Abstract: A series of articulated product gripper mechanisms are mounted on a continuously operating pickup conveyor having a reach adjacent the product transfer zone of a continuously operating transport conveyor that has cold plates running through a freezing tunnel. The gripper mechanisms are employed to transfer frozen confections such as ice cream bars, ice cream cones, ice cream cups, and stickless or stick novelties from the transport conveyor cold plates to the pickup conveyor. Each gripper mechanism includes replaceable gripping tongs or fingers appropriate to the particular type of confection being handled, and is operable to pick up the moving confection, invert and dip the confection in a coating bath and in a dry confection applicator, and release the coated confection in predetermined orientation onto the inlet conveyor of an associated wrapping machine.

Abstract: A vertically disposed nozzle continuously extrudes a descending column or bar of semi-frozen confection which passes through a ring gear. A cutoff wire is anchored to the ring gear and to a second, laterally adjacent ring gear. Slip rings adjacent the ring gears electrically energize and heat the cutoff wire. Both gears are driven in the same direction, and the anchor points are located to maintain uniform interspacing and thus keep the cutoff wire linear to transversely slice the moving product bar. The gears and cutoff wire are adjustably mounted to be unitarily tilted from the horizontal so that the product bar is repetitively severed along parallel lines to produce slices each having uniform thickness, with the severance lines perpendicular to the side surfaces of the product bar. A wiper is arranged to clean the cutoff wire after each cutting stroke so that the product will not accumulate and burn onto the cutoff wire.