EA040111B1 - DEVICE AND METHOD FOR DOSING AND PACKAGING OF PLASTIC FOOD PRODUCTS, INCLUDING BUTTER - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a new device and method for dosing and packaging plastic food products, including butter, margarine, spreads, edible fats, fresh cheese and other thick plastic products.

The complexity of dosing and packaging of various plastic products is due to the consistency and other quality characteristics of the packaged product, for example, stickiness. Usually they have a viscous, but easily mobile consistency.

For example, a temperature of 10-12°C is suitable for packing oil, when it has good elasticity and sufficient density. The oil temperature difference in the individual layers of the monolith should not exceed 2°C. Packing oil with a temperature and hardness that is not uniform in terms of the volume of the monolith worsens the consistency due to uneven softening and the formation of hard lumps in the relatively soft mass of the product.

The oil temperature during packaging is selected in such a way that it corresponds to the maximum value of autohesive pressure (stickiness), at which the adhesion forces between solid fat particles are maximum, when the maximum possible strength of the oil structure is achieved.

The level of technology. In the food industry, dosing and packaging of oil and other plastic products occurs most often in briquettes or bars, in paper or film, in cups or containers made of combined or polymeric materials weighing from 100 to 500 g or more.

Before starting the filling machine, the inner surface of the hopper, screws, receiver walls, ejector (piston) and other parts in contact with oil are treated with special anti-adhesive and disinfectant solutions.

At present, based on the state of the art, there are and are used in industrial production various types of devices (automatic machines) for dosing and packaging, differing in design features, depending on: type of product, method of promoting the product, packaging containers.

The applicant, after studying this field of technology, does not have knowledge of the current existence of similar devices for dosing and packaging plastic food products, including butter in containers, in a similar way, which is carried out in the claimed device.

The following well-known devices can be considered similar in some technical and design solutions, as well as the method of dosing and packaging to the claimed one:

According to patent RU 2119 441, in the Device for packaging plastic products, the product being packed is fed into the dispenser by a hopper screw. The spool of the dispenser, periodically turning, orients its hole alternately to the hopper or to the tap. When the spool opening is oriented towards the hopper, the dosing piston sucks in a certain portion of the product. At the next moment, the opening of the spool is oriented towards the tap and the piston of the dispenser pushes the product through the tap into the bag located in the slot of the carousel table. Next, the carousel table feeds the package under the closing mechanism, where the movable legs and fixed legs bend the edges of the reamer on the end and side faces of the package. At the end of this operation, the carousel table feeds the package under the pre-pressing mechanism, then the package exit mechanism pushes the package out of the nest, and the gripper drops the package onto the conveyor.

The device according to patent RU 2279048 contains a dispenser with a hole for the outlet of the dosed product, an exhaust valve, a piston, a piston rod, a drive, an inlet valve and a forming pipe, while the dispenser is made in the form of a sleeve installed inside the forming pipe, the piston and piston rod have a cavity for metered product, in which the outlet valve and the outlet valve stem connected to the drive are installed, and the inlet valve is installed with the possibility of supplying the metered product into the cavity of the piston rod and piston.

According to US Pat. No. 4,830,068, A device for the simultaneous quantitative controlled filling of liquid or soft plastic substances, such as butter, margarine, pastes, etc., through nozzles into containers. The device comprises a housing with inlets and outlets and at least one element (spool) for controlling the product flow, installed with the possibility of rotation inside the housing and the ability to switch between the filling position and the unloading position, at least one axially movable dosing piston mounted with the possibility of sliding relative to the specified control element in the mating hole in the specified body for suction and ejection of a predetermined amount of substance, and two adjacent nozzles located in tandem on the specified body, one control element and one metering piston are assigned.

The disadvantage of such devices is low productivity, due to the fact that the cycle is divided into successively collecting and dispensing a dose of the product, i.e. intermittent step-by-step process.

This drawback is of great importance in the practical industrial application of devices due to the increased performance conditions.

