BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(1) Field of the Invention

This invention relates to an improved bread moulder.

(2) Brief Description of the Prior Art

A conventional bread moulder has a hopper to receive a piece of dough of measured weight, and to feed it between counter-rotated sheeting rollers which flatten the dough to force some of the air or "proof" from it. The dough sheet is fed into the upper run of an endless belt and under a fixed section of mesh or "curling chain" which causes the dough to be rolled up as it is moved along the belt. At the rear of the belt, the dough is guided by a curved transfer flap down onto a felt-covered pressure plate which is vertically adjustable and, between this and the bottom run of the endless belt, the dough is further rolled and worked, being finally discharged onto a tray in front of the machine, from which it may be taken and placed in a bread baking tin.

Owing to the required length of the endless belt, such a machine is fairly large, occupying a good deal of floor space which is often a disadv¬ antage in the restricted space of a bakery. Moreover, the belt is likely to require fairly frequent adjustment, as it tends to expand in hot conditions and to shrink when cold, and failure to make the required adjustments may result in unsatisfactory performance of the machine or -undue wear of the belt which in any case, because of its nature, is subject to a good deal of wear.

Many bread moulders have a single pair of sheeting rollers, for although two pairs of these

rollers for progressively reducing the thickness of the dough piece are generally advantageous, such an arrangement has hitherto presented the difficulty of adjusting them so that, when the spacing of the upper pair is changed, the spacing of the lower pair is also changed, but by a different amount, to achieve optimum results.

A further disadvantage in bread moulders hither¬ to madeis that many of the various parts which require to be cleaned from time to time are not readily accessible and their removal is difficult and time consuming.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION The present invention has been devised with the general object of providing a bread moulder which obviates or substantially reduces the said and other present disadvantages.

Accordingly, the invention resides broadly in a bread moulder of the type having movable conveying means and a pressure pad, means for driving the conveying means, counter-rotated sheeting rollers for feeding dough pieces between the conveying means and the pressure pad, and adjustment means for adjusting the pressure pad towards and from the conveying means to apply required pressure to dough fed between the two; wherein the conveying means is a drum, the pressure pad is substantially an arc or cylindrical segment coaxial with the drum and automatically deformed, when adjustably moved towards or from the drum, to maintain it substantially as an arc or cylindrical segment coaxial with the drum. Preferably there are provided two pairs of counter- rotated sheeting rollers, one pair above the other, to receive and feed between them, and progressively compress, a dough piece, one roller of each pair

being mounted on a carrier which is adjustably movable to vary, by different amounts, the spacing between the rollers of the two pairs. The pressure pad may be provided with a removably splitter device, overlying the final part of the pad reached by dough being moulded, and having one or more blades for dividing the dough into two or more equal parts. Other features of the invention will become apparent from the following description. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order that a preferred embodiment of the invention may be readily understood and carried into ^■ practical effect, reference is now made to the accompanying drawings, wherein: FIG. 1 is a partly broken-away side elevat- ional view of a bread moulder according to the invention, and

FIG. 2 is a side view of the sheeting rollers and scrapers of the apparatus. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The bread moulder illustrated includes an upright rectangular cabinet 10 mounted on four legs 11 fitted with castor wheels. The cabinet includes two parallel side plates 12 which are somewhat inset in relation to the sides of the cabinet frame 13 and are normally concealed by side cover plates (not shown) removably attached to the frame.

Removably bolted to both side plates 12 are similar bridge frames 14 which carry bearings (not shown) for the shaft 15 of a cylindrical drum 16 about which there is fixed a cover which may be of heavy woven fabric. The two side plates 12 are formed with circular openings 17 in which the sides of the drum 16 fit closely. The cabinet 10 has a removable top plate 18

through which a hopper 19 leads to two pairs of sheeting rollers 20 disposed transversely within the upper part of the cabinet. The upper sheeting rollers are mounted on shafts 21 and 22, the lower sheeting rollers on shafts 23 and 24. The shafts

