces in each of the lines and providing a signal indicating a known position of each dough piece in each line, and a separate imprinter device for each line of dough pieces, each imprinter device comprising a rotating block member carrying individual indicia to be imprinted at a plurality of annularly spaced locations at the outer edge thereof, each block member clearing said dough pieces except at the location of said indicia thereon, means to rotationally mount and frictionally drive each block member about a central axis, separate means to restrain rotational movement of each block member at a plurality of rotational positions each of which is a position with the block member clearing dough pieces on the conveyor means, said separate means to restrain being movable to a position to permit rotational movement of its associated block member, and control means responsive to receipt of said signal from the respective corresponding sensor means to move each means to restrain to position to permit its associated block member to rotate only sufficiently far for one of said indicia to imprint a dough piece sensed by the sensor means for that block member subsequent to receiving a signal from the respective sensor means and to release said means to restrain to return it to position restraining said block member prior to the time second indicia on the associated block member moves to an imprinting position.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Imprinters or stampers for imprinting or stamping numerals, letters or symbols into the top of pieces of dough prior to baking, which includes means for individually sensing each piece of dough to insure that the imprinting device is properly timed for imprinting the dough pieces.
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Citations
10 Claims
- 1. A dough imprinting device for use in combination with a conveyor means for imprinting characters onto dough pieces being transported by said conveyor means, said dough pieces being arranged in lines of a plurality of dough pieces substantially parallel to the direction of movement of said conveyor means and said dough pieces being spaced apart in direction along said lines, said device including separate sensor means for each line of dough pieces on the conveyor means sensing the position of each of the dough pieces in each of the lines and providing a signal indicating a known position of each dough piece in each line, and a separate imprinter device for each line of dough pieces, each imprinter device comprising a rotating block member carrying individual indicia to be imprinted at a plurality of annularly spaced locations at the outer edge thereof, each block member clearing said dough pieces except at the location of said indicia thereon, means to rotationally mount and frictionally drive each block member about a central axis, separate means to restrain rotational movement of each block member at a plurality of rotational positions each of which is a position with the block member clearing dough pieces on the conveyor means, said separate means to restrain being movable to a position to permit rotational movement of its associated block member, and control means responsive to receipt of said signal from the respective corresponding sensor means to move each means to restrain to position to permit its associated block member to rotate only sufficiently far for one of said indicia to imprint a dough piece sensed by the sensor means for that block member subsequent to receiving a signal from the respective sensor means and to release said means to restrain to return it to position restraining said block member prior to the time second indicia on the associated block member moves to an imprinting position.
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9. A dough piece imprinter device for use in combination with a dough piece conveyor comprising a belt member carrying a plurality of lines each formed of a plurality of spaced individual pieces of unbaked dough, each line being aligned substantially parallel to the direction of travel of said belt member, the dough pieces in each of the lines being spaced from each other in direction of movement of said conveyor belt member, a plurality of imprinting block members mounted above said conveyor, each block member having first and second imprinting portions substantially 180°
- apart on said block member, shaft means mounting said imprinting block members above said conveyor, said imprinting block members being rotatably mounted on said shaft means and being constructed to clear dough pieces on said conveyor except at said imprinting portions, separate friction drive means between each of said block members and said shaft means to urge said block members to rotate with said shaft means, drive means for continuously rotationally driving said shaft means to urge said imprinting block members in a path of movement whereby each imprinting portion is in a raised position during each revolution of said shaft means except for one imprinting position, separate releasable latch means to normally restrain rotational movement of each of said imprinting block members against said friction drive means with all imprinting portions on the respective imprinting block member in raised position, each of said imprinting block members being aligned with one of said lines of dough pieces, separate sensor means aligned with each of said lines of dough pieces and associated with an aligning imprinting block member, each said sensor means being positioned to be engaged by individual dough pieces in its associated line prior to passage of such individual dough piece underneath the respective imprinting block member for the respective line, and means responsive to said sensor means to release said releasable latch means when a dough piece is sensed by said sensor means, each sensor means being positioned in relation to its respective imprinter block member to cause said latch means to release and to permit its respective imprinting block member to rotate so one of the imprinting portions thereon passes through its imprinting position when a dough piece sensed passes below such imprinting block member to thereby be imprinted by the associated imprinting block member, and means controlling return of said latch means to its normal position to restrain the respective imprinting block member before another imprinting portion on the same imprinting block member moves to its imprinting position.
- View Dependent Claims (10)
Specification