Apparatus for manufacturing biodegradable food service article and method

An apparatus for manufacture of biodegradable food service articles and the like, comprising:

• a press having upper and lower press plates operable to press the press plates together, said press plates defining cavities having a shape for molding a plurality of food service articles, said press being operable to form the food service articles in a matrix arrangement;
• a heater in said press to heat said cavities;
• a supply of biodegradable slurry;
• a depositer mounted to move between said upper and lower press plates, said depositor being connected to said supply of biodegradable slurry and operable to deposit predetermined quantities of the slurry into said cavities in said press plates, said depositer including an accumulator to receive a quantity of the slurry from said supply and provide the slurry during depositing, said depositor including a plurality of depositor nozzles connected to said accumulator and being operable to deposit the slurry row by row in said matrix arrangement;
• a first transfer assembly including a plurality of vacuum pickups in a matrix arrangement corresponding to said matrix arrangement of said press, said first transfer assembly being mounted and operable to move between said upper and lower press plates, said vacuum pickups being operable to engage molded food service articles substantially simultaneously in substantially all of said cavities of said matrix arrangement of said press and to remove the molded food service articles from said cavities, said first transfer assembly having a turn over apparatus constructed and operable to invert the food service articles held by said vacuum pickups, said first transfer assembly being movable along a first transfer path;
• a second transfer assembly having a plurality of article vacuum holding elements, said second transfer assembly being operable to receive the molded food service articles from said vacuum pickups of said first transfer assembly at a transfer position and hold the food service articles in said article vacuum holding elements, said second transfer assembly receiving the food service articles from said first transfer assembly, said second transfer assembly constructed to receive rows of said food service products from said first transfer assembly, said second transfer assembly being movable along a second transfer path, said second transfer path overlapping said first transfer path at said transfer position;
• a trimmer having trimming blades, said trimmer being positioned along said second transfer position and being constructed and operable to trim excess material from the molded food service articles held in said article vacuum holding elements of said second transfer assembly, said trimmer being constructed and operable to trim said food service articles on a row by row basis;
• a dust collector operable to collect debris from said trimmer;
• a laminator in said second transfer path, said laminator being operable to apply a film to a surface of the food service articles after said trimmer has trimmed the food service articles, said laminator constructed and operable to apply the film to the food service articles row by row;
• an off loading station in said second transfer path and constructed and operable to receive the food service articles row by row from the second transfer apparatus;
• a conveyor receiving the food service articles from said off loading station, said conveyor being constructed and operable to transport the food service articles along a conveying path in single file;
• a coating station constructed and operable to apply a coating to the food service articles, said coating station being disposed along said conveying path;
• an inspection station in said conveying path, said inspection station including an optical inspection device constructed and operable to visually inspect the food service articles on the conveyor, said inspection station including a food service article removing apparatus to selectively remove ones of the food service articles from the conveyor;
• and
• a packaging station along said conveyor path.