AU2006249253B2

AU2006249253B2 - Stock feed process and apparatus

Info

Publication number: AU2006249253B2
Application number: AU2006249253A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Jock Charles
Original assignee: Charles I F E Pty Ltd
Current assignee: Charles Ife Ltd Pty
Priority date: 2005-12-13
Filing date: 2006-12-08
Publication date: 2010-06-17
Anticipated expiration: 2026-12-08
Also published as: AU2006249253A1

Description

I AUSTRALIA Patents Act 1990 Charles I.F.E. Proprietary Limited COMPLETE SPECIFICATION Invention Title. Stock feed process and apparatus The invention is described in the following statement: 2 Stock Feed Process and Apparatus Field of the Invention This invention relates to a stock feed process and to apparatus for carrying out 5 the process. The invention relates particularly to a process and apparatus for producing stock feed utilising a variety of food by-products which might otherwise go to waste. Background of the Invention It is known to produce a stock feed from various grain varieties mixed with 10 sources of energy, protein and other additives. Such stock feed products are fed to a variety of animals including pigs, cattle, horses, goats and others. One additive that has been used with stock feed to increase the amount of energy in the feed is waste chocolate. However, while it is relatively easy to add waste chocolate in raw form to a grain or other carrier, most waste chocolate product 15 comprises wrapped chocolate bars and other forms of chocolate confectionary that has somehow become spoilt or damaged or has passed its "use by" date. The cost of removing wrappers from wrapped confectionary is relatively high and the economic benefit of using such waste or spoilt product becomes very marginal. Waste chocolate may also be sourced in an un-wrapped condition in many 20 configurations such as in strips, chunks or pieces, in pre-formed confectionary bar shapes, and other formats. Such material must be reduced to a suitable size to incorporate into a stock feed. It is therefore desirable to provide a method and apparatus whereby a waste chocolate product, which may include wrapped product, is able to be added to grain or 25 other stock feed material to enhance the energy content thereof. It is also desirable to provide a method of handling wrapped confectionary products in the manufacture of a stock feed product whereby the confectionary is separated from the wrapping. It is also desirable to provide a method of preparing a stock feed product using 30 wrapped or other waste chocolate or confectionary. It is also desirable to provide a method of separating a confectionary product from wrappings associated therewith. It is also desirable to provide apparatus for automatically mixing waste confectionary or chocolate product with grain or other carrier to produce a stock feed.

3 It is also desirable to provide apparatus for producing a stock feed using grain or other carrier material and confectionary or chocolate product, including wrapped product. 5 Summary of the Invention According to one aspect of the invention there is provided a method for producing a stock feed using a grain and/or food by-product carrier and wrapped or packaged, or unpackaged, confectionary material comprising the steps of: mixing the carrier and confectionary material in proportions of from about 20% 10 to 90% by volume of carrier and from about 10% to 80% by volume of confectionary material; delivering the mixture to a rotatable bowl; rotating the bowl with the mixture therein; impacting the mixture with a plurality of cutter blades to reduce the mixture in 15 the bowl to food particles of a size range of less than a predetermined size and packaging material of a size generally greater than that of the reduced food particles; and separating the food particles from the packaging material. In one preferred embodiment, the carrier and the confectionary material are 20 mixed together in a batching hopper, preferably