Mass supply system
AssigneeGea Food Solutions Bakel B.V.
InventorHendrikus Petrus Gerardus Van Gerwen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system for forming a product. The system includes a hopper with a rotating feeder; a mold drum with cavities; and a feed pump with a moving member. The feed pump is configured to pump food mass from the hopper into the cavities. The system has means configured to determine: a position and a motion of the mold drum relative to a frame of the system; a position and a motion of the moving member of the feed pump relative to a housing of the feed pump; and a position and a motion of the rotating feeder relative to the hopper to synchronize the motion of the mold drum and the motion of the moving member of the feed pump and to synchronize the motion of the rotating feeder with the motion of the moving member of the feed pump. The system has at least two pressure sensors.
Claims10
A system for forming a product from a food mass, the system comprising:
- a hopper with a rotating feeder;
- a mould drum comprising cavities to form products, the cavities are at least partially made from a porous material;
- and
- a feed pump with a moving member, the feed pump is configured to pump the food mass from the hopper into the cavities;
- wherein the system comprises means configured to determine:
- i) a position and a motion of the mould drum relative to a frame of the system;
- and
- ii) a position and a motion of the moving member of the feed pump relative to a housing of the feed pump;
- and
- iii) a position and a motion of the rotating feeder relative to the hopper to synchronize the motion of the mould drum and the motion of the moving member of the feed pump and to synchronize the motion of the rotating feeder with the motion of the moving member of the feed pump,
- wherein the feed pump is connected to a vacuum source, and
- wherein the system comprises at least two pressure sensors that are arranged between the feed pump and the mould drum, the at least two pressure sensors are configured to determine a pressure distribution over an axial length of the mould drum and over an axial length of an outlet of the feed pump.
A system for forming a product from a food mass, comprising:
- a hopper with a rotating feeder;
- a mould drum;
- and
- a feed pump with a moving member;
- wherein the mould drum comprises cavities to form products;
- wherein the cavities are at least partially made from a porous material;
- wherein to synchronize a motion of the mould drum and a motion of the moving member of the feed pump, the system comprises means configured to determine:
- i) a position and the motion of the mould drum relative to a frame of the system;
- and
- ii) a position and the motion of the moving member relative to a housing of the feed pump,
- wherein the feed pump is connected to a vacuum source that is configured to apply vacuum to the feed pump prior to an inlet of the food mass, the vacuum source is provided within the housing of the feed pump,
- wherein the feed pump is a positive displacement pump with a rotor,
- wherein an axis of rotation of the rotor is in parallel to an axis of rotation of the mould drum,
- wherein the positive displacement pump is a portioning device, the portioning device is configured to feed the food mass towards the mould drum to fill one of the cavities or a row of the cavities, a speed of rotation of the rotor is reduced during filling of the cavities, and
- wherein the system comprises at least two pressure sensors that are arranged between the feed pump and the mold drum, the at least two pressure sensors are configured to determine a pressure distribution over an axial length of the mould drum and over an axial length of an outlet of the feed pump.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.