Thus, there is an industrial need for an apparatus and method for dosing and

- 1 040111 packaging of thick plastic food products, including butter, which overcomes the above problem with productivity and continuity of work, as well as versatility in the use of containers for packaging.

The task to be solved by the claimed invention is the creation of a fully automatic device and a method of its operation, allowing to achieve the following technical results:

optimization and simplicity of the device design (optimal number and technical design of working units);

accurate dosing into containers;

continuity of the dosing and packaging process;

increase in productivity;

the possibility of completing with various industrial production lines.

Disclosure of invention

The device and method for dosing and filling proposed by the present invention are designed to fully automatically and continuously carry out the process of dosing and filling plastic food products, including butter, into plastic containers of various shapes and volumes.

The operation of the device is controlled and configured by an electronic-software control panel with a control panel.

The device itself and possible additional modules of the production line can be placed on the frame.

Simplicity and optimization of the design of the device is ensured by the optimal number and location of functional units. The device contains a food product supply hopper and a dose collection and dispensing unit.

The bunker contains a housing, a double screw conveyor, a screw drive. It is intended for loading a food product, advancing and feeding it to the collection unit and dispensing a dose.

The body contains plain bearings installed in the wall of the body to install the ends of the screws in them. The housing is made three-dimensional with a wide loading opening for loading the food product.

The screw conveyor contains two screws located at an angle relative to each other in a horizontal plane. The screw is a rod on which there is a solid helical edge passing along the longitudinal axis. It is intended for formation of a shaft of a product and purposeful giving of a product.

The drive means of the augers comprises a body mounted on the hopper on hinges, with the possibility of tilting it to install the augers.

The unit for dialing and issuing a dose contains: two sleeves with solid-cast pistons installed inside, a spool valve with two spools, a forming pipe, a nozzle (replaceable nozzle of your choice, depending on the food product), a knife, a knife drive.

Sleeves are made in the form of cylinders, vertically oriented. Inside the sleeves are one-piece pistons with the function of moving up and down. Sleeves are intended for a set and extrusion of doses of a food product.

The spool valve is made vertically oriented, consists of a body and two spools that rotate inside the body and close or open the side openings of the body during their movement. It is designed to regulate the flow of the food product by distributing it over two sleeves for further extrusion with the help of pistons into the forming tube.

The one-piece piston is a cuff made of rubber material, reinforced with a steel disk, capable, with the help of a rod, of moving in two directions, up and down inside the sleeve. The pistons alternately collect the doses of the product that have entered the spools into the sleeves and squeeze them out into the forming tube.

The forming pipe is usually made of rectangular section, has an L-shaped bent downwards and is connected to a flat diamond-shaped plate, contains guides welded to the inner sides of the pipe to distribute the product flow in the container. The dimensions of the pipe section are determined by the shape and dimensions of the container. It is intended for extrusion of a product in a container.

The nozzle is replaceable, it can be made with holes of various sizes and configurations, for example, in the form of a grid, it is installed inside the pipe on guides. Designed to hold the product in the forming tube, for example, in case of insufficient product viscosity.

The drive means of the knife contains a clamp designed for constructive connection of the pneumatic cylinder and the lever; the screw is installed in the lever hole and in the clamp hole. By turning the screw manually, the position of the clamp is adjusted, thereby changing the lever arm and the amplitude of the knife stroke; lever - the main element of the drive means, carries out oscillatory movements of the knife. In its upper part, the lever is attached by a bushing to an axle fixed on the plate of the forming pipe; the sleeve is also the axis of the oscillatory movement of the lever.

- 2 040111

Brief description of the drawings

The invention is illustrated by drawings, where in Fig. 1 shows a general view of the device;

in fig. 2 - bunker;

in fig. 3 - screws;

in fig. 4 - node for the collection and delivery of the dose and the forming pipe;

in fig. 5 - guide;

in fig. 6 - node for dialing and issuing a dose, top view in section;

in fig. 7 - spool;

in fig. 8 - drive means of the knife;

in fig. 9 - a variant of a replaceable nozzle in a forming pipe.

