Universal dough cutting and packing apparatus

摘要

A dough cutting and packing apparatus capable of processing and packaging dough products of differing dimensions includes a plurality of cutting plates supported adjacent one another to form an endless cutting unit. A container positioning mechanism positions a plurality of containers relative to the openings to receive the dough pieces after they are removed by the reciprocating packing mechanism. A servo motor drive actuation of both the cutter bar indexing drive system and the container advancement system allows for accurate positioning by reprogramming the servo drive for a particular product dimension rather than mechanically changing over to alternate equipment. A self-contained container advancement module can be removed and replaced with another container module suitable for delivering containers of different dimensions. A removable sprocket and chain system are dedicated to cutter bars of a particular size such that significant retooling is not required to change cutter bars and support chains in order to process dough products of different dimensions.