TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to the technical field of moulding and refers to a machine for emptying a mould, particularly suitable for the extraction of products such as alimentary products made of chocolate or the like from concavities, tubs, shells and the like of a mould to form said products.

BACKGROUND ART

There are known machines provided with an inlet, for instance chain conveyor type, for moulds provided with concavities or recess filled with chocolate by a machine upstream positioned.

The recesses of said moulds include the concavities oriented upward and containing the chocolate completely or almost hardened.

Said known machines includes, downstream the inlet, a turning means for the mould fit to orient the concavities downward, supporting and moving means for the tilted moulds associated to emptying means for the moulds and transport means below, for example belt type, for the products detached from the moulds. The supporting and moving means as well as the transport mean carry the empty moulds and the detached products to the respective outlets or to further treatment means.

A drawback of said known machines is that the supporting and moving means of the turned moulds, usually comprising guides and lateral ring chains for the mould, stand above and obstruct, together with their own mounting supports, all the other organs of the known machines rendering very difficult and slow the cleaning and the maintenance thereof.

Other drawback is that the supporting and moving means for the moulds of said known machines are complex, expensive, require maintenance and, standing above the products, they are affected by the risks to contaminate these latter products with dirt, lubricant, fragments caused by wearing, and the like.

Further drawback of said known machines consists in that the products, during the extraction of the mould from the turning means, can drag against a surface of this latter being scratched or damaged.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

Objects of the present invention are to propose a machine for emptying a mould in a simple, reliable, economic way, a machine easy and fast to be cleaned and to be maintained and provided with supporting and moving means for tilted moulds simple and not bulky

Other object is to propose a machine with supporting and moving means for tilted moulds without using chains, belts, band or other organs needing lubrication or producing dusts or fragments due to the wearing.

Further object is to propose a machine that can avoid scratches, scrapes and damages on the moulded products.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The characteristics of the invention are highlighted in the following with particular reference to the attached drawings, in which:

figure 1 shows a schematic front view of the machine for emptying a mould, object of the present invention, in which some parts have been removed for better underlining other parts;

- figures 2 and 3 show schematic section views according to the lines Il - II and III - III of the machine of figure 1 ;

- figure 4 shows a schematic plan view of the machine of figure 1;

- figure 5 shows an enlarged partial and sectioned view of a variant of turning means of the machine of figure 1.

BEST MODE OF CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

With reference to figures 1 - 4, the numeral 1 indicates the machine for emptying a mould, object of the present invention, equipped with inlet means 2 to adduce in a direction F moulds M including recesses turned upward, to a mould turning means 3 fit to tilt the mould turning the recesses R downward.

The turning means 3 are operated in rotation by a respective motor mean 28 around a rotation axis A ₅ perpendicular to the direction of the adduction motion F and, in the operational condition O, positioned almost horizontally. Furthermore, the turning means 3 comprises two seats 12, each of them fit to house at least a mould M.

The two seats 12 of the turning means 3 are nearly mutually parallel one to the other and to the rotation axis A from which they are equidistant.

Obviously it is provided, in alternative, that the turning means 3 can be provided with only one seat 12 or more than two seats 12.

The recesses R, consisting of shaped concavities or tubs, in shell forms or the like, contain products P such as chocolates, bonbon, bars or the like, which are formed therein bymeans of cooling and total or partial hardening from a melted material, such as chocolate or others, measured and poured in the recesses, upward positioned, by means of a filling machine located upstream of the inlet means 2.

The machine 1 for emptying a mould comprises linear actuator means 8 fit to push the mould M out of the turning means 3 engaging it, in a sliding manner, in advancing means 4 allowing the positioning of the tilted mould in emptying means 5.

The advancing means 4 comprises guiding means 7 for the mould M extracted from the turning means 3, and positioned downstream in respect with the adduction motion F of the turning means 3.

The moulds M, positioned on the guiding means 7, are in mutual contact and thus they are subjected to the alternate action of the linear actuator means 8.

Said linear actuator means 8 are nearly aligned and opposed, in respect with the turning means 3, to said guiding means 7.

In an operational condition O, in which the turning means 3 contains at least a mould M tilted by it, linear actuator means 8 are operated to match the tilted mould M pushing it out of the turning means 3 into the advancing means 4 provoking the advancing along the advancing means 4 of a plurality of moulds M previously tilted. During each cycle of turning and advancing of moulds along the guiding means 7, one of said moulds is subjected to the action of the emptying means 5 which provoke the detachment and the fall of the products on the transporting means below.

The transporting means 6 and the advancing means 4 move the products and the mould up to the respective outlets, first 9 and second 10, of the machine 1. The first outlet 9 can be connected, for instance, to a wrapping machine for the products and the second exit 10 can be provided with a further turning device of the empty moulds and connected to the filler machine to provide to this latter the moulds to be filled.

The guiding means 7 mainly consists of a couple of guides "L" or "C" shaped for the sliding support, with low friction, of the side edges of the moulds M.

The guiding means 7 comprises distance adjusting means 11 between the guides for the sliding support of moulds M with different widths.

The linear actuator means 8 have fixed stroke or they can be equipped with adjustable stroke mean, for instance to be adjusted to turning means having various dimensions.

