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AssigneeConAgra Foods, Inc.
InventorsSarid M. Shefet, John Michael Phillips, Frank Michael Horvath, Jr., Richard Rodeheaver Hawkins, Lawrence Alan Chandler
Estimating the term…
Methods, systems, and associated devices for supplying support members to a product loading station and automatically removing loaded members therefrom include: (a) advancing in serial order and spaced apart relationship, a plurality of elongated support members having opposing first and second ends and an associated length, along a selected travel path; (b) loading each of the elongated support members individually with a respective continuous length of multiple loops or multiple discrete lengths of elongated product at the loading station; and (c) advancing the loaded elongated support members away from the loading station along the selected travel path. The loaders may be configured with winding mechanisms that wind elongated products directly onto elongated support members, such as bars, sticks, or rods, by causing the arm to follow a repetitive motion pattern above and below the stick or rod to discharge the elongated product in a winding motion onto the bar, stick, or rod so that they loop or drape directly onto the rod, stick, bar or other desired food support is also described.
An automated elongated support member supply and removal system comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.