Delivery tray mounting system for food product printer
AssigneePrimera Technology, Inc.
InventorsRobert P. Cummins, Todd Britz, Erick Hagstrom
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A printer and corresponding method of printing an image on a surface of a plurality of food products by providing a system having a printer with an extendable and retractable receiving arm and a movable food product delivery tray for continuously and automatically providing delivery of unprinted food products which are retracted into the printer, printed on, and returned by the receiving arm to the rotatable delivery tray and the tray further moves to deliver subsequent food products for printing. A motorized base spaced apart from the printer supports the delivery tray during and printing processes.
Claims20
A delivery mechanism for delivering food products to a printer for printing on a surface thereof, the mechanism comprising:
- a motorized tray base spaced apart from the printer and configured to removably receive a delivery tray thereon, the tray base comprising a mounting element configured for engaging with a delivery tray and transferring motion from the tray base to the delivery tray;
- at least one delivery tray for supporting one or more food products on a surface thereof and the delivery tray comprising a receiving element configured to removably couple to the mounting element of the tray base.
A method of delivering food product to a printer and removing printed product from the printer comprising:
- providing a tray base spaced apart from a printer;
- removably coupling a delivery tray to the tray base by positioning the delivery tray for connection with the tray base and engaging one or more receiving elements of the delivery tray with one or more corresponding mounting elements of the tray base;
- loading one or more unprinted food items onto a respective food support surface of the delivery tray;
- rotating the delivery tray;
- removing one or more printed food items from the respective food support surface;
- and
- removing the delivery tray from the tray base without tools.
A system for printing on a surface of a plurality of food products, the system comprising:
- a printer configured to print on a surface of a food product;
- a tray base spaced apart from the printer and the tray base having a mounting element and a drive element for operably supporting a delivery tray thereon;
- and
- a delivery tray having a reciprocal mounting element and reciprocal drive element for removably securing the delivery tray to the tray base without tools, and wherein the delivery tray comprises a plurality of surfaces for holding a plurality of food items,
- wherein the tray base is a motorized tray base for rotating the delivery tray in synch with the extension and retraction of a receiving arm of the printer to automatically deliver each one of the plurality of food products to the receiving arm in a sequential manner for printing on the food product and for receiving the returned printed food products for removal from the printer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.