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CN-115817910-B - Apparatus and method for providing a product stream having aligned food products on a product substrate

CN115817910BCN 115817910 BCN115817910 BCN 115817910BCN-115817910-B

Abstract

An apparatus and method for providing a product stream having a mutually aligned food product on a product substrate is described. According to the device and method, a first conveyor belt is used for the supply transport of the food products and the mutual transverse alignment of each other, a second conveyor belt adjoins in the transport direction at a gap-like belt transition and can be controlled individually, for the discharge transport of the food products and the mutual longitudinal alignment of each other, and a substrate placement device is used for supplying the product substrates from below through the belt transition in front of/below the food products respectively transported through the belt transition. This enables alignment and substrate placement in a particularly compact and reliable configuration at the single ribbon transition.

Inventors

  • S. MILLER

Assignees

  • 阿尔伯特汉特曼机械制造有限公司

Dates

Publication Date
20260508
Application Date
20220915
Priority Date
20210917

Claims (20)

  1. 1. An apparatus (100) for providing a product flow (PS) of mutually aligned food products (LP) on a product substrate (PU) comprises a first conveyor belt (1) for the supply transport of the food products and mutual transverse alignment of each other, a second conveyor belt (2) adjoining in a transport direction (TR) at a gap-like belt transition (8) and being individually controllable at a variable transport speed (V2) for the discharge transport of the food products and mutual longitudinal alignment of each other; Wherein the gap-like belt transition (8) is formed by at least one deflection roller (1 b) on the outlet side of the first conveyor belt (1) and at least one deflection roller (2 a) on the inlet side of the second conveyor belt (2) with a gap between them, And a substrate placement device (3) for supplying the product substrate from below through the belt transition in front of/below the food product respectively conveyed through the belt transition, The device (100) further comprises at least one actuator (1C) for moving the outlet-side end of the first conveyor belt (1) in a direction transverse to the conveying direction (TR) to different alignment positions (5) for aligning the food items (LP) individually with respect to the substrate placement device (3).
  2. 2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the first conveyor belt (1) has a variable conveying speed (V1).
  3. 3. The device according to claim 2, further comprising at least one actuator (1C), with which actuator (1C) the inlet-side end can also be displaced transversely to the conveying direction (TR) to different alignment positions (5) for individually aligning the food product (LP) relative to the substrate placement device (3).
  4. 4. A device according to claim 3, having a control device (4), the control device (4) being configured to terminate the movement to the respective alignment position (5) upon travel of the first conveyor belt (1) before the respective food product contacts the associated product substrate (PU) and/or the second conveyor belt (2).
  5. 5. The device according to claim 3 or 4, having a control device (4), the control device (4) being configured to maintain the aligned position (5) at least until the food products (LP) that have all been aligned thereby have completely left the first conveyor belt (1).
  6. 6. The device according to claim 4, having a control device (4), the control device (4) being configured to increase the conveying speed (V1) of the first conveyor belt (1) and/or the conveying speed (V2) of the second conveyor belt (2) in an automatic manner to longitudinally align the food product (LP) when the food product (LP) has been fully received by the first conveyor belt or by the associated product substrate (PU) by the second conveyor belt (2).
  7. 7. The device according to claim 6, wherein the control device (4) is configured to increase the conveying speed (V1) of the first conveyor belt (1) and/or the conveying speed (V2) of the second conveyor belt (2) in an automatic manner to longitudinally align the food products (LP) once the food products (LP) have been completely received by the first conveyor belt or by the associated product substrates (PU) by the second conveyor belt (2) and/or when the associated product substrates are present in a separated manner.
  8. 8. The apparatus according to claim 3 or 4, having a control device (4), the control device (4) being configured to temporarily match the conveying speed (V1)/speed profile of the first conveyor belt (1) and the conveying speed (V2)/speed profile of the second conveyor belt (2) and the advancing speed (V3) of the product substrate (PU) with each other for supplying the product substrate (PU) and for placing the food product (LP).
  9. 9. The device according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the substrate placement device (3) is configured to separate the product substrate (PU) from a strip-shaped carrier material (TM), and the advancing speed (V3) of the substrate placement device is adaptable to the conveying speed (V1) of the first conveyor belt (1) and/or the conveying speed (V2) of the second conveyor belt (2).
  10. 10. The device according to claim 9, wherein the advancing speed (V3) of the substrate placement device is adaptable for cutting the product substrate when the respectively associated food product (LP) has not yet completely rested on the second conveyor belt.
  11. 11. Method for providing a product flow (PS) of mutually aligned food products (LP) on a product substrate (PU) using a device (100) according to any of the preceding claims 1-10, wherein the food products are fed in on a first conveyor belt (1) and aligned relative to each other in a transverse direction (QR) by motorized adjustment of at least one deflection roller of the first conveyor belt, wherein the product substrates are fed from below at the end of the outlet side of the first conveyor belt and the food products are received and conveyed away by a second conveyor belt (2) adjoining in the conveying direction by the fed product substrates, and wherein the food products are aligned relative to each other in a longitudinal direction (LR) by adjusting the speed of the first conveyor belt and/or the speed of the second conveyor belt, Wherein the food product (LP) is aligned relative to the supplied product substrate (PU) by mechanically adjusting the outlet-side end of the first conveyor belt (1) to a separate alignment position (5) transversely to the conveying direction (TR) during the transport of the food product, and the adjustment is done before the food product contacts the product substrate and/or the second conveyor belt (2).
  12. 12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the food product (LP) has a plastically deformable consistency.
  13. 13. Method according to claim 11, wherein the conveying interval (11) between the food products is equalized by adjusting the speed of the first conveyor belt and/or the speed of the second conveyor belt.
  14. 14. Method according to any one of claims 11 to 13, wherein the food product (LP) is further aligned during the transport of the food product (LP) by motorized adjustment of the end of the inlet side of the first conveyor belt (1) to a separate alignment position (5) with respect to the supplied product substrate (PU) transversely to the transport direction (TR) before the food product contacts the product substrate and/or the second conveyor belt (2).
  15. 15. Method according to claim 14, wherein the alignment positions (5) for the end portions of the outlet side of each food product (LP) are individually set to be maintained at least until the associated food product has completely left the first conveyor belt (1).
  16. 16. Method according to any one of claims 11 to 13, wherein the conveying speed (V1) of the first conveyor belt (1) and/or the conveying speed (V2) of the second conveyor belt (2) for longitudinal alignment/interval adjustment of the food product (LP) is/are adjusted mechanically when the respective food product has been completely received for conveying by the first conveyor belt or by the associated product substrate (PU) by the second conveyor belt and/or the associated product substrate is present in a separated manner.
  17. 17. Method according to any one of claims 11 to 13, wherein the conveying speed (V1) of the first conveyor belt (1) and/or the conveying speed (V2) of the second conveyor belt (2) for longitudinal alignment/interval adjustment of the food product (LP) is/are adjusted mechanically once the respective food product has been completely received for conveying by the first conveyor belt or by the associated product substrate (PU) by the second conveyor belt and/or the associated product substrate is present in a separate manner.
  18. 18. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 13, wherein the conveying speed (V1)/speed profile of the first conveyor belt (1) and the conveying speed (V2)/speed profile of the second conveyor belt (2) and the advancing speed (V3) of the product substrate (PU) are temporarily matched to each other for supplying the product substrate (PU).
  19. 19. Method according to any one of claims 11 to 13, wherein the product substrate (PU) made of strip-shaped carrier material (TM) is separated under the first conveyor belt (1) and/or the second conveyor belt (2).
  20. 20. Method according to claim 19, wherein the product substrate (PU) is supplied in a speed-synchronized manner with the first conveyor belt (1) and/or the second conveyor belt (2).

