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US 12,077,334 B2Granted
Tray for soft materials and methods of loading trays with soft materials
AssigneeMeaty Meats Inc.
InventorsVincent Girimonte, Alessandro Girimonte
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A tray for receiving sausages is provided. The tray includes cells which are adapted to substantially match the shape of sausages or other soft materials. The tray may be vacuum sealed to cause a relatively uniform top surface suitable for stacking. The tray may be sealed without pre-freezing the sausages and without causing significant deformation to said sausages upon thawing. The tray may be loaded in an automated manner without the use of robotic arms placing individual sausages into the tray.
Claims15
A method of loading a tray with fresh meat articles, the method comprising:
- displacing, on a first conveyor line, at least one fresh meat article towards a tray having a plurality of cells for receiving the at least one fresh meat article, the tray sitting on a second conveyor line oriented at an angle relative to a direction of travel of the at least one fresh meat article;
- detecting, by a sensing device, presence of the at least one fresh meat article on the first conveyor line;
- arranging said tray below said at least one fresh meat article on said second conveyor line;
- conveying said at least one fresh meat article into one or more of said plurality of cells;
- and
- displacing, by the second conveyor line, the tray by an increment,
- wherein a processor maintains a count of said increment, and wherein said processor is configured to cause dispensing of another tray onto said second conveyor line after said count reaches a predetermined threshold.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.