UNIVERSAL DOUGH CUTTING AND PACKING APPARATUS.

摘要

A dough cutting and packing apparatus (10) capable of processing and packaging dough products of differing dimensions includes a plurality of cutting plates (38) supported adjacent one another to form an endless cutting unit. A container positioning mechanism (28) positions a plurality of containers (70) relative to the openings to receive the dough pieces after they are removed by the reciprocating packing mechanism (24). A servo motor drive actuation of both the cutter bar indexing drive system and the container advancement system (28) allows for accurate positioning by reprogramming the servo drive (14) for a particular product dimension rather than mechanically changing over to alternate equipment. A self-contained container advancement module (28) 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 (38) of a particular size such that significant retooling is not required to change cutter bars (38) and support chains in order to process dough products of different dimensions.