Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B07—SEPARATING SOLIDS FROM SOLIDS; SORTING
  • B07C—POSTAL SORTING; SORTING INDIVIDUAL ARTICLES, OR BULK MATERIAL FIT TO BE SORTED PIECE-MEAL, e.g. BY PICKING
  • B07C5/00—Sorting according to a characteristic or feature of the articles or material being sorted, e.g. by control effected by devices which detect or measure such characteristic or feature; Sorting by manually actuated devices, e.g. switches
  • B07C5/36—Sorting apparatus characterised by the means used for distribution
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B07—SEPARATING SOLIDS FROM SOLIDS; SORTING
  • B07C—POSTAL SORTING; SORTING INDIVIDUAL ARTICLES, OR BULK MATERIAL FIT TO BE SORTED PIECE-MEAL, e.g. BY PICKING
  • B07C5/00—Sorting according to a characteristic or feature of the articles or material being sorted, e.g. by control effected by devices which detect or measure such characteristic or feature; Sorting by manually actuated devices, e.g. switches
  • B07C5/36—Sorting apparatus characterised by the means used for distribution
  • B07C5/38—Collecting or arranging articles in groups
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65B—MACHINES, APPARATUS OR DEVICES FOR, OR METHODS OF, PACKAGING ARTICLES OR MATERIALS; UNPACKING
  • B65B25/00—Packaging other articles presenting special problems
  • B65B25/06—Packaging slices or specially-shaped pieces of meat, cheese, or other plastic or tacky products
  • B65B25/061—Packaging slices or specially-shaped pieces of meat, cheese, or other plastic or tacky products of fish
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65B—MACHINES, APPARATUS OR DEVICES FOR, OR METHODS OF, PACKAGING ARTICLES OR MATERIALS; UNPACKING
  • B65B35/00—Supplying, feeding, arranging or orientating articles to be packaged
  • B65B35/56—Orientating, i.e. changing the attitude of, articles, e.g. of non-uniform cross-section