in the range of from about 30 to 70% of carrier. The carrier may include rolled wheat, barley, malt combings, canola meal or other known stock feed material. After a predetermined weight of product is achieved in the hopper, the contents thereof are dropped into a bowl in which the material is impacted by a plurality of rotating cutter blades or knives. The bowl rotates to ensure 25 that all the contents thereof are subjected to the impacting and cutting by the cutter blades so that the material in the bowl is reduced in size. The cutting blade action reduces the food particle sizes and confectionary and any other wet or dry food by product material that may be present in or added to the mixture to particle sizes of below between about 2 mm and 6 mm. The action of the cutting blades, however, 30 minimises the reduction in the size of the packaging, or confectionary wrappers so that the vast majority retain a size greater than the reduced food particle size. In this way, the wrapping material may be separated from the food particle material by appropriate separation techniques, such as sieving or the like. According to another aspect of the invention there is provided apparatus for 35 producing a stock feed product from a grain and/or a food by-product carrier and waste packaged and unpackaged confectionary, including a container for mixing the 4 confectionary material with the carrier, a set of rotating cutting blades adapted to impact the mixture to reduce the confectionary material and grain and/or food by product carrier to a predetermined maximum particle size whilst reducing any packaging material to a size generally greater than the predetermined maximum particle 5 size, and a separator to separate the food product from the packaging material. Preferably, the separator comprises a sieve, such as a vibrating deck screen. Alternatively, the separator may comprise one or more suction systems to cause an air stream to move the packaging material from the food product. A combination of a sieve and an air stream, using suction or blowers, may be used. 10 Preferably, the mixing container comprises a batch hopper mounted above a bowl into which the mixed material is deposited. Typically, the plurality of cutting blades are engageable with the mixture in the bowl. More preferably, the bowl rotates to move the mixture past relatively fixed rotating cutting blades so that all the mixture in the bowl is contacted by the cutting blades. 15 Preferably, when the particle size of the food product in the bowl is at a predetermined maximum particle size, a discharging means is used to discharge the material from the bowl to a conveyor. In one form, the discharge means comprises a rotating disc that is brought into contact with the material in the bowl and discharges the commuted material over the 20 side of the bowl into a collection hopper. Preferably, a conveyor conveys the material from the collection hopper to a vibrating deck screen to separate the reduced food particle material from the packaging material. In the preferred embodiments, the packaged and unpackaged confectionary 25 material is reduced to a size of between 2 and 6 mm or less. The carrier, which may comprise rolled wheat, barley, malt combings, canola meal and other grain or mixtures thereof is also reduced by the impacting thereof with the rotating cutting blades. Preferably, two or more, and preferably up to eight cutting blades are arranged to be moved into contact with material in a bowl, and the blades are rotated at between 30 1000 and 4000 rpm, more preferably between 1200 and 2000 RPM. Preferably, removal of the impacted material from the bowl is effected using a conveyer, such as a rotating disc, which may have axially extending shoulders, ribs, flanges or other formations to assist the removal of reduced material from the bowl. In order that the invention is more readily understood, embodiments thereof will 35 now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

