Apparatus and method of transporting food products to a loading head
AssigneeMarel Meat Processing Inc.
InventorsDavid W. Alexander, Kevin J. Hansen, Colin R. Hart, Joshua W. Higgins
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus and method of transporting food products (10) to a loading station (12) having a cooling conveyor (14) that selectively drops food product into a distributor (34). The distributor (34) separates product into at least two lanes (48, 50) and drops product onto a conveyor. A balancing and diverting conveyor (46) monitors and counts product in each lane (48, 50) and diverts product selectively based upon the sensed product. An orienter (70, 80) transfers product from a loading conveyor (68) to a buffer conveyor (72). The buffer conveyor (72) transfers product to a main conveyor (76) which transfers product to a loading head (84).
Claims11
An apparatus for transporting food product to a loading head station, comprising:
- a distributor that is adapted to separate food product into more than one lane on a conveyor,
- an orienter that is adapted to remove product from the conveyor and transfer food product to a loading head, and
- a first sensor positioned near an entry of each lane wherein the sensor monitors the spacing of products and detects overlapping products which transmits a signal to a controller for each product that passes and in response to the sensor's detection of overlapping products.
A method of transferring food product to a loading head, comprising the steps of:
- transferring food product from a cooling conveyor to a distributor;
- separating the food product into more than one lane;
- changing the food product in each lane from an end to end arrangement to a side to side arrangement,
- transferring the food product to a loading head, and
- monitoring the spacing of food products with a first sensor positioned near an entry of each lane, and detecting the overlapping of food products with a first sensor positioned near an entry of each lane, and
- transmitting a signal from the sensor to a controller for each product that passes and in response to the sensor's detection of overlapping products.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.