Fig. 68.
Before pressing down the plunger, worked by a screw, a metal plate is laid upon the chocolate to prevent contact with the plunger. By slight pressure, the chocolate mass is forced through the perforations, according to the required size of the lozenges, but the plunger must not be screwed down further. This will admit of the plate on which the lozenges rest being drawn out and another inserted.
Fig. 69.
To this machine belong the usual perforated plates f, Fig. 66 of which there are three of different sizes for each machine, as shown by figures a b c, also the plates d used for making the perforated confections which find their way to the Christmas Tree. These plates are impressed with larger or smaller designs, and so make two different sizes of goods possible. A third plate is supplied for the manufacture of whole pieces (various varieties of chocolate croquette).
The machine works smoothly and noiselessly and delivers excellent products. If instead of the usual plain lozenges, such with the name of a firm or other device are desired, the corresponding impressions must be stamped out on the plate in which the chocolate is received after being forced through the perforations. See fig. 66, g, h, i.
Fig. 67 illustrates the pastille machine Nr. 14 178 for thin chocolate mass, constructed by A. Reiche (German Patent 227 200). It resembles the foregoing apparatus in principle and appearance, being only distinguished by a different aim, namely the treatment of thin material. Used in conjunction with the peculiar moulds also manufactured by the same firm (marked “Durabula”), even the deepest impressions can be effected with an enormous saving of time and material and in a most practical manner, as will be seen on comparing figs. 69 a to d.
In order to get the full value out of this machine, some little practice is necessary on the part of the workman in charge. But possessed of an average amount of skill, he can soon turn out with this apparatus ten times as much as can be made with the ordinary type of lozenge machine.
For a favourable accommodation of the different pastille plates, the hurdle diagrammed in fig. 68 (by A. Reiche) is quite excellent. It is manufactured out of one complete sheet of steel, is free from any suspicion of soldering, and entirely galvanised. It thus offers a strong guarantee as regards wear and tear. It may also be advantageously employed as a transporting device.