Apv Rosista Gmbh

Christopher L Heckler

Gordon A Copas

An apparatus for extracting stick confections from a row of mold cups of a stick confection molding machine and for transferring the extracted confections to a multi-lane wrapping machine having a number of lanes that is a submultiple of the number of mold cups in a row. The transfer apparatus includes a plurality of transfer bar assemblies which are moved from an extraction location above and parallel to a row of mold cups to a discharge location above and transverse to the lanes of the multi-lane wrapping machine. Each transfer bar assembly includes a number of gripper heads mounted on the transfer bar assembly for turning movement about individual turning axes transverse to the transfer bar and spaced apart therealong and a number of individual gripper units mounted on each head. Mechanism is provided for turning the gripper head to an extracting position in which the gripper units on each head are spaced apart in a direction parallel to the transfer bar assembly and with the gripper units arranged in a single extraction row, and a discharge position in which the gripper units on each head are spaced apart in a direction transverse to the associated transfer bar assembly with the gripper units arranged in multiple discharge rows parallel to the associated transfer bar, and with the number of gripper units in each row being a sub-multiple of the number of mold cups in a row.

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Rockford, IL, United States of America

Christopher L Heckler