The Filling Machine for Ball Top Cones

Operation Principle

The Top-line is an in-line machine with approx. 400 lamellas, indexing by 76.2 mm (3”). The cone biscuits in carton trays are manually placed in the lamellas. The carton trays prevent the lamellas from being sprayed with chocolate.

After chocolate impregnation, the cones are indexed to the filling station, which for normal size cones is an extrusion filler.

The next station is a heated bar to flatten the ice cream tale of the cone, hereafter the products continue into the hardening tunnel. High efficient fans are placed underneaith the lamellas. Halfway within the hardening tunnel (at the end of the machine), a small needle is injected a few millimeters into the cone biscuit, allowing it to return upside down into the hardening tunnel.

The basic frame is an all stainless steel profile construction. The two chains are made of stainless steel with plastic rollers.

Outside the hardening tunnel the products are dipped into chocolate with optional dry coating afterwards. Hereafter the cones are transferred into a multi-lane wrapping machine.

Hardening Tunnel Housing

• The tunnel housing is built of 100 mm/3.9” urethane foam locking panels with plastisol exterior and stainless steel surface interior
• Two access doors with thermostatically controlled strip heaters
• Stainless steel air turning vanes in length of coil/fan units and on one side of tunnel

Lamellas in tunnel 340

Length of worktable 2500 mm/98.4”

Strokes/min 10-25

Refrigeration capacity 114 kW

Controls Siemens/Allen Bradley PLC

Fan motor 10 x 1.5 kW

Coil/Fan Units

• Hot-dipped galvanised coil units with stainless steel casing
• Each coil 4700 mm/185.0” long with 3 fins per inch/ per 25.4 mm
• Liquid recirculation ammonia system
• Each coil with 57 kW at -450C/-490F evaporator temperature
• Each coil is equipped with 10 fan motors with 10 x 1.5 kW/1750 rpm each
• Galvanised hot gas defrost pan

Main Drive

The main drive is placed within the worktable outside the freezing tunnel.

Standard Equipment:

• 10-lane chocolate spraying system
• 10-lane ice cream extrusion filling system, single flavoured, including mechanically driven vertical movement
• Heated bar to flatten ice cream tale of the cone
• Chocolate enrobing lifting tank. By immersion, the chocolate lifting is applied onto the product. Further, a transverse chocolate lifting container is supplied. Includes agitator built into catch tank for possible adding of inclusions
• Drying sector - after dipping into chocolate, the products are allowed to drip-off before packaging
• Product extraction - the gripper needles are withdrawn and a number of pushers assure that the products are completely released

Technical data:
Lanes 10
Pitch along chain 76.2 mm/3.0’
Pitch between products 70 mm/2.76”
Max. product width 57 mm/2.24”
Total number of lamellas 408