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US 12,108,769 B2Granted
De-aeration cavities in a mould member
AssigneeGea Food Solutions Bakel B.V.
InventorsHendrikus Petrus Gerardus Van Gerwen, Andreas Leonardus De Bijl
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a food product forming apparatus with a food forming member, which comprises a multitude of product cavities and a seal plate which sealingly cooperates with the surface of the mould drum.
Claims11
A food product forming apparatus comprising:
- a mould drum comprising a multitude of product cavities, each of the multitude of product cavities comprise a bottom wall and a sidewall made of a porous material;
- an infeed channel 1 mass is supplied to the mould drum;
- a fluid passage, which extends in a longitudinal direction of the mould drum;
- a pair of stabilization blocks, one of which is arranged upstream of the infeed channel and a second of which is arranged downstream of the infeed channel;
- a seal plate;
- one or more piston/cylinder arrangements that are arranged above each of the pair of stabilization blocks and that are controlled and configured to press the pair of stabilization blocks against the seal plate to cause the seal plate to be moved relative to a surface of the mould drum to change a size of a gap that is defined between the seal plate and the surface of the mould drum during filling of the multitude of product cavities with the food mass;
- and
- a controller configured to control the one or more piston/cylinder arrangements to change the size of the gap;
- wherein during the filling of the multitude of product cavities, entrapped air within one or more of the multitude of product cavities is removed therefrom through the porous material, the fluid passage, and the gap.
6 more elements
A food product forming apparatus comprising:
- a mould drum comprising a multitude of product cavities, each of the multitude of product cavities comprise a bottom wall and a sidewall made of a porous material;
- an infeed channel through which food mass is supplied to the mould drum;
- a fluid passage, which extends in a longitudinal direction of the mould drum;
- a pair of stabilization elements, one of which is arranged upstream of the infeed channel and a second of which is arranged downstream of the infeed channel,
- a seal plate, which sealingly cooperates with a surface of the mould drum to define a gap between the seal plate and the surface of the mould drum;
- one or more inflatable bellows that are configured to apply pressure on the pair of stabilization elements to press the stabilization elements against the seal plate to cause the seal plate to move towards the surface of the mould drum to reduce a size of the gap or to close the gap during filling of the multitude of product cavities, and the one or more inflatable bellows are configured to reduce the pressure acting on the pair of stabilization elements to reduce the pressure on the seal plate to increase the size of the gap during filling of the multitude of product cavities;
- a controller configured to control the one or more inflatable bellows to increase the pressure on the pair of stabilization elements to close the gap during filling of the multitude of product cavities, and then the controller is configured to control the one or more inflatable bellows to reduce the pressure acting on the pair of stabilization elements to create or increase the size of the gap during the filling of the multitude of product cavities.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.