FR2722174A1 - Device for extraction of slices from container - Google Patents

Abstract

Products which are separable into slices are in the container (1). The slice extractor consists of a thin shell like structure, in contact with the product, made by heat forming from a thin sheet of synthetic material. It has a prismatic shape with a trapezoidal base (6), with a height less than the slice thickness, and a gripping tab (3). It has a suppleness allowing it to fit the shape of the slice. The angle (A) formed by the vertical wall (7) parallel to the side wall of the container is an obtuse angle between 92 deg and 135 deg . The extractor has a surface in contact with the product slice greater than 40%. The extracted slice stays held against and is displaced with the extractor leaving the adjacent slice beyond the shell attack edge (5).

Description

DEVICE FOR EXTRACTING AT LEAST ONE WAFER
OF PRODUCT CONTAINED IN A CONTAINER
The invention relates to a device for extracting at least one slice of product contained in a container.

 The invention is particularly useful for extracting from a container one or more slices of a food product, in particular of a charcuterie product of the pâté, candied, jelly, rillette or similar type or of a pastry.

 Document FR 2,141,464 describes a device of the prior art constituted by an element formed by a bottom and by two lateral branches, intended to be placed inside a container and having a U-shaped cross section At least one branch of the U-shape is intended to be placed against a side wall of said container by matching the outline thereof, while the bottom of the U-shape is intended to be placed opposite the bottom of said container against it. or close to it.

 Known devices of this type generally give satisfaction for the extraction of a portion of product, but nevertheless have several drawbacks: on the one hand, these devices have an undesirable large thickness due to the fact that they are manufactured by injection of polypropylene with a minimum injection thickness of 2 to 3 mm; on the other hand, these devices have a relatively rigid gripping tab, constituting an obstacle to the packaging or overpacking of the container equipped with the device of the prior art.

 In addition, in the case of the extraction of slices of fragile products or requiring a good presentation, these devices cannot be used because they mark the surface of the wafer according to that during extraction with help of the device.

 The invention aims to remedy the aforementioned drawbacks of the prior art by creating a new device of very small thickness, comprising a flexible gripping tab capable of being overwrapped with the container containing the product and not marking the product slices .

 The subject of the invention is a device for extracting the wafer of product contained in a container, of the type comprising a conformation in contact with the product to be extracted and a gripping tab, characterized in that said conformation is a thin and flexible conformation substantially shell-shaped.

According to other features of the invention
- the conformation is produced by thermoforming a thin sheet of synthetic material
- the gripping tab comes integrally with said conformation
- the tongue is flexible between two positions, the first of which corresponds to the extraction and the second of which corresponds to erasure in a direction allowing simultaneous packaging or overwrapping in the position of the device, the container and the product contained in the container
- the conformation is substantially in the form of a prism with a trapezoidal base
- the base of the conformation forms an obtuse angle with the side wall
- the obtuse angle is preferably between 9 and 135 degrees of sexagesimal angle.

The invention will be better understood from the description which follows given by way of nonlimiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which
Figure 1 schematically shows a top view of a container equipped with a device according to the invention.

Figure 2 shows a schematic elevation view with partial longitudinal section along the line
II-II of Figure 1.

 FIG. 3 represents a top view of a device according to the invention.

 FIGS. 4 and 5 schematically represent another embodiment of the invention respectively in plan view and in elevation with partial longitudinal section along the line V-V of FIG. 4.

 FIG. 6 schematically represents a cross-sectional view along line VI-VI of FIG. 4.

 With reference to FIGS. 1 to 3, a container 1 intended to receive products which can be separated into slices contains a device 2 according to the invention.

 The device 2 comprises a gripping tab 3 or equivalent means for extracting a conformation 4 substantially in the form of a flexible shell.

 According to the invention, the conformation 4 is adapted to present a contact surface with the slice of product to be extracted greater than 40%: it has in fact been found that, in this case, the slice of product to be extracted remains held against the device according to the invention and moves with it in an overall movement, so that the adjacent non-extracted edge remains distant and out of reach of the edge 5 of the shell.

