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AssigneeConAgra Foods, Inc.
InventorsSarid M. Shefet, Lawrence Alan Chandler, John Michael Phillips, Frank Michael Horvath JR., Richard Rodeheaver Hawkins, Larry Jones
Estimating the term…
Methods, systems, and associated devices for supplying support members to a product loading station, loading, and automatically removing loaded members therefrom include: (a) advancing in spaced-apart relationship, a plurality of carrier members having opposing first and second ends and an associated width and length, along a selected travel path to a loading station; (b) presenting, in serial order, the carrier members to the loading station in a substantially horizontal orientation; (c) discharging elongated product from a winder arm that moves in a selected pattern about the carrier member at the loading station; (d) straddling elongated product over each respective carrier member at the loading station responsive to the discharging step so that portions of the elongated product are serially draped over the carrier member along a length thereof, the straddling being carried out so that certain lengths of the elongated product hang from opposing sides of the carrier member; and (e) advancing the carrier members loaded with the straddled product away from the loading station along the selected travel path to cause the loaded members to travel downstream of the loading station. The loaders may be configured with winding mechanisms that wind elongated products directly onto elongated support members, such as bars, sticks, or rods, by causing the arm to follow a repetitive motion pattern above and below the stick or rod to discharge the elongated product in a winding motion onto the bar, stick, or rod so that they loop or drape directly onto the rod, stick, bar or other desired food support is also described. The loader may be in cooperating alignment with a packing mechanism that re-distributes the straddled product so that adjacent suspended regions reside more closely together on the carrier members.
A method for supplying and loading carrier members at a loading station comprising a winding mechanism with an associated winder arm, comprising:
An system for supplying support members to a product loading station, loading the members, and automatically removing loaded support members therefrom, comprising:
An automated support member supply, load, and removal system comprising:
An automated food handling system, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.