Food product separating and aligning apparatus

A food product aligning apparatus comprising:

• (a) a hopper for receiving a plurality of food products;
• (b) a conveyor belt extending along an enclosed loop path at least below the hopper forming a first span of the conveyor belt defining a hopper floor, the conveyor belt extending upwardly from below the hopper toward a peak forming a second span of the conveyor belt having a vertical component and defining a hopper wall;
• (c) a plurality of horizontally-oriented cleats mounted to the conveyor belt at longitudinally-spaced intervals, each of the cleats protruding from a belt surface;
• and
• (d) a curved plate having a vertical component portion extending downwardly away from the conveyor belt from the peak toward a curved portion and extending to a horizontal component portion, the curved plate for receiving the food products that are raised by the cleats over the peak and slide down the vertical component portion and curved portion and are oriented substantially horizontally at the horizontal component portion.

A method of aligning food products, the method comprising:

• (a) disposing a plurality of food products in a hopper, each food product having a thickness;
• (b) driving a conveyor belt having a plurality of horizontally-oriented cleats mounted at longitudinally-spaced intervals, each of the cleats protruding from a belt surface less than the thickness, the belt being driven along an enclosed loop path, the path including:
• (i) a first span of the conveyor belt extending below the hopper defining a hopper floor;
• and
• (ii) a second span of the conveyor belt having a vertical component and extending upwardly from below the hopper toward a peak defining a hopper wall,
• at least one of the cleats having a downstream edge contacting at least one of the plurality of food product and displacing said at least one food product up the second span and over the peak;
• and
• (c) releasing said at least one food product from said at least one of the cleats near the peak down a curved plate having a vertical component portion extending downwardly from the peak toward a curved portion and extending to a horizontal component portion, said at least one food product sliding along the vertical component portion, the curved portion and the horizontal component portion.