The Automatic Filler does exactly what its name suggests: it automatically fills empty pint containers with ice cream at a rate of about 90 cups per minute. It is connected to both the Fruit Feeder and Variegater by stainless steel pipes so that the chunks and swirls have been added by the time the ice cream is ready to be packaged.
The first step in the process takes place at the cup dispenser. The cup dispenser consists of two chutes. The empty pint cups are stacked by hand into these chutes, which hold the cups in a vertical position (each chute can hold about 100 cups at a time). The dispenser then delivers the cups two at a time by using what is called an escape mechanism. The escape mechanism is a set of two clamps located inside the chutes, one on top of the other. The bottom clamp releases the bottom two cups of the stack while the top clamp holds the rest of the stacked cups in place. This allows only two cups to be dispensed at once.
The next step involves a thin, stainless steel rotating disc or carousel with holes carved into its outer edges (it looks much like a merry-go-round). The holes are designed to hold the cups in place as they are filled. The dispenser is located just above the outer edge of the disc, so that when two empty pint cups are released by the dispenser, they drop down into two of the holes on the edge of the disc. The disc rotates at the same speed at which the dispenser delivers the cups, so that way a cup always drops into a hole.
The cups rotate to a position directly beneath the portion of the automatic filler called the filler head. This is where the cups are filled with ice cream. (There are two filler heads on the automatic filler, but only one will be discussed here.) The filler head is a circular chamber at the end of the vertical piping that carries the ice cream from the fruit feeder. It contains a spool and a piston; the spool is located inside the filler head, and the piston is attached on the side of the filler head, lying horizontally. The filler head has two openings: one on top, where the ice cream arrives from the fruit feeder, and one on the bottom, where the ice cream is emptied into the cups.
The cups are filled with ice cream through the combined action of the spool and the piston. The spool is only half as big as the inside of the filler head, which allows some space for the ice cream to pass through; however, it is big enough that it is always blocking one of the two openings. The spool starts off by blocking the bottom opening, which leads to the cups. Meanwhile, the piston draws back, bringing ice cream into the filler head, as well as the piston chamber, from the top opening. Once the filler head and the piston chamber are filled with ice cream, the spool rotates to block off the top opening. This leaves the bottom opening unblocked, and the piston moves forward, forcing the ice cream through the bottom opening and into an empty cup below. The cup has been rotated into place by the stainless steel carousel. The spool than rotates back to block off the bottom opening, the carousel rotates another cup into place, and the cycle continues.
As a cup is being filled, it is also being spun by a bottom-up spinner. The bottom-up spinner is located underneath the filler head, with the stainless steel rotating disc in between. As a cup rotates into place, the bottom-up spinner rises up, lifts it out of the disc, and places it just underneath the filler head. It does this just as the ice cream is being released from the filler head. The bottom-up spinner has four 2-inch tall stainless steel cones holding the cup in place while spinning it around as the cup is filling. This causes the cup to spin as well, and the ice cream is swirled around while it is filling the cup. This assures that there will be no air pockets in the ice cream.
After a cup is filled, it continues to rotate in the stainless steel carousel towards the lidder. This is where the lids are placed on the cups. The lids approach the lidder through a chute that comes from a machine called the un-scrambler. The lids are dumped into the portion of the unscrambler called the hopper. A vertical conveyor belt with small shelves passes through the hopper. Because of the way they are angled, the shelves will only catch lids that are right-side-up. Those that are upside-down fall back into the hopper. The conveyor belt then carries the lids to a take-away chute, which leads to the lidder.
The lidder is a combination of two angled plates, one above the stainless steel disc and one below. The take-away chute that carries the lids meets with the upper plate, and the bottoms of the cups meet with the lower plate. The angles of the plates force the lids onto the cups as the stainless steel disc rotates the cups into the lidder.
Once the cups have been filled and capped, they are sent down a conveyor belt. A bottom-up is used to lift the cups so they are completely out of the stainless steel disc. At this point a lever moves forward, pushing the cups onto a conveyor belt. The empty holes of the stainless steel carousel rotate to receive two more empty cups. The filled pints move along a conveyer belt to the next step in the process.
The next step is a cold one. How cold? Join us in the Spiral Hardener and we'll tell you...