Thomas J. Lipton, Inc.

Thomas J. Lipton Co.,

Norman S Creswick

For use with automatic machinery for packaging a food product in foil pouches and then inserting a desired number of pouches in a box, a method and apparatus for scanning the boxes to check for missing pouches. The scan is accomplished by applying like alternating magnetic fields through each box and through the foil used to make the pouches at a point upstream from where the pouches are formed. Detected field absorption associated with the upstream foil is used as a reference, and the difference between it and detected field absorption associated with a box is proportional to the number of pouches in the box. The apparatus can detect if one out of two, one out of three, or one out of four is missing, and compensates the differential signal for variations in foil thickness by multiplying the reference signal by N-1, where N is desired pouch count per box. If a pouch is missing from a box, a signal is generated which can be used to trigger a rejection mechanism to remove the short-count box.

Auto compensating foil pouch detector

Dry tea leaf is extracted with aqueous solvent, preferably by countercurrent procedures at atmospheric pressure, the spent tea leaf is separated from the extract, the spent tea leaf is acidified to a pH within the range of 2.0 to 3.0, the acidified spent tea leaf is further extracted with aqueous solvent at temperatures of about 140.degree.-170.degree. C. for at least 4 minutes at pressures of about 80-100 psig to provide a high temperature/high pressure acid extract, and said high temperature/high pressure acid extract is used as aqueous solvent in the earlier extraction procedures to provide a high extraction yield of good quality extract.

Tea extraction process

A continuous, in-line bulk density instrument is described which provides real time monitoring of a product stream consisting of a free flowing powder. The instrument utilizes a cylindrical tube pendulum whose period of oscillation is measured to determine the bulk density of the powder flowing therethrough.

Growing community of inventors

Wyckoff, NJ, United States of America

Norman S Creswick