Description

Apparatus and method for providing a product stream having aligned food products on a product substrate Technical Field The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for providing a product stream of a foodstuff on a product substrate having mutual alignment. Background It is known that it is possible to produce food products, in particular fresh products, such as hamburger patties, minced meats or portions of cream cheese, on a production line with several machines which can be arranged by means of a conveyor belt with a packaging machine or a subsequent processing belt at the end of the conveyor belt. The food product often must be placed on a conveyor belt for processing. This is due to the shape and consistency of the food product. Prior to processing (such as frying, deep frying or deep freezing), the food products typically have a relatively soft and yieldable consistency, i.e. they are themselves dimensionally unstable during processing, but can be plastically deformed. Because of these product characteristics and the need to place the food product on the conveyor belt, their placement position transverse to the conveying direction may vary widely, so that this needs to be corrected before further processing in order to produce a sufficiently uniform transverse alignment. The mutual alignment of the food products in the longitudinal direction, i.e. the conveying interval between them, may vary considerably, so that automatic further processing is hindered or not possible without correcting the conveying interval. It is known that such correction can be achieved by arranging conveyor belts with variable conveying speeds. The fundamental challenge in handling the food product is to reliably transfer the food product from one conveyor to the next. For this purpose, the respective characteristics of the food product as well as the characteristics of the device, such as the diameter of the deflecting rollers at the beginning and end of the conveyor belt, the respective safety distance between the conveyor belts, the alignment of the conveyor belts relative to each other and any speed differences that may exist between successive conveyor belts, have to be taken into account. Thus, the belt transition is a potential source of failure in the production process. On the other hand, certain process steps require an associated belt transition, such as aligning the food product on a conveyor belt and supplying a sheet-like product substrate, such as a carrier paper, for each product. For example, a device 200 for aligning a food product LP in a transverse direction QR relative to a conveying direction TR and in a longitudinal direction LR parallel to the conveying direction is shown by way of example and schematically in fig. 2. For this purpose, the device 200 comprises at least one first conveyor belt 201 and an adjoining second conveyor belt 202, the deflection rollers of the exit side of the first conveyor belt 201 being adjustable in the transverse direction QR, the conveying speed of the second conveyor belt 202 being variable. For this purpose, the outlet-side end 201a of the first conveyor belt 201 is adjusted separately for each food item LP, so that a product stream PS is obtained with the food items LP aligned substantially identically in the transverse direction QR, as illustrated in fig. 2. Further, the conveying speed of the second conveyor belt 202 for each food item LP is varied such that the food items LP in the resulting product stream PS have substantially the same conveying interval. As is known, in this respect, it is necessary to detect the respective lateral and longitudinal positions of the upstream food item LP (not shown), for example by imaging on the upstream conveyor belt 203. Also known is an apparatus 300 for feeding a sheet-like product substrate PU through a belt transition 303 formed between a first conveyor belt 301 and an adjoining second conveyor belt 302, the apparatus 300 being shown schematically and by way of example in fig. 3. For this purpose, the device 300 comprises a substrate placement device 304, the substrate placement device 304 having a withdrawal device 305 for withdrawing the strip-shaped carrier material TM and having a separation unit 306 for separating the product substrates PU by continuously cutting the product substrates PU from the strip-shaped carrier material TM. The individual product substrates PU are supplied synchronously from below directly in front of the products LP at the conveying speed of the products LP, so that each product LP runs onto a product substrate PU and is conveyed away on the product substrate PU by means of the second conveyor belt 302. The described apparatus 200, 300 and the method performed therewith have the disadvantage that a plurality of conveyors 201, 202, 301, 302 and possibly upstream, intermediate and/or downstream conveyors are required to perform the respective process steps. In addition to the undesirab