Coating of food products with a particulate coating material

A coating machine adapted to coat food products with a particulate coating material, the coating machine comprising:

• a food products conveyor moved by a drive and adapted to receive food products to be coated at an inlet of the coating machine and to discharge coated food products at an outlet of the coating machine;
• a coating device arranged between the inlet and the outlet of the coating machine and arranged to supply with particulate coating material and to subject the food products to a coating treatment wherein some of the particulate coating material adheres to the food products;
• a separation station for excess coating material and configured to separate excess coating material from said coated food products to recover the excess coating material for reuse;
• an excess coating material recovery conveyor including:
• a recovered excess coating material bed support adapted to receive thereon at a reception location the recovered excess coating material from said separation station to form a recovered excess coating material bed of separated excess coating material on the recovered excess coating material bed support;
• a recovery conveyor run above said recovered excess coating material bed support and movable relative to said excess coating material bed support and configured to convey said excess coating material bed over said recovered excess coating material bed support;
• a particulate coating material elevator device driven by a motor drive and adapted to receive a portion of the excess coating material from said recovery conveyor and to supply the excess coating material to the coating device for reuse;
• wherein the coating machine comprises an elevator device fill assembly arranged along the recovery conveyor downstream of the reception location and configured to fill the elevator device with recovered excess coating material;
• wherein said elevator device fill assembly includes:
• at least one adjustable discharge opening device adapted to control at least one discharge opening in the recovered excess coating material bed support arranged to discharge at a first adjustable-rate a portion of the recovered excess coating material bed passing over the at least one discharge opening into the particulate coating material elevator device;
• an upper layer diverter device configured to engage an upper layer of the recovered excess coating material bed passing over the recovered excess coating material bed support, with a lower layer passing underneath the upper layer diverter device, and to divert at least a portion of said upper layer at a second adjustable rate into the elevator device.