Apparatus for temporarily immersing articles in a hot-water bath
OwnerSergio Marchettiinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Articles--e.g. foodstuffs wrapped in polyethylene bags--to be subjected to heat treatment in a bath of hot water are dropped from an input conveyor into an elongate tank at an inlet end for entrainment by a circulating flow toward an outlet end. A perforated extraction conveyor partly immersed in the water intercepts the entrained articles and lifts them out of the flow onto an output conveyor for drying and subsequent storage. The entering water may be set in vortical motion by convoluted baffles, converging in the flow direction, for insuring full submersion of the articles to be treated.
Claims7
An apparatus for subjecting articles to a heat treatment for predetermined periods, comprising:
- an upwardly open vessel having an inlet end and an outlet end;
- heating and circulation means with conduits externally connected to said vessel at said inlet and outlet ends for creating a continuous, substantially horizontal and unidirectional flow of hot water therein;
- an input conveyor overhanging said vessel for continuously dropping articles to be treated into a zone of said vessel near said inlet end for entrainment by the flow toward said outlet end;
- a pair of submerged baffles in said vessel flanking said zone, said baffles having downwardly diverging confronting surfaces positioned to create a vortex in said flow insuring full submersion of the articles dropped from said input conveyor;
- and
- transport means in said vessel near said outlet end for intercepting the entrained articles and lifting same out of said vessel for removal to a further destination.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.