Methods and apparatus for feeding, weighing, and collecting solid food products with sticky coatings
AssigneeCabinplant International A/S
InventorHenning Ingemann Hansen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A multihead weigher with a collector for feeding, weighing and collecting solid food products with a sticky coating. The multihead weigher has a number of receptacles for weighing the solid food products and discharging the solid food product to the collector. Each receptacle having a scraper for scraping the surface of the receptacle when the solid food product is being discharged from the receptacle into the collector.
Claims8
A method of collecting solid food products with sticky coatings received from a multihead weigher, and discharging the collected solid food products, the method comprising:
- (a) providing an annularly shaped compartment with a first opening facing upwards for receiving the solid food products, the first opening delimited by two concentric side walls extending upwards from a bottom wall,
- (b) providing a first scraper positioned in the annularly shaped compartment and movable in an angular direction within the annularly shaped compartment, wherein a discharge compartment is defined within the annularly shaped compartment, the discharge compartment having a discharge opening;
- (c) providing a piston positioned in the discharge compartment and movable in a radial direction within the discharge compartment;
- (d) in a first operational mode, receiving the solid food products in the annularly shaped compartment from the multihead weigher,
- (e) in a second operational mode, scraping the annularly shaped compartment by moving the first scraper in the angular direction, thereby collecting the received solid food products into a first batch, and introducing the first batch into the discharge compartment;
- and
- (f) in a third operational mode, scraping the discharge compartment by moving the piston in the radial direction and discharging the first batch through the discharge opening.
A collector for collecting solid food products with sticky coatings received from a multihead weigher, and discharging the collected solid food products, the collector comprising:
- an annularly shaped compartment with a first opening facing upwards so as to receive the solid food products, the first opening delimited by two concentric side walls extending upwards from a bottom wall;
- a discharge compartment within the annularly shaped compartment and having a discharge opening;
- a first scraper positioned in the annularly shaped compartment and movable in an angular direction within the annularly shaped compartment so as to scrape the annularly shaped compartment, collect the received solid food products into a first batch, and introduce the first batch into the discharge compartment;
- and
- a piston positioned in the discharge compartment and movable in a radial direction within the discharge compartment so as to scrape the discharge compartment and discharge the first batch through the discharge opening.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.