Implementation of the invention

According to the drawings, the dosing and packaging device for plastic food products, including butter, contains a hopper 1 for supplying a food product and a dose collection and dispensing unit 2. In turn, the hopper 1 contains a housing 3, a double screw conveyor 4, a screw drive 5, the dose collection and delivery unit 2 contains two sleeves 6, with pistons 7, a spool valve 8 with two spools 9, a forming pipe 10, a nozzle 11, a knife 12, a knife drive means 13.

According to FIG. 2, the food product is loaded into the hopper 1 through the loading opening 14 in the housing 3. The screw conveyor 4 is driven by a drive means 5 by a geared motor.

A feature of the drive means of the screws 5 is the ability to transmit torque to the screws 4 located in a horizontal plane at a small angle relative to each other. The drive means 5 is driven by a geared motor.

The left auger has a left winding and rotates clockwise. The right auger has a right winding, rotates counterclockwise. The rotation of the screws is synchronous. The product moves forward between the screws. The helical edge of the screws 15 has a more frequent winding in the direction of product movement, and the outer diameter of the screws 4 also decreases in the direction of product movement.

Thanks to this shape of the screws (Fig. 3), free air bubbles are displaced from the product, the mass of the product is homogeneous, an increased pressure is created in the hopper 1 and part of the product enters the dose collection and dispensing unit 2, part of the product moves against the direction of its pushing and twists into the shaft , which is located in the hopper 1 above the augers 4 and creates pressure on them, the product falls between the edges of the augers 15 and is again pushed by them to the dose collection and dispensing unit 2 (Fig. 4).

According to FIG. 6, 7 the product enters from the hopper 1 into the body 16 of the valve 8 and into the spool 9 through the opening 17 (Fig. 7) turned into the dose set mode.

The piston 7 (Fig. 4) helps to draw the product into the sleeve 6, filling it. The spool 9 turns into the dose dispensing mode, the piston 7 rises, squeezing the product through the spool 9, into the forming tube 10 and further into the container.

The process of dialing and dispensing a dose occurs continuously, alternately by two spools 9 into two sleeves 6. In an alternately antiphase mode, the spools 9 rotate in the position of intake / delivery of a dose of the food product and the pistons 7 move down / up in the sleeves 6 in such a way that when the spool is rotated 9 in the dose set position, the piston 7 moves down in the sleeve 6, additionally creating a reduced pressure in the cavity of the sleeve 6 to draw the product into the spool 9 and the sleeve 6, and when the valve 9 is rotated to the dose dispensing position, the piston 7 moves upward, pushing the food product out of the sleeve 6 and spool 9 into the forming tube 10.

This method contributes to a more uniform movement of the product in the hopper 1 and minimizing the idling of the product in the hopper 1, i.e. return of a part of the product for re-advancement by screws 4 to the spool valve 8.

Thanks to the sequential set, there is no need to use an additional capacity of the compensator in the device to accumulate the product before it is dispensed into the container. There is a possibility of increasing the time of dose collection in the sleeve 6, which is important for thick products, and at the same time, the overall performance of the device increases due to the continuity and uniformity of the process.

In this case, the container rises to the forming pipe 10, the outlet of the pipe 18 (Fig. 4) enters the container in order to fill it more densely and, as the container is filled with the product, falls to its original position.

The forming pipe 10 is rectangular in shape and size of the bottom of the container with a gap of 5-10 mm on the side. Usually a rectangular pipe is used, but as an option, a square pipe can be used for packing in round containers.

On each inner side of the pipe 10, at the outlet 18, there is a guide 19 for even distribution of the product in the container. As shown in FIG. 5, guides 19 are made in the form of a protruding sloping corner formed by two triangular inclined sides. A nozzle 11 can also be installed on the guides 19 (Fig. 9).

The versatility of the device is manifested in the possibility of packaging a wide range of products

- 3 040111 into containers of various volumes and shapes, due to the possibility of replacing and using the forming tube 10 of the desired section size, as well as through the use of nozzles 11 on the outlet 18 with holes of various configurations or in the form of a grid.

