Apparatus for filling and sealing retort foods

Abstract

A filling and sealing process and apparatus for retort foods, in which a plurality of retort pouches are treated at the same time. The retort pouches are gripped by a plurality of grippers fixedly connected to an endless transfer chain and fed through first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth stations. The endless transfer chain is arranged to be intermittently movable around the outer periphery of a platform mounted on a base. At the first station, a plurality of retort pouches are gripped by the grippers and opened and dilated at the second station. The opened retort pouches are fed to third station where a defectively opened retort pouch is sensed and released from the gripper. The retort pouches gripped by the grippers are fed to the fourth station, where solid food materials are introduced into the retort pouches. At the fifth station, the retort pouches are supplied with viscous liquid. The retort pouches containing solid materials and viscous liquid are fed to the sixth station, where the remaining air is released from the pouches and the openings of the respective pouches are primarily sealed. At the seventh station, the openings of the respective pouches are secondarily sealed and, at the eighth station, the sealed portions of the pouches are cooled so that the sealed portions are solidified and subsequently released from the grippers. Each step of the process at the respective stations is performed in synchronism with the intermittent movements of the transfer chain so that the plurality of retort pouches are treated at the same time at each step.