FR2855146A1 - Salad filling process for use by e.g. dietician, involves reciprocating piston in horizontal movement to apply pressure on salad poured in bowl for reducing volume of another piston reciprocated in vertical movement - Google Patents

Abstract

The process involves delivering an amount of salad into a horizontal drain pipe (50), whose end is arranged above one side of a bowl (2) to be filled with the salad. The drain pipe is provided to pour the salad into the bowl. A piston (70) is reciprocated in a horizontal movement to apply a pressure on the salad poured in the bowl for reducing the volume of another piston (81) reciprocated in a vertical movement. An independent claim is also included for an installation of filling an amount of salad into a bowl.

Description

i

  The invention relates to filling bowls or trays in the form of bowls with a dose of salad and at least one dose of additional products placed above the dose of salad, to form sales units ready to be consumed.

  Changes in consumption habits and the need to consume balanced meals have led dieticians and caterers to offer, in particular, individual salad rations ready to be eaten either at home or at work.

  These salad rations must meet strict conditions of cleanliness and hygiene during their preparation, and be sufficiently nutritious to constitute a complete meal.

  They generally include a dose of salad, several doses of complementary products, such as for example surimi, grated carrots, corn, pieces of boneless chicken, tuna crumbs, diced cheese, as well as a covered dish of sauce suitable for complementary products, and a small plastic fork.

  All these ingredients are generally placed in a bowl-shaped tray made of a transparent plastic material so that the buyer can see the product he wishes to consume. We will call these trays by the word "bowls" in the rest of the presentation.

  These bowls are provided with a domed cover which is closed after filling the bowl.

  For hygienic and aesthetic reasons, the doses of 25 complementary products, generally three in number, and the dish are placed above the dose of salad previously loaded in the bowl, in order to give the ration a pleasant appearance.

  To prevent the various ingredients from capsizing during transport, these ingredients generally fill the entire contents of the bowl. This is easily achieved by the fact that the dose of salad comprises a plurality of elementary pieces which easily abound when the salad is fresh, which is an obligation in the manufacture of salad-based rations.

  But this abundance of the dose of salad when it is introduced into the bottom of the bowl creates a problem, because it forms above the upper plane a dome of salad which can cause an overflow of the complementary products during the removal of these on the dose of salad.

  In general, in installations for automatically filling trays or bowls with superposed doses of powdery or creamy products, a metering device directly pours the first dose of the main product into the bottom of the tray, at the partial filling station, then a second doser adds a dose of additional product to the adding station, the trays advancing step by step in the installation.

  This method and these installations are only suitable for filling the tray 10 when the first dose introduced into the tray is a dose of an abundant product, such as salad, which, by itself, fills the entire tray.

  The object of the invention is to propose a method and an installation which make it possible to solve the problem posed.

  The invention relates firstly to a method of filling bowls with a dose of salad and at least one dose of additional products placed on the dose of salad, a method according to which at least one column of bowls is advanced step by step along a scrolling path of bowls in a filling installation successively comprising a station for partially filling said bowls with a dose of salad and a station for adding at least one dose of additional products above the dose salad in a bowl.

  According to the invention, this method is characterized in that, in the station for partially filling said bowls with a dose of salad, a dose of salad is delivered in a first horizontal gutter, one end of which is disposed above the edge of the bowl to be filled, the dose of salad delivered is slid into said first gutter in order to pour it into said bowl, by means of a first piston driven with a horizontal reciprocating movement, and a pressure is applied to the dose 30 of salad poured into said bowl in order to reduce the volume by means of a second piston driven by a vertical reciprocating movement.

  According to an advantageous characteristic of the invention, in the station for adding at least one dose of additional products above a dose of salad contained in a bowl, at least one dose 35 of additional products is delivered in a second horizontal gutter, one end of which is disposed above the edge of a bowl partially filled with a dose of salad, the doses of additional products delivered are slid into said second gutter in order to pour them into said bowl above the dose of salad by means of a third piston animated by a horizontal reciprocating movement, and a pressure is applied to the contents of said bowl in order to reduce the volume thereof by means of a fourth piston, of concave surface, animated by '' a vertical reciprocating movement.