5 Description of the Drawings Figure 1 is a schematic overview of a system for producing a stock feed product in accordance with an embodiment of the invention; Figure 2 is a schematic illustration of a reducing bowl in accordance with an 5 embodiment of the invention; and Figure 3 is a schematic perspective view of an alternate separation station incorporating air suction systems. Description of the Preferred Embodiments 10 Referring to the drawings, a stock feed producing system of one embodiment is schematically illustrated in Figure 1. The embodiment is particularly designed to utilise waste confectionary, particularly waste chocolate product 10, such as from a confectionary manufacturer or from retail sellers. The waste product 10 may be raw, that is, unwrapped, or it may be wrapped waste product, such as product past its "use 15 by" date or spoilt by heat or sun exposure.. The waste chocolate 10 is held in tipping bins 13 from where it is taken by one or more conveyors 14 to a batching hopper 12. A carrier with which the chocolate is to be mixed to form the stock feed is conveyed by one or more conveyors 16, which may be auger conveyors or conveyors 20 of other forms.. The carrier may comprise rolled wheat, malt combings, canola meal or any one, or a combination of, a number of different grain or food by products used in the production of stock feed product. Such materials are well known in the art. The carrier may be single product, such as malt combings, or it may be a mixture. The augers 16 move the required amount of carrier material into the hopper 12 until the 25 correct proportion of carrier and confectionary 10 is obtained. In one form of the invention, chocolate forms 45% of the total volume of the stock feed product, with malt combings forming the remaining 55% of the product. In another form of the invention, rolled wheat constitutes 70% of the total product and chocolate constitutes 30% of the product. Using a canola meal, from which canola oil has been extruded, 60% of the 30 resulting stock feed product will be canola meal with 40% thereof comprising chocolate. The contents of the batching hopper 12 are delivered to one or other of two mixing bowls 17. The bowls are adapted to rotate about their vertical axis and, at the same time, a plurality of rotating knives or blades 18 is lowered into the bowl so that 35 the rotating blades 18 impact the bowl contents. The blades 18, of which there may preferably be from 2 to 8 in number, rotate at a speed of, for example, 1000 to 3000 6 rpm to reduce or comminute the carrier material and the confectionary in the bowl to particles having a predetermined size. At the same time, the action of the rotating blades 18 shreds any packaging or wrapping material on the confectionary contents thereby separating the wrapping material from the chocolate. 5 The blades 18 used in embodiments of the invention may be formed using a hardened steel plate stock with welded tungsten steel or tungsten carbide edges to provide long wearing, durable and tough edges. In some embodiments, the blade edges may be blunt so as to comminute the food product by striking rather than cutting. The product reduction may continue until the particle size is between about 2 10 mm and 6 mm, preferably below 4 mm. It is found, however, that the particle size of the packaging or wrapping material is not reduced to the same extent as the particle size of the chocolate and carrier. After a period of between two and fifteen minutes, preferably between three and eight minutes, the reduced or comminuted material is transferred from the bowl 17 to a 15 product collection hopper 15 using a rotating transfer disc 19. The rotating disc 19 is lowered into the rotating bowl 17 and picks up and discharges the bowl contents into the collection hopper 15. The rotating disc 19 may be provided on opposite surfaces thereof with a plurality of ribs, flanges, shoulders or the like 20 to assist in collecting and discharging product from the bowl 17. Alternatively, the discs 19 may take the 20 form of bucket conveyors or the like to remove the product from the bowls 17 The reduced product in the collection hopper 15, which includes the fragments of wrapping or packaging material, is conveyed from the collection hopper 15 by a conveyor 21 to a vibrating deck screener 22 which screens the shredded packaging or wrapping material from the particles of feed product. The separated feed product, 25 which passes through the screen 22 to a conveyor 23 leaving the wrapping material on the sieve or screen 22, from where it is removed by the conveyor 24. The separated product passes to a suitable storage container 26 for subsequent packaging and sale. In one modified embodiment of the invention, as shown in Figure 3, the wrapper material is separated from the comminuted food product using one or more air 30 separation systems, such as a suction systems 27, to move air over the vibrating screen 22 to separate the wrapping material therefrom. The suction systems 27 may include suction nozzles 28 and air pumps or fans 29 that cause air to be moved over the vibrating table or sieve 22 to thereby suck wrapping material from the screen 22. In another modification of the embodiment of the invention, liquid or semi 35 liquid confectionary by products, such as liquid chocolate or caramel or other food product, either forms part of the waste confectionary product held in the tipping bins 13 7 or is separately added to the material in the bowls 17. It has been found that such liquid or semi-liquid confectionary product forms into spherical shaped balls having a size greater than the predetermined size of the comminuted food product such that the balls may be separately separated from the comminuted product and from the packaging 5 material. In one embodiment, the liquid or semi-liquid balls of caramel or similar material forms balls with a size of between 6 mm and 15 mm which are separated from the other food product by a sieve or screen while the wrapping material is separated using a jet or stream of air from suction systems 27. The separated liquid and semi liquid product may be added to the end food product in proportions to provide the 10 desired food content. In preferred embodiments of the invention, the bowls are of between about 250 and 1000 litre capacity, preferably about 750 litre, with a depth of approximately 700 mm and a diameter of approximately 2 metres. The time required for reducing the food products to the particle size required may vary from two minutes to fifteen minutes. 15 Any number of rotating knives or blades 18 may be used in the process. Preferably, between two and eight blades are used to impact the product in the bowls 17. By using a pair of opposed bowls 17, the batch process is semi-continuous, as one bowl may be loading with fresh product while the other bowl is undergoing product reduction or discharge. Of course, any number of bowls may be used in the 20 performance of the invention. Preferably, the bowl rotates at a speed of about 4 to 10 rpm, more preferably about 6 rpm. The discharge disc 19 rotates at a speed of between 10 and 20 rpm, more preferably about 15 rpm. All the speeds of rotation, knife speeds and product proportions are all product dependent. Thus, malt sprouts used as a carrier will 25 necessitate a lower knife speed than, for example, rolled wheat or canola meal. It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the invention as shown in the specific embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as broadly described. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as 30 illustrative and not restrictive.

