The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 29, 2015
Filed:
Apr. 19, 2013
Marel Iceland Ehf, Gardabaer, IS;
Thorir Finnsson, Kopavogur, IS;
Kristjan Hallvardsson, Kopavogur, IS;
MAREL ICELAND EHF, Gardabaer, IS;
Abstract
This invention relates to a conveyor system and a method for producing a sequence of discrete food items from a plurality of incoming food objects including at least one food item conveyed by an in-feed conveyor including an in-feed conveyor belt such that the distance between adjacent food objects of said sequence of discrete food objects fulfills a pre-determined distance criterion. A first conveyor belt provided adapted to be placed adjacent to the in-feed conveyor belt and a second conveyor belt is provided adapted to be placed adjacent to the first conveyor belt. The adjacent ends of the first and second conveyors belts are operable connected together via a junction such that their internal position is fixed at all times. An imaging mechanism images the incoming objects so as to obtain image data including image data indicating the length of the incoming objects and distances between adjacent incoming objects. A control unit is provided to operate a back and forth advancement of the junction and thus adjust the active length of the first conveyor. The first conveyor belt acts thus as a buffer for collecting at least one of the incoming food objects from the in-feed conveyor. The control unit operates the delivering of the at least one collected food objects to the second conveyor belt via controllable advancing of the junction from an extended position towards a contracted position of the first conveyor based on the image data.