Apparatus for 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 to a loading station having a cooling conveyor that selectively drops food product into a distributor. The distributor separates product into at least two lanes and drops product onto a conveyor. A balancing and diverting conveyor monitors and counts product in each lane and diverts product selectively based upon the sensed product. An orienter transfers product from a loading conveyor to a buffer conveyor. The buffer conveyor transfers product to a main conveyor which transfers product to a loading head.
Claims13
An alignment mechanism, comprising
- at least one drive wheel having a cam slot formed within the outer periphery of the wheel;
- and
- a guide member having at least one cam follower formed to be received within the cam slot and a pair of paddles that extend outwardly from the guide member.
An alignment mechanism, comprising
- at least one drive wheel having a cam slot adjacent to a conveyor;
- a guide member extending from the drive wheel over the conveyor and having a pair of paddles that extend outwardly from the guide member;
- and
- wherein the guide member is connected to at least one cam follower which is received within the cam slot such that the cam follower follows a path of the cam slot formed within the outer periphery of the drive wheel and the guide member moves toward and away from the drive wheel over the conveyor as the drive wheel rotates.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.