After displacing the required volume of the product into the container, the product is cut off with a knife 12 (Fig. 8).

As shown in FIG. 8, the knife 12 has a special drive means 13, by means of which it performs oscillatory movements of a certain adjustable amplitude. The amplitude of movement of the knife 12 is adjusted by manually rotating the screw 20 and moving the clamp 21 along the lever 22.

In its upper part, the lever 22 is attached by a sleeve 23 to the axis 24 fixed on the plate 25 of the forming pipe 10 (Fig. 4), the sleeve 23 is also the axis of the oscillatory movement of the lever 22. The movement of the lever is provided by a pneumatic cylinder.

The claimed technical solution for the device and method for dosing and packaging plastic food products, including butter, is new and eliminates the shortcomings that exist in the technical solutions of devices available today and, in addition, is simple and convenient, productive and versatile for continuous applications in production. The design of the device is simple and clear, and the way the device works is unique and simple.

The device can be easily assembled and disassembled for its disinfection treatment and is easily manufactured in a mass production environment.

Claims (4)

CLAIM 1. A device for dosing and packaging plastic food products, including butter, containing a hopper for supplying a food product and a unit for collecting and dispensing a dose into a container, moreover, the hopper contains a housing, a double screw conveyor, the screws of which are located at an angle in a horizontal plane, the drive means of screws, unit for collecting and dispensing a dose contains a forming pipe, a nozzle, a knife, a knife drive means, characterized in that the screws are made synchronously rotating to move the product between the screws and ensure the release of free bubbles from the product and increase the pressure inside the screw conveyor, the set node and dose delivery contains at least two vertically oriented sleeves with solid pistons, the spool valve is oriented vertically and is made with at least two spools, while the dose dialing and dispensing unit is designed to ensure a continuous process and in such a way that the spools and pistons synchronized in turn spools in the position of taking/dispensing a dose of the food product and moving the pistons in the sleeves down/up, the knife drive means contains a clamp mounted on a sleeve placed on an axis fixed on the plate of the forming tube, a lever with a screw for adjusting the position of the clamp with the possibility of change the length of the arm of the lever and the amplitude of the stroke of the knife fixed to the lever, the forming pipe additionally contains guides installed at the outlet for uniform distribution of the product in the container, made in the form of protruding corners formed by two triangular inclined sidewalls and with the possibility of installing nozzles on them. 2. A device for dosing and packaging pasty food products, including butter, according to claim 1, characterized in that the nozzle is replaceable, may have holes of various sizes and configurations for squeezing out a food product of various consistency. 3. A device for dosing and packaging pasty food products, including butter, according to claim 1, characterized in that the forming pipe is made with a section according to the shape and size of the bottom of the container. 4. A method for dosing and packaging plastic food products, including butter, which includes three stages, the first of which is the supply of the food product to the bunker and its advancement by a screw conveyor, the second stage includes the collection of the product into the dose collection and dispensing unit, and at the third stage, the product is extruded from the forming pipe, through or without a nozzle, into a container and the dose of the product is cut off with a knife, characterized in that the process of dosing and packaging of plastic food products is carried out by means of a device for dosing and packaging of plastic food products according to claims 1-3 , when a food product is fed into the bunker and its advancement by a screw conveyor is carried out with the possibility of expelling free air bubbles from plastic food products to obtain a homogeneous mass with a simultaneous increase in pressure inside the screw conveyor, the product is collected into the collection unit and the dose is dispensed by alternately turning the spools in position and dialing/dispensing a dose of the product, synchronized with the movement of the pistons in the sleeves down/up in such a way that when the spool is turned to the dose dialing position, the piston moves down in the sleeve, additionally creating a reduced pressure in the cavity of the sleeve to draw the product into the spool and sleeve, and when turning the spool to the position of dispensing the dose, the piston moves up, pushing the food product out of the sleeve and the spool into the forming tube, extrusion of the plastic product from the forming tube is carried out through the nozzle or without it into the container, and the product dose is cut off with a knife fixed on the lever.