Claims

1. A method for producing a stock feed using a grain and/or food by-product carrier and wrapped or packaged, or unpackaged, confectionery material comprising 5 the steps of: mixing the carrier and confectionery material in proportions of from about 20% to 90% by volume of carrier and from about 10% to 80% by volume of confectionery material; delivering the mixture to a rotatable bowl; 10 rotating the bowl with the mixture therein; impacting the mixture with a plurality of cutter blades to reduce the mixture in the bowl to food particles of a size range of less than a predetermined size and packaging material of a size generally greater than that of the reduced food particles; and 15 separating the food particles from the packaging material.

2. A method as claimed in claim I the step of impacting the mixture with a plurality of cutter blades reduces the mixture in the bowl to food particles of a size range of between about 2 and 6 mm. 20

3. A method as claimed in claim I or claim 2 including the step of mixing the carrier and the confectionery material in a batching hopper prior to delivery to the rotatable bowl. 25

4. A method as claimed in any one of claims I to 3 including the step of mixing the carrier and the confectionery material in the range of from about 30 to 70% of carrier.

5. A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4 in which the carrier is 30 selected from one or more of rolled wheat, barley, malt combings, canola meal.

6. A method according to anyone of the preceding claims including the step of separating the food particles from the packaging material using a sieve 35

7. A method according to anyone of the preceding claims including the step of rotating the cutting blades at a rate of between 1,000 and 4000 rpm. 352174_1 9

8. A method according to anyone of the preceding claims including the step of introducing a conveyor into the bowl to remove the comminuted material

9. A method according to anyone of the preceding claims including the step 5 of impacting the mixture with the plurality of cutter blades for a period of between 2 and 15 minutes.

10. A method according to anyone of the preceding claims including the step of separating the food particles from the packaging material using one or more air jets 10 to blow or suck the packaging away from the food particles.

11. A method according to anyone of the preceding claims including the step of separating viscous confectionery product by causing the viscous confectionery product to ball, and separating the balled product from comminuted product by sieving 15 after separating the packaging material by air movement.

12. Apparatus when used in a method of any one of claims I to 11, for producing a stock feed product from a grain and/or a food by-product carrier and waste packaged and unpackaged confectionery, including a container for mixing the 20 confectionery material with the carrier, a set of rotating cutting blades adapted to impact the mixture to reduce the confectionery material and grain and/or food by product carrier to a predetermined maximum particle size whilst reducing any packaging material to a size generally greater than the predetermined maximum particle size, and a separator to separate the food product from the packaging material. 25

13. Apparatus for producing a stock feed product according to claim 12 wherein the separator comprises a sieve, such as a vibrating deck screen.

14. Apparatus for producing a stock feed product according to claim 12 or 30 claim 13 wherein the mixing container comprises a batch hopper mounted above a rotatable bowl into which the mixed material is deposited from the batch hopper.

15. Apparatus for producing a stock feed product according to claim 14 wherein the plurality of cutting blades engage the mixture in the bowl. 35 352174_1 10

16. Apparatus for producing a stock feed product according to claim 14 or claim 15 wherein the bowl rotates to move the mixture past relatively fixed rotating cutting blades so that all the mixture in the bowl is contacted by the cutting blades. 5

17. Apparatus for producing a stock feed product according to any one of claims 14 to 16 wherein a discharging means is used to discharge the material from the bowl to a conveyor when the particle size of the food product in the bowl is at a predetermined maximum particle size,. 10

18. Apparatus for producing a stock feed product according to claim 17 wherein the discharge means comprises a rotating disc that is brought into contact with the material in the bowl and discharges the commuted material over the side of the bowl. 15

19. Apparatus for producing a stock feed product according to claim 18 wherein a conveyor conveys the material from the collection hopper to a vibrating deck screen to separate the reduced food particle material from the packaging material.

20. Apparatus for producing a stock feed product according to any one of 20 claims 12 to 19 wherein the carrier and packaged and unpackaged confectionery material is reduced to a size of less than 6 mm.

21. Apparatus for producing a stock feed product according to any one of claims 12 to 20 wherein the carrier comprises rolled wheat, barley, malt combings, 25 canola meal and other grain or mixtures thereof.

22. Apparatus for producing a stock feed product according to any one of claims 12 to 20 wherein between two and eight cutting blades are arranged to impact the mixture. 30

23. Apparatus for producing a stock feed product according to claim 22 wherein the blades are rotated at between 1000 and 4000 rpm.

24. Apparatus for producing a stock feed product according to claim 22 or 35 claim 23 wherein the blades are rotated at between 1200 and 2000 rpm. 3521741 1

25. Apparatus for producing a stock feed product according to any one of claims 12 to 24 wherein the cutting blades are formed with a plate stock of hardened steel with tungsten steel or tungsten carbide edges. 5

26. Apparatus for producing a stock feed product according to claim 18 or claim 19 wherein the rotating disc has axially extending shoulders, ribs, flanges or other formations to assist the removal of reduced material from the bowl.

27. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, for producing a stock 10 feed using a grain and/or food by-product carrier and wrapped or packaged, or unpackaged, confectionery material having the steps substantially as hereinbefore described.

28. Apparatus according to any one of claims 12 to 26, for producing a stock 15 feed product from a grain and/or a food by-product carrier and waste packaged and unpackaged confectionery substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings. 20 352174_1