John Bean Technologies Corporation

Cooling & Applied Technology, Inc.

Michael E Miller

Jeremy B Estes

Andrew C Estes

Robert M Stacy

Jogesh Chandran

John Joseph Bauer

Roy Allen Schippel

Jeffery L Schoewe

J Barton Langley

Darin L Chancellor

Lucas M Miller

A rocker-type poultry chiller, including a tank for receiving poultry carcasses and holding chilled water, an axle mounted in the tank, a main paddle connected to the axle, and a side paddle connected to the axle. The oscillation of the main paddle and the side paddle urges the carcasses upwardly and laterally, which contributes to the cooling of the carcasses as a result of their thorough contact in the chilled water. The movement of the paddles also gently massages the carcasses by gently bumping them against the paddle blades and the wall of the tank. The repeated compression of the carcasses tends to tenderize the meat. The side paddles ensure more predictable and consistent contact between the paddles and all of the carcasses, which causes more agitation of the carcasses and more effective washing of the carcasses.

Three-paddle rocker chiller

A contact freezer () combining the techniques of plate freezing and impingement freezing. One or more cooling modules () are disposed sequentially with a continuous conveyor () for carrying a food product. Each cooling module () includes a refrigerated plate () disposed underneath and supporting the conveyor (). The food product is simultaneously cooled using the impingement freezing technique. A cooling coil () is disposed above the conveyor (). One or more fans () disposed below the cooling coil () circulate air downwardly through the cooling coil () and through an array of diverters () so that high speed cooled air is directed onto the food product. The contact freezer () may also include a pre-chilling section () with a refrigerated plate () but without impingement freezing elements.

Combined impingement/plate freezer

An auger-type poultry chiller having an auger with multiple long-pitch auger blades. The blades of the auger create pockets that spiral around the auger shaft and extend the length of the auger. While the product in the chiller is locked into a certain pocket, it is not locked into a certain spot lengthwise in the chiller. The product, therefore, is able to distribute evenly along the length of the chiller within its pocket even if there are gaps in loading time or if unloading stops momentarily.

Poultry chiller with multi-blade long-pitch auger

A breading machine for dispensing a coating material onto a food product includes a breading chamber, a continuous conveyor for transporting food products through the breading chamber, a hopper including at least one downspout and a sloped bottom for dispensing coating material onto the food products, a hopper conveyor positioned within the hopper. At least one of an angular position or a vertical position of the hopper conveyor is adjustable to accommodate a variety of free flowing and non-free flowing coating materials. One or more air knives may be positioned in the downspouts to fluidize the coating material to alleviate bridging and/or build-up of the coating material within the downspout.

Food breader

A counter flow, re-circulating, externally refrigerated auger type chiller. The chiller has a tank that is semi-cylindrical in shape so that the walls of the tank conform closely to the circular cross section of the auger. By minimizing the gap between the walls of the tank and the outer edges of the rotating auger, the counter flowing chilled water is forced to flow in the helical path determined by the auger. This assures a longer residence time for the chilled water in the auger, more thorough and more intimate contact between the poultry carcasses and the chilled water, and thus more efficient transfer of heat from the poultry carcasses to the chilled water.

Water flow for auger type poultry chiller

A structural system for an auger type poultry chiller in which the air header and structural system are integrated together. A hollow box beam on the longitudinal upper edge of the housing of the chiller provides structural strength and ridigity to the housing. The box beam is airtight and the box beam is connected to a source of pressurized air so that the box beam also serves as an air header. Air hoses connect a series of connectors along the length of the box beam to inlets on the bottom of the chiller housing to introduce pressurized air to the chilled water to prevent clumping of the chilled poultry carcasses. The strength of the box beam air header allows the supports for the auger to be mounted directly to the top of the box beam. In order to provide mounting connections without sacrificing the airtight integrity of the box beam, one or more tubes are run vertically through the box beam at points of attachment for the auger support structure. Bolts run through the tubes fasten the auger supports to the box beam. Desirably, the tubes are slightly oversized so as to allow some adjustment in the longitudinal and transverse placement of the auger support. Furthermore, the location of the auger support on the top of the box beam allows the vertical placement of the auger support to be adjusted by the placement of shims between the auger support and the top of the box beam.

Growing community of inventors

Hattieville, AR, United States of America

Michael E Miller