The linear actuator means 8 comprise an electric type actuator mean, preferably a linear motor, having predictive or feedback controlled motion.

The invention provides, in alternative, that the linear actuator means 8 comprise a pneumatic cylinder and piston actuator, whose stem has a pusher for the moulds or it provide that the pusher for the moulds is linearly operated by a connecting rod and crank, by an articulated quadrilateral, by a rotary motor with linear actuator or the like.

The ends of the seats 12 opposite to those of introduction of the mould M, have respective arrest means 16, for instance consisting of a tooth or a protrusion, fit to prevent the moulds M coming out from the seats 12 during the anticlockwise rotation, as shown in figure 1, of the turning means 3.

The seats 12 have a height H a little bit higher than the height HH of the mould M so that this latter each time matches only one face of the seats reducing the frictions, but avoiding that during the turning the passage from a face to another causes a significant fall or down jump of the mould.

The transporting means 6 comprise a ring conveyor 17, large belt or belts type or the like with supports for the products.

The ring conveyor 17 includes downstream the turning means 3 a first portion 18 below, parallel and close to the guiding means 7 fit to collect the products detached from the

mould without falls or excessive impacts.

The first portion is followed by a second portion 19 inclined downward and extending itself up to the first outlet 9 for the products P.

The ring conveyor 17 is operated by respective drive roller means 20. The inlet means 2 comprise a plurality of pushing means 21 of two chain or belt type lateral pulling rings 22, moved by respective drive roller means 23 of the kind with pinions for chain, fit adducting the moulds M.

The drive roller means 20, 23 of the transporting means 6 and of the inlet means 2, are interconnected by a jointing chain 30 and are operated by one common motor mean 24, for instance of electric type.

The emptying means 5 of the tilted moulds M comprise a vibrator mean 25 and a hammer mean 26 fit to transmit to the moulds one by one sufficient solicitations to allow the detachment of the products P from the respective recesses R.

The emptying means 5 comprises blocking means 27 fit to block the moulds during the operation of the vibrator mean 25 and/or of the hammer mean 26 to avoid impacts between the mould and the products which could damage these latter.

The machine comprises control means of electronic type connected at least to the motor mean 24 of the transporting means 6 and of the inlet means 2, to the motor mean 28 of the turning means 3, to linear actuator means 8, and to the emptying means 5 to operate them in coordinated and controlled manner.

The control means command the linear type electric actuator of the linear actuator means 8 under a motion law that provides a maximum acceleration lower than a preset maximum value to avoid damages to the products.

The control means operate the linear actuator means 8 in synchrony with the motor mean 24 of the transporting means 6 and of the inlet means 2 to render almost contemporaneous the entry and the exit of moulds M from the turning means 3 and for allowing the match of the products with the transporting means 6 at a very slow relative velocity, with no horizontal component to avoid scratches and damages to the delicate surfaces of the products P.

It is to observe that the pushing movement of the tilted moulds allows the elimination of bulky chains or the like above the guiding means 7 and the transporting means 6.

A possible operation of the machine 1 provides that while the inlet means 2 set a first mould having the recesses upward positioned in a seat 12 of the idle turning means 3, the linear actuator means 8 extracts a second tilted mould from the other seat 12 and push it toward the second outlet 10 of the moulds positioned on the advancing means 4; contemporarily the transporting means 6 carry the products P toward the respective first outlet 9. Successively, the 180° of rotation of the turning means turns over the first mould and at the same time the emptying means 5 empty an stopped mould causing the falls of the products P contained therein on the transporting means 6, which are stopped also. At this moment, the machine 1 is ready for a new cycle.

The variant of the machine of figure 5 is different from the above described machine due to the structure of the turning means 3 with the purpose to avoid scrapings and frictions among the products eventually detached from the moulds during the turnover and a lower face of the seat 12 of the tilted mould.

In said variant of the turning means 3, the nearest faces to the rotation axis A of the two seats 12 are constituted by two tracks 13 of ring means 14, of belt type, moved in accordance and synchronously with the linear attuatore means 8.

The ring means 14 comprise preferably a band or in alternative belts or chains with supporting means for the moulds.

The band of the ring means 14 is engaged with four rollers 15 rotating in parallel manner to the rotation axis A and positioned at the ends of the faces of the seats 12 closer to the axis A forming a kind of parallelepiped, or scraping on appropriate guides.

In alternative the invention provides that there are two ring means 14, each of them being engaged with two rollers 15 positioned at the ends of the face of one of the seats 12 closer to the axis A. In this manner the tracks 13 of the ring means 4 of the two seats can move independently.

The ring means 14 are driven by at least one of the motorized rollers 15. The operation of the variant has not substantial difference from that of described above.

An advantage of the present invention is to provide a machine for emptying a mould in a simple, reliable, economic manner, easy and fast to clean, easy to be maintained and provided with simple and not bulky supporting and moving means for the tilted moulds.

Other advantage is to provide a machine with supporting and moving means for the tilted moulds free from lubrication and that do not create any dust or fragment due to the wearing.

Further advantage is to provide a machine that it offers the products almost perfect aspect and avoiding scratches, strips and damages of such moulded products.