Particulate distributor
AssigneeJ. E. Grote Company, Inc.
InventorsTony L. Thomas, William W. Wharton
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A particulate, such as grated cheese, distributor for breaking up and distibuting clumps of cheese over a defined surface of a tiltable conveyor (30, 31). The distributor includes a housing (10, 11) with a throat axle (22, 23), with a plurality of radial paddles (21), is positioned at the lower end of the throat to strike and break up the clumps of cheese in the charge and distribute the cheese over a wide area. The cheese particles follow trajectories that include a plurality of downwardly extending stationary rods (44, 45) spaced radially outwardly of the axle, and a shroud (42, 43) spaced radially outwardly of the stationary rods.
Claims13
An apparatus for breaking up agglomerated particulate and distributing it on a discrete portion of a substrate moving beneath the particulate, the apparatus comprising:
- (a) a housing mounted to a machine frame, said housing having a throat for guiding particulate poured therein;
- (b) an axle rotatably mounted near, and aligned with, the housing throat, said axle having radially extending paddles mounted thereto, each paddle mounted to the periphery of the axle at a radially inwardly facing paddle end and extending transversely from the axle for striking and distributing particulate that passes through the throat;
- (c) a plurality of stationary rods disposed radially outwardly of the axle forming an obstruction to particulate distributed by the paddles;
- and
- (d) a shroud having an inner shroud surface disposed radially outwardly of the stationary rods, said shroud extending from an upper shroud edge to a lower shroud edge for limiting the trajectory of particulate distributed by the paddles to the inner shroud surface.
An apparatus for breaking up agglomerated particulate and distributing it on a discrete portion of a substrate moving beneath the particulate, the apparatus comprising:
- (a) a housing mounted to a machine frame, said housing having a throat for guiding particulate poured therein;
- (b) an axle rotatably mounted near, and aligned with, the housing throat, said axle having radially extending paddles mounted thereto, each paddle mounted to the periphery of the axle at a radially inwardly facing paddle end and extending transversely from the axle for striking and distributing particulate poured through the throat;
- (c) a plurality of substantially parallel stationary rods connected to the machine frame and disposed radially outwardly of the axle forming an obstruction to particulate distributed by the paddles;
- (d) a shroud having an inner shroud surface disposed radially outwardly of the stationary rods, said shroud extending from an upper shroud edge to a lower shroud edge for limiting the trajectory of particulate distributed by the paddles to the inner shroud surface;
- and
- (e) a vertically adjustable conveyor having a longitudinally displaceable upper substrate surface positioned beneath the lower shroud edge, said conveyer being mounted in the manner of a cantilever having a pivotable end and an opposite, free end, said free end being tiltably displaceable vertically with respect to said lower shroud edge and said moving substrate, for receiving distributed particulate on the upper substrate surface, creating a space through which particulate on said upper substrate surface can be conveyed, and conveying it onto the moving substrate beneath the vertically adjustable conveyor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.