Machine for filling containers with a food product

Abstract

A machine for filling cups 42 with a food product has a conveyor formed from slats 40. The machine includes a loading station 10, a sterilizing station 12, a drying station 14, a filling station 16, a gassing station 18, a sealing station 20 and an unloading station. At the sealing station 20, closures cut from foil 84 are heat sealed onto the cups 42. The foil 84 is guided to the sealing station 20 by a series of rollers including a final roller 88 positioned above the conveyor. The function of the gassing station 18 is to create an atmosphere of nitrogen in the unfilled parts of the containers. The gassing station 18 has a gassing chamber formed partly by a casing member 70 and partly by the foil 84 as it passes downwardly to the final roller 88. The upper surface of the gassing chamber is above the rotational axis of the final roller 88. Nitrogen is injected into the gassing chamber by an injection tube 82 formed from sintered stainless steel, the pores in the steel acting as injection holes. By injecting the nitrogen in this manner, it enters the gassing chamber in a state of laminar flow. The shape of the gassing chamber and the fact that the nitrogen enters it in a state of laminar flow ensures that there is very little tendency for air to be drawn into the gassing chamber from the surrounding parts of the machine.