 Thus, thanks to the invention, the adjacent slices of product move relative to each other, without any risk of slice marking.

 In the embodiment of Figures 1 to 3, the device according to the invention has a general prismatic shape with a substantially trapezoidal base 6 having a height h less than the thickness of the slices to be extracted; a small thickness of less than 0.6 mm and flexibility allowing shape adaptation to the shape of the product wafer.

 The substantially prismatic shape of this device is preferably obtained by thermoforming, according to a technique called 11thermoforming without sidewalk "in the language of specialists, of a thin sheet of synthetic material having food quality. For example, we cite in as a synthetic material a polypropylene (PP) or a high density polyethylene (HDPE); it is clear, however, that the invention encompasses the use of any thermoformable material in low thickness.

 The angle A formed by the substantially vertical wall 7 or substantially parallel to the side wall 1a of the container 1 with the trapezoidal base 6 is an obtuse angle preferably between 92 and 135 degrees of sexagesimal angle.

 Finally, the substantially triangular side faces 8 and 9 move away from one another from their respective intersection edges 8a and 9a with the above-mentioned wall 7 so as to facilitate flexible adaptation of the device according to the invention to the product to be extracted.

 This first embodiment of the invention allows the extraction of consecutive slices of product, because the container 1 has a substantially constant section.

 With reference to FIGS. 4 to 6, another device according to the invention is placed in a mold or dish 11, the cross section of which widens from the ends towards the middle of the mold.

 The mold 11 has at its ends rims 11a for gripping, in a manner known per se.

 The device 12 according to the invention comprises a gripping tongue 13 integrally formed with a conformation 14 in flexible shell.

 In this exemplary embodiment, the device according to the invention is also shown in substantially prismatic form with an adhesion face 17 to the wafer to be extracted, substantially triangular side faces 18 and 19 limited by an edge 15 and a bottom 16.

 Of course, this device has sufficient flexibility to adapt to the shape of the product which will be introduced into the container.

 However, due to the fact that the product contained widens from the ends towards the center of the container, the device can only be used in this case for the extraction of the first so-called "start" slice and possibly a few slices following of product.

 In the two embodiments, the gripping tabs 3 and 13 are preferably flexible and orientable at will to be contained in the volume of the container in order to allow the overpacking or the instantaneous and simultaneous packaging of the container equipped with the device according to the invention. and product.

 By way of example, a tongue 3 or 13 is able to pivot in the direction of arrow 10 or 20 of FIGS. 2 or 5 between a position 3 or 13 of extraction and a position 3a or 13a of erasure.

 The invention covers any variant of pivoting or retraction of the gripping tab 3 or 13, in a direction of erasure allowing the aforementioned simultaneous overwrapping or packaging in a predetermined position.

Claims (7)

 1. - Device for extracting the slice of product contained in a container, of the type comprising a conformation in contact with the product to be extracted and a gripping tab, characterized in that said conformation (4, 14) is a thin conformation and flexible substantially in shell.  2. - Device according to claim 1, characterized in that said conformation (4, 14) is manufactured by thermoforming a thin sheet of synthetic material.  3. - Device according to claim 2, characterized in that the tongue (3, 13) for gripping comes integrally with said conformation (4, 14).  4. - Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said tongue is flexible between two positions (3, 3a; 13, 13a), of which the first (3, 13) corresponds to the extraction and the second corresponds erasing in a direction allowing simultaneous conditioning or overwrapping in position of the device (2, 12), the container (1, 11) and the product contained in the container.  5. - Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the conformation (2, 12) is substantially in the form of a prism with a trapezoidal base (4, 14).  6. - Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the base (4, 14) of the conformation makes with the side wall (7, 17) an obtuse angle (A).  7. - Device according to claim 7, characterized in that said obtuse angle (A) is preferably between 92 and 135 degrees of sexagesimal angle.