21 and 23 are rotatable in bearing blocks 25 secured, one above the other, to each of the cabinet side plates 12. The shafts 22 and 24 are rotatable in bearing blocks 26 mounted on a pair of carrier plates 27, each pivoted at 28 to one of the bridge frames 14, the two carrier plates being rigidly inter¬ connected by a cross-bar (not shown) and capable of being advanced or retracted, to bring the sheeting rollers 20 of shafts 22.and 24 further from, or closer to, the sheeting rollers 20 of, respectively, shafts 21 and 23, by a hand-wheel 30 on a nut 31 rotatable at the front of the cabinet 10 and engaging a screw 32 pivotal on a shaft 33 fixed to a carrier plate 27. Also pivoted on the shaft 33 is a cross-member 34, its lower end having a transverse pin 35 slidable in a vertical slot in a fixed bracket 36, its upper end being a pointer 37 extending above the cabinet top plate 18 and readable against a scale (not shown) on the top plate. Associated with each sheeting roller 20 is a scraper 38 mounted on a plate 39 pivotally mounted in the cabinet 10 at 40 and with a spring loading device 41 to maintain the scraper in contact with the sheet¬ ing roller, as shown in FIG. 2. An electric motor 42 within the upper part of the cabinet 10 carries on its shaft a double sprocket 43, one part of which drives, through an endless chain 44, similar sprockets 45 on the sheeting roller shafts 21, 22, 23 and 24. The other part of the double sprocket 43 drives the drum 16 through an endless chain

46 engaging a large sprocket 47 on the drum shaft 15. A pressure plate carrier frame 48 includes two parallel more or less V-shaped side members 49 rigidly interconnected at the bottom by a plate 50 supporting a telescopic standard 51, which can be adjustably raised or lowered by an adjustment screw (not shown) , operated by handles 52. The pressure plate carrier frame is removably supported within the lower part of the cabinet 10 by two transverse rods 53 through the cabinet side plates 13 and through the extremities of the side members 49.

The pressure plate 54 of the apparatus consists of a central arcuate section 55 and two arcuate end sections 56 and 57 connected to the central section 55 by hinges at 58. The central section 55 is fixedly secured o the top ^' of the telescopic standard 51, from which arms 59 extend in opposite directions, between the frame side members 49. The distal ends of the two arms 59 are connected by screw-threadably adjustable connecting rods 60 to the middle parts of a pair of levers 61, each fulcrumed at its inner end between apertured lugs 62 on the carrier frame side merabers 49, adjustable connecting rods 63 connecting the outer ends of the two levers 61 to the upper parts of the two end sections 56 and 57 of the pressure plate 54. A felt pressure pad 64 is secured over the three sections of the pressure plate 54.

In use, a dough piece is fed through the hopper 19 to the upper sheeting rollers 20 on shafts 21 and 22, and then through the closer sheeting rollers 20 on shafts 23 and 24. The dough flattened by the sheeting rollers, and with a proportion of air or "proof" expelled, is deposited onto the fabric cover of the rotating drum 16 and is carried by the drum under a curling chain 65, which is a rectangular section of

metal mesh fixed at one end to a transverse rod 66 between the cabinet side plates 12. The chain causes the dough piece to be curled or rolled up on the drum 16 before being carried down between the drum and one end of the pressure paid 64, guided by a lead-in 67. The dough piece is worked by being rolled between the drum and the pressure pad, and, on being carried clear of the pressure pad, is discharged from the cabinet onto a delivery chute 68.

By means of the handles 52, the pressure pad 64 may be quickly and easily adjusted towards or from the drum, to adjust the pressure applied to the dough. The parts of the apparatus are so made and arranged that the pressure pad 64, when midway between its working positions nearest to and furthest from the drum 16, is substantially coaxial with the drum, and in all the working positions of the pressure pad, the middle parts of the three sections 55, 56 and 57 of the pressure plate 54 are substantially equidistant from the drum. The pressure plate sections being rigid, their radial length is not changed as they are moved from or to the drum but any departure of the pressure pad configuration from an arc perfectly coaxial with the drum is found, in practice, to be so - small as to be insignificant in working the dough.

Any selected one of a number of splitter plates 69 may be fitted interchangeably to the final end of the pressure pad 64, and consists of a curved base plate 70 closely overlying the felt pressure pad 64 and having one or more upstanding longitudinal blades 71 for dividing the moulded dough piece into two or more equal parts which are simultaneously delived to the chute 68. Any small quantities of dough which may be forced

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out from the ends of the drum 16 will fall out¬ wardly of the side plates 12 and may be easily cleaned away. The drum itself may be easily removed by unbolting one of the bridge frames 14, and the pressure plate assembly may be removed for cleaning or repair by withdrawing the rods 53 supporting the carrier frame 48. The adjustable sheeting roller assembly may be easily lifted from the moulder by disconnecting the drive chain 74 and the pivot bolt 28. The moulder is particularly compact, easily adjustable to suit different mould¬ ing requirements, simple and economical to manufacture, and very efficient in operation.

It will be understood, of course, that the particular embodiment of the invention herein described and illustrated by way of example only, may be subject to many modifications of constructional detail and design, which will be readily apparent to persons skilled in the art, without departing from the scope and ambit of the invention.

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