Improvements in slicing machines

摘要

1,055,310. Slicing machines. UNEXCELLED CHEMICAL CORPORATION Dec. 3, 1963 [Dec. 19, 1962], No. 47721/63. Heading A4C. [Also in Divisions G1, G3 and H3] In a slicing machine, meat &c. loaves 54 are continually fed at a controlled rate by a pusher 45 to a slicing blade 56, a controlled number, e.g. 6, 8 or 10, of slices pass as a stack from the stacker 32 to a two-speed weighing conveyer 36, the latter being driven at low speed to receive and weigh a stack and at a higher speed to deliver same to a reject conveyer 42 which under the control of the weighing mechanism 98 laterally diverts stacks of incorrect weight to a reject station 44, the weighing mechanism 98 also controlling, in accordance with errors in stack weight, a servo-mechanism 85 which includes a reversible electric motor controlling the feed rate of the loaf 54 thereby to adjust slice thickness and hence stack weight. Rejected stacks are made up to the correct weight by hand and are passed to a transfer conveyer 40, carrying stacks of correct weight and thence to a packaging station 38. Pulses from the scale of the weighing mechanism 98 serve to vary the orifice size of a hydraulic control valve 84 in the loaf feed rate control and also to actuate a solenoid 288 in the reject circuit to permit correct weight stacks to pass over the reject conveyer 42 to the transfer conveyer 40. The solenoid 288 is not actuated by an incorrectly weighted stack so that a spring urged rod 290 associated with the solenoid core pivots an arm 280 mounted beneath the upper run of the reject conveyer 42 to laterally divert stack supporting plaques 252 by engagement with depending studs 262 thereon, the plaques 252 being slidable along rods 250 extending transversely between conveyer chains 244, 246 and the diverted studs 262 being guided along an adjustable cam rail 272. The whole operation is controlled in timed sequence by electronic circuits which also ensure a time delay before the weighing scale reads the stack weight, prevent a feed rate adjustment in response to the first two stacks from a loaf, and ensure a time delay between the weighing and the operation of the reject mechanism. The reject mechanism may be actuated by underweight stacks and by stacks more than “ ounce overweight.