Method and device for shaping and portioning a soft, pasty product

A device for shaping and portioning a soft, pasty product within a tubular casing made of a plastic foil material, comprising:

• a shaping and portioning station, to which the soft, pasty encased product is supplied and from which the encased product leaves in divided portions;
• and
• a metering station arranged directly upstream of the shaping and portioning station, to meter a quantity of the product supplied to the shaping, and portioning station per unit of time;
• means for monitoring the density of the product;
• wherein the device permits interruption of the supplying and portioning steps such that the device is capable of preventing unmetered encased pasty product from flowing through the metering station;
• and
• wherein the device is capable of accurately maintaining a preset weight of the product despite variations in product density.

A device for shaping and portioning a soft, pasty product within a tubular casing, the casing made of a plastic foil material, the device comprising:

• a shaping and portioning station to which the encased product, the casing made of the plastic foil material, is supplied and from which the encased product leaves in divided portions;
• and
• a metering station comprising a frame, the station in operative association with an automatic weighing device arranged directly upstream of the shaping and portioning station to meter a quantity of the product supplied to the shaping and portioning station per unit of time, the metering station further comprising:
• rotatable rollers, each of the rollers mounted to the frame and each of the rollers being arranged axially parallel at a distance apart from one another;
• and
• an adjusting device for adjusting the distance between the rotatable rollers such that the distance between the rollers can be automatically adjusted by linearly adjusting at least one of the rollers with respect to another of the rollers in response to signals from the automatic weighing device in order to maintain the portions at a preset weight, the adjusting device in operative association with at least one of the rollers;
• means for accurately maintaining a preset weight of the product despite variations in product density;
• and
• means for preventing unmetered, encased soft, pasty product from flowing through the metering station.

A method for shaping and portioning a soft, pasty product, the method comprising:

• passing an encased, soft, pasty product through a metering station;
• metering a quantity of the product per unit of time to obtain a metered product by rotating two rollers in opposition directions, the rollers arranged axially parallel at a distance apart from one another, the distance defining a product space through which the product passes;
• supplying the metered product to a shaping and portioning station;
• portioning the metered product into individual product portions in the shaping and portioning station;
• and
• maintaining a preset weight of the product despite variations in product density by weighing the individual portions, generating a weight signal for each of the individual portions, comparing the weight signal to a preset portion weight, and using the weight signal to determine whether the product space should be adjusted based upon whether the portion weight is over or under the preset portion weight, and if so, automatically adjusting the distance between the rollers in response to changes in the density of the product.

A device for shaping and portioning an encased, soft, pasty product, the device comprising:

• a shaping and portioning station to which the encased, soft, pasty product is supplied and from which the product leaves in divided portions;
• and
• a metering station arranged directly upstream of the shaping and portioning station, to meter a quantity of the product supplied to the shaping and portioning station per unit of time, the metering station comprising two rollers capable of rotating in opposite directions and arranged axially parallel at a distance apart from one another, the distance defining a product space through which the product passes;
• and
• means for maintaining a preset weight of the product despite variations in product density by weighing the divided pasty product portions, generating a weight signal for each of the divided portions, comparing the weight signal to a preset portion weight, and determining whether the product space should be adjusted based upon whether the portion weight is over or under the preset portion weight, and if so, automatically adjusting the distance between the rollers in response to changes in the density of the product.