FOOD PATTY MOLDING MACHINE

摘要

A food patty molding machine (10) of the type utilizing a linearly reciprocable mold plate (27) utilizes a direct drive (12) which provides virtually direct linear transfer of the drive force to the ends of the linear drive shafts (36) which support the mold plate (21). This results in the virtual elimination of high wear lateral loads. An encoder (73) is directly linked to a rotary actuator (40) drive shaft (44) to provide accurate mold plate position signals which are utilized to control the operation of an independently driven knock-out device (33) and to control operation of the feed ram (17) during the feed stroke. Servo valve (75) control of the hydraulic power unit (74) which drives the rotary actuator (46) and the feed ram cylinders (31) also responds to suitably processed encoder signals to provide a wide range of cycle time and position control.