Definitions

• the present invention relates to methods and apparatus for grading, orientating and packaging items of elongated non-symmetrical shape.
• the method and apparatus relate to arranging elongated items such as fish into boxes/portions according to their weight and/or size, and their orientation or after reorientation of the items.
• the invention relates to the problem of arranging items into portions according to one or more predetermined characteristics as well as arranging and directing item filled portions fulfilling the same specific criteria to a specific location and marking the portions (boxes) accordingly.
• the process is initiated with gutting and cleaning the fish.
• the fish is thereafter arranged either manually or mechanically onto a transporter most often with common orientation, e.g. all the fish heads facing the same direction.
• the next step in the processing is most often to identify the size and/or weight of the fish. This is usually done by weighing on a conveyor scale or volume determination by a vision equipment. Based upon the weight of the fish, a computer operating the whole system instructs a grader machine arranged after the scale to direct the fish into a optimal grading compartment taking into account predetermined parameters.
• the goal of the method described here is to minimize the transport and the packaging space required as well as optimizing the arrangement of the product items into the end-package boxes.
• the items arrive sequentially on a conveyor belt and pass an electronic scale that records the item weight and sends a signal to a computer.
• the computer calculates, according to known methods the optional grading for a particular item to be sent into and dispatches a signal to the appropriate grading machine.
• the grader will then initiate an arm mechanism or similar direction means to direct the item to the particular grading compartment or portion.
• the invention comprises an apparatus for grading items into portions according to one or more detectable characteristics of the items, in particular arranging elongated non-symmetrical items such as fish into collecting bins, including rearranging the length orientation of at least part of the items directed into the particular bin to minimize/optimize the bin space required, comprising:
• a control/system computer b) a detecting means such as a flow scale for weighing and optionally identifying other characteristics of the items such as length orientation,
• One preferred embodiment of the invention is in a presently most preferred embodiment of the present invention wherein said arranging stations further comprise opposite arranged pairs of gripping arms and thereto connected chutes for further conveying the items towards a specific collecting bin or intermediate collecting bins or station preferably arranged underneath said arranging stations.
• the cutes are semi-circular and downward turned. In further another preferred embodiment of the present invention the cutes are conical towards the out-feed end. Finally the cutes are pipe- formed with releasable opening mechanism at the out-feed end.
• a method for grading items into portion is in a presently most preferred embodiment of the present invention and according to one or more detectable characteristics of the items, in particular grading elongated non-symmetrical items such as fish into collecting bins, including rearranging the length orientation of at least part of the items directed into the particular compartments to minimize/optimize the bin packaging space required having at least part of the item with opposite arranged length orientation, comprising the steps of:
• step a - f is controlled by control computer interacting with one ore more of the following: a) in-feed system, b) ordering system, c) bin assigning and packaging system.
• each and every item is rotated approximately about 90° in a first conveying plane and thereafter approximately about 180° in a second conveying plane before introduced into the portion.
• each and every item is either rotated approximately 90° to either left or right in a first conveying plane and thereafter approximately 180° downward in a second conveying plane before introduced into the portion.
• the arranged length orientation comprise directing the items into guiding chutes rearranging the orientation of the items into the portions.
• FIG. 1 shows perspective view of the apparatus for grading and rearranging the length orientation of the items
• Fig. 2 shows the apparatus in fig. 1 from the side
• Fig 3 shows the apparatus in fig. 1 and 2 from the end
• Fig 4 shows a side view of the apparatus for grading connected to takeaway conveyor and a bin filling station
• Fig 5 shows the arrangement of pre-treatment process are and the flow of items prior to their arrival to the grading and length orientation rearranging apparatus.
• the present invention is based upon the idea of arranging items into portions and the portions into transport bins according to specific request of a customer with minimal deviation in the weight requirements as well as optimizing the space/bin requirements by rearranging the length orientation of the items in such a way that every other item closely placed have opposite length orientation.
• Figure 1 - 3 shows a part of the grader (27) designed to arrange the items into portions and rearranging the length orientation of the items.
• a conveyor belt (51) is shown for transporting items (not shown) in a conveying direction marked with an arrow (55).
• a plurality of gripping arms (42) able to swing out to catch an item passing thereon and direct it out of the conveyor stream into the opening area (56) of associated chutes (41).
• the item enters into the chute (41 ) it is rotated first in horizontal plan about 90° and thereafter 180° in vertical plan as the item is ejected from the chutes (41) output end (57) and into portioning compartment (43).
• the output end (57) of the chute has releasable opening device (54) allowing the system to store one or more items directed to the chute until appropriate for release. Further the portioning compartment (43) have means (52) to facilitated opening thereof and subsequent release of its content for example to a takeaway conveyor (58). It is to be understood that presentation of this embodiment of the invention is only to illustrate one example
• Figure 4 shows the grader connected to a takeaway conveyor (58) conveying the items to bin filling station (29).
• a takeaway conveyor 58
• bin filling station 29
• the content is, according to instruction from the control computer, released into a predefined slot (45) on the conveyor.
• the content of the slot is then released to appropriate bin (28) in the bin filling station (29) and further conveyed over a check weighing station (30) to control that the filling of a particular container is in accordance to the clients order.
• Figure 5 shows the arrangement of a pre-treatment work area (60) in before the grader (27).
• a detecting means (59) is illustrated as arranged prior to delivery of items to the grader (27).
• the invention is directed to - but not limited to - food processing lines - where items in the end of processing are collected into portions of a specified size.
• the method is applied in connection with a system for grading and packaging whole salmon and comprising a conveyer belt for conveying the item from a first position to a second position, see Fig. 1 - 5.
• the first position is a weighing station (59) where the raw materials for instance hole fish which is weighed and its length orientation is checked.
• the fish is conveyed onto a grader (27), in principle of a standard type but specially build to rearrange the length orientation of items, in addition of its general grading functions.
• the grader, and in particular its accessories is build in such a manner that it is possible to store one ore more items in intermediate compartment before they are released onto a takeaway conveyor (58) as a completed portion.
• the storing can be effected in the chute (41 ) making a passage for the objects from the conveyor belt (51 ) to collecting compartment (43).
• Each chute is equipped with releasable opening means (54) for releasing one or more items into the collecting compartment (43).
• the release/opening of the compartment (43) is synchronized with a delivery of a item box (28) to the box filling station (29).
• a specific box has been assigned to receive the particular portion.
• the portion is dropped more or less automatically into the box.
• a quality check is conducted (see fig 5, item 30).

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Processing And Handling Of Plastics And Other Materials For Molding In General (AREA)
• Container Filling Or Packaging Operations (AREA)
• Control Of Motors That Do Not Use Commutators (AREA)
• Variable-Direction Aerials And Aerial Arrays (AREA)
• Sorting Of Articles (AREA)
• Liquid Crystal (AREA)
• Manufacturing And Processing Devices For Dough (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Publications (2)

Family

ID=36758381

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (8)

Families Citing this family (7)

Family Cites Families (5)

• 2000
  • 2000-02-10 AU AU25706/00A patent/AU2570600A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2000-02-18 WO PCT/IS2000/000001 patent/WO2000048909A1/fr active IP Right Grant
  • 2000-02-18 DE DE60022634T patent/DE60022634D1/de not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2000-02-18 DK DK00903957T patent/DK1169228T3/da active
  • 2000-02-18 AT AT00903957T patent/ATE304476T1/de not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2000-02-18 EP EP00903957A patent/EP1169228B1/fr not_active Expired - Lifetime
• 2001
  • 2001-08-17 NO NO20014024A patent/NO320521B1/no not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2001-08-17 IS IS6055A patent/IS6055A/is unknown

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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