Formax, Inc.

Alfa Laval Corporation Ab

Wilbur A Janssen

Scott A Lindee

Glenn A Sandberg

Thomas C Wolcott

Duncan Bachmann

A high speed food loaf slicing machine slices two food loaves simultaneously, using one cyclically driven knife blade; the slices are stacked or shingled in groups on a receiving conveyor located below the slicing station. Independent loaf feed drives are provided; slices cut from one loaf may be thicker than slices from the other. Each loaf feed drive includes two 'short' conveyors each driven at a predetermined speed; the conveyor speeds may be different. In each machine cycle the receiving conveyor is moved down to accommodate an increasing number of slices; when a slicing cycle is completed, the receiving conveyor rapidly discharges the slice groups onto a deceleration conveyor and moves back up to start a new slicing operation. The loaf feed drives are reversed at the end of a slicing cycle, stopped, and then reversed again before the next slicing cycle. In each machine cycle previously cut groups of slices are weighed as they traverse a scale conveyor; the weights thus determined control two transfer conveyors, one for each loaf sliced. The weights also control the loaf feed drives that determine slice thickness.

Method of manufacturing food loaf slice groups

A high speed slicing machine supports first and second food loaves for movement along parallel loaf paths into a slicing station where both loaves are sliced by one cyclically driven knife blade; the slices are stacked or shingled in groups on a receiving conveyor located below the slicing station. Independent loaf feed drives are provided; slices cut from one loaf may be thicker than slices from the other. The machine combines manual and automated mechanisms to load food loaves onto the food paths. These mechanisms share a central barrier that is used only during loading; at other times the barrier is clear of the loaf paths. The automated loaf loading mechanism has a sweep to push one or more loaves onto a support defining the loaf paths. There are two grippers, one on each loaf path; each grips the end of a loaf remote from the slicing station. For each gripper, a loaf feed drive impels the gripper (and loaf) toward the slicing station and then moves the gripper back to a home position, releasing an unsliced loaf butt on the way through a door opening in the loaf support. Each loaf feed drive includes two 'short' conveyors driven at the same speed as the gripper. The loaf support is pivotally movable to a cleanup position; in its normal support position the loaf support masks the grippers, the loaf feed drive, the barrier, and the sweeps, but in cleanup position it exposes them all.

Slicing machine for two or more food loaves

An improved drive linkage for a reciprocating mold plate in a food patty molding machine includes, in series, a hydraulic cylinder and its piston; one is connected to a motor or other prime mover and the other to the mold plate. Three hydraulic lines connect the opposite ends of the cylinder to a large hydraulic reservoir and to each other. A hydraulic pressure flow directing means, preferably comprising check valves in the hydraulic lines, produces a continuous, unidirectional flow of hydraulic fluid from the reservoir into one end of the cylinder, on to the other end of the cylinder, and then back to the reservoir; the flow remains unidirectional despite cyclic reversal of the direction of piston movement in the cylinder.

Mold plate drive linkage

A paper interleaver for a food patty molding machine of the kind using a mold plate cyclically reciprocating along a linear path between a fill position and a knock-out position comprises a shuttle connected to the mold plate for synchronous movement along a linear path between a transfer position and a pickup position. When the mold plate is at its knock-out position and the shuttle at its pickup position, the shuttle pulls a single paper sheet from the bottom of a storage stack by vacuum; when the mold plate and shuttle are at their respective fill and transfer positions, the shuttle 'puffs' the paper sheet up a very short distance to be held by downwardly facing vacuum ports of a fixed paper holder frame, essentially immune to clogging from the food product particles and juices present at the knock-out position. A molded patty subsequently moves down through the frame to pick up the paper sheet when the mold plate returns to the knock-out position. A grooved spindle at the paper storage stack cooperates with a shallow tapered groove in the stack support surface to assure a flat configuration for the paper sheets and elimination of paper particles.

Paper interleaver for food patty molding machine

A food patty molding method and apparatus, utilizing a cyclically driven mold plate containing one or more mold cavities, in which the fill passage connecting the food pump to the mold cavity has a cross sectional area, immediately adjacent the mold plate fill position, encompassing the entire mold cavity surface area; in one embodiment the fill passage comprises a multiplicity of orifices, and in another embodiment the fill passage is open and is matched to the mold cavity in size and configuration. In both embodiments the pressure on the food product is reduced to an intermediate level, a minor fraction of the fill pressure, during the transition interval when the mold cavity is moving away from the fill passage but still communicates therewith, following which the food product pressure is essentially relieved during the balance of the mold plate cycle until full fill pressure is required.

Method and apparatus for molding food patties

A cryogenic food product freezing tunnel including an elongated housing having a food product entrance at one end, a food product exit at the other end, a food product conveyor extending through the tunnel, a cryogen input near the food product exit, an exhaust stack near the food product entrance with an exhaust blower atop the stack, a plurality of cryogen circulating fans spaced along the length of the tunnel, a variable speed directional blower intermediate the cryogen input and the food product entrance, a cryogen input control, and a temperature sensor positioned between the directional blower and the cryogen input. The improved cryogen gas flow control system of the invention comprises a variable speed drive for the exhaust blower and a blower speed control, connected to the temperature sensor, that varies the speeds of both the directional blower and the exhaust blower as functions of the temperature sensed by the temperature sensor; the blower speed control is also a part of the cryogen input control, and varies the cryogen input, again as a function of the sensed temperature.

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New Lenox, IL, United States of America

Wilbur A Janssen