Campbell Soup Company

Walter W Egee

Clarence W Cramer

George R Weaver

David A Rickansrud

Cucumber spears are rapidly and reliably packed into and around the inner periphery of a jar with the same cut side of each of the spears facing outwardly. The spears are formed by pushing a cucumber lengthwise through a set of knife blades, and the resultant spears are individually pushed through twisted channels by flexible rods which deliver them onto a horizontal platform with their cut sides down and all facing the same way. Two conveyor belts are recessed in the top of the platform, so that by lowering the platform the set of spears is deposited on the conveyor belts and conveyed downstream to a pair of adjacent platens each having grooves aligned with the conveyor belts. A fence across the conveyor arrests a first set of spears above the first platen, which is then raised to lift the first set of spears from the conveyor, whereupon a second set of spears accumulate above the second platen. The second platen is then raised to form with said first set a single array of contiguous spears which is subsequently pushed onto a roll-up belt, rolled into a cylindrical array, and pushed into the jar.

Method and apparatus for forming and processing food spears

Method and apparatus for packing cut pickle spears in a jar in predetermined positions and orientations by laying the spears side-by-side on a flexible resilient belt, rolling up the belt with the spears on it to form a cylinder, and pushing the cylindrical array of spears out of the rolled up belt into the jar.

Method and apparatus for automatically packing elongated food articles

The fact that meatballs in a casing have been heated to a predetermined temperature sufficient to inactivate the virus of foot and mouth disease is permanently indicated by using a holder device to position a temperature recorder at the thermal 'cold-spot' of the mass of meatballs. The temperature recorder is preferably of the type which permanently changes color when heated to the desired predetermined temperature, and the holder may be an apertured disc to which the temperature recorder is secured by an enveloping netting. An import inspector will then be able to ascertain that the meat has been previously heated to the desired temperature by observing the color of the temperature recorder.

Heat treatment temperature indicating food package and process for

A check is provided of the gas pressure in a closed container having in its bottom wall a snap-action diaphragm of a type which assumes its concave-inward configuration when there is a vacuum of at least a predetermined level in the container, and assumes its convex-outward configuration when the vacuum level in the container is zero or less than said predetermined level. A test stand applies to the exterior of the diaphragm a vacuum sufficient normally to assure that it will assume its convex outward configuration, and then releases the applied vacuum to permit the diaphragm to snap to its concave-inward configuration. A proximity sensor produces an electrical signal representing the position of the diaphragm, which signal is differentiated to produce a signal indicating the speed of inward motion of the diaphragm. The differentiated signal is compared with a reference, and if it exceeds the reference, produces an indication that the inward snap-action has occurred and that the vacuum level in the container is adequate. The arrangement is applied to the high-speed checking of food containers for gas leaks.

Method and apparatus for sensing gas pressure in a container

Apparatus for automatically dispensing stacks of cookies into the pockets of cookie packaging trays. The cookies are stacked edgewise on a delivery line which includes a cookie shingler and a cookie separator feeding the cookies one by one onto an accelerating conveyor, in a horizontal spaced-apart disposition. The dispenser assembly includes a stacking chamber into which the cookies are fed by the accelerating conveyor. The bottom of the stacking chamber is normally closed by a rotatable gate controlld by a gate actuating means which on receipt of an appropriate signal rotates the gate to drop the accumulated stack of cookies in the stacking chamber into the cookie tray pocket located therebelow. Cookie detector and counter means prevent actuation of the dispenser gate until a predetermined number of cookies have been deposited in the stacking chamber and then only when the tray conveyor has stopped to locate a tray pocket therebeneath. Control means are provided to stop the operation of the shingler and separator assemblies momentarily whenever the stacking chamber contains the predetermined number of cookies and an additional excess cookie is about to be added to the chamber.

Cookie dispensing apparatus

Apparatus for automatically dispensing stacks of cookies into the pockets of cookie packaging trays. A succession of multi-pocket cookie trays are intermittently advanced along a horizontal tray conveyor. Cookie delivery assemblies located in spaced relation along said tray conveyor each include a cookie delivery line and a cookie dispenser assembly which deposits stacks of cookies in the tray pockets during the dwell phase of the intermittent tray conveyor. Each said cookie delivery line includes a shingler assembly and a separator assembly. The shingler assembly comprises a pair of spaced parallel horizontal feed belts onto which the cookies are manually loaded in edge-supported face-abutting relation and an underlying shingling belt traveling at a faster speed than said feed belts. The feed belts serve to advance the array of cookies toward the separator assembly while the shingling belt engages the lower edges of the cookies and tilts the cookies into an inclined attitude. The separator assembly comprises a pair of spaced separating wheels which grip the lower side edges of each inclined cookie to separate the cookie from the array and transfer it into a horizontal disposition on a separating conveyor. The separator assembly further includes an accelerating conveyor onto which the cookies drop from the separating conveyor and which produces a substantial spacing between the conveyed cookies. The dispenser assembly includes a stacking chamber into which the cookies are fed by the accelerating conveyor. The bottom of the stacking chamber is normally closed by a rotatable gate controlled by a gate actuating means which on receipt of an appropriate signal rotates the gate to drop the accumulated stack of cookies in the stacking chamber into the cookie tray pocket located therebelow. Cookie detector and counter means prevent actuation of the dispenser gate until a predetermined number of cookies have been deposited in the stacking chamber and then only when the tray conveyor has stopped to locate a tray pocket therebeneath. Control means are provided to stop the operation of the shingler and separator assemblies momentarily whenever the stacking chamber contains the predetermined number of cookies and an additional excess cookie is about to be added to the chamber.

The preferred embodiment of the invention disclosed herein relates to a feeding and mixing arrangement for generally fluent material including components having different specific gravities, for example, certain food products, and includes a supply hopper in which the material is adapted to be contained. The supply hopper has an open upper end and has both discharge and inlet openings in its base. The discharge opening communicates through a supply conduit with an associated device, for example, a container filling apparatus, to which the fluent material is to be delivered and the inlet opening communicates with the supply conduit through a return conduit connected to the supply conduit adjacent the container filling apparatus. Rotatably mounted in the supply hopper is a first set of mixing tubes having one end in communication with the inlet opening and the other end in communication with the interior of the supply hopper and a second set of mixing tubes having one end in communication with the lower portion of the supply hopper and the other end in communication with a higher portion of the supply hopper. As the sets of mixing tubes are rotated or oscillated, they gently agitate the material in the supply hopper. The first set of mixing tubes recirculates some of the material being delivered through the supply conduit and the second set of mixing tubes recirculates the material within the supply hopper to maintain a homogeneous mixture.

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Wallingford, PA, United States of America

Walter W Egee