  The invention also relates to an installation for filling bowls with a dose of salad and at least one dose of additional products placed above said dose of salad, said installation comprising: means for advancing step by step at least a column of bowls along a scrolling path of bowls, a station for partially filling said bowls with a dose of salad, a station for adding at least one dose of additional products above the dose of salad contained in a bowl, said addition station being arranged downstream of said filling station in the direction of advancement of the bowls, and means for controlling and synchronizing said installation.

  According to the invention, this installation is characterized by the fact that it comprises at the partial filling station of said bowls with a dose of salad, a first gutter disposed horizontally above the path of travel of a column of bowls and one of which end is disposed above the edge of a bowl intended to receive a dose of salad, a first chute arranged above said first gutter and intended to receive a dose of salad from a salad delivery device , and to deposit it in said first gutter, a first piston mounted movable in said first gutter between the rear of the area for depositing the dose of salad and said end of gutter and intended to pour said dose of salad into said bowl, and a second piston mounted vertically mobile above the bowl to be filled and intended to compress the dose of salad poured into the bowl to reduce its volume.

  This first gutter is arranged, preferably parallel to the column of bowls.

  Thus, at the exit from the partial filling station, the dose of salad is compressed by the second piston, which provides sufficient space to deposit the doses of additional products before the subsequent increase in the volume of the dose of salad by 10 expansion. .

  This installation advantageously further comprises, at the station for adding additional doses above a dose of salad contained in a bowl, a second gutter disposed horizontally above the path of travel of a column of bowls and one of which 15 end is disposed above an edge of a bowl partially filled with a dose of salad, a second chute disposed above said gutter and intended to receive at least one dose of additional products from a dose delivery device of additional product, and to deposit it in said second gutter, a third piston mounted mobile in said second gutter between the rear of the zone for depositing said doses and the end of said second gutter and intended to pour said doses over above the dose of salad contained in said bowl, and a fourth piston, of concave surface, mounted vertically movable above said bowl and intended to co mpress the contents of said bowl 25 to reduce the volume.

  This second pouring device is functionally identical to the device for pouring the dose of salad into the bowl, and it makes it possible to pour several doses of additional products placed side by side in the third gutter.

  Very advantageously, to add at least two doses of additional products above a dose of salad, the second chute is divided into as many elementary chutes as doses of product to be added, the second gutter being divided into at least two gutters elementary by at least one longitudinal rib, said elementary gutters receiving at least one dose of additional products, and the third piston having at least one lateral groove complementary to said rib and being arranged astride said rib.

  The second gutter is also arranged parallel to the column of bowls.

  In the case where the installation makes it possible to simultaneously treat at least two columns of bowls, the first chute is mounted oscillating around an axis parallel to the path of travel of the columns of bowls and makes it possible to successively deliver a dose of salad in the first associated gutters audited bowl columns.

  The second chute is also mounted to oscillate about an axis parallel to the path of travel of the bowl columns and makes it possible to successively deliver doses of additional products into the second gutters associated with said bowl columns.

  These provisions make it possible to fill several columns with 15 bowls moving in unison using only one salad weigher at the station for partially filling the bowls with a dose of salad, and a single second weigher for additional products at the station adding additional products.

  Other advantages and characteristics of the invention will emerge on reading the following description, given by way of example and with reference to the appended drawings in which: - Figure 1 is a side view of a filling installation of bowls with a dose of salad and doses of additional products; - Figure 2 is a top view of the metering devices of the installation, located in the upper floor; - Figure 3 is a top view of the installation according to the invention; Figure 4 is a front view of a device for filling a dose of product by transfer; - Figure 5 is a section along the median plane of a running path of a column of bowls, of the device for filling and transferring doses of products; and - Figure 6 is a schematic perspective view of a gutter.

  FIGS. 1 to 3 show an installation 1 for filling bowls 2 with a dose of salad and with several doses of additional products placed above the dose of salad.

  More precisely, the installation makes it possible to add to the dose 5 of salad one or more doses of additional products and a covered cup of sauce.

  Salad doses consist of pre-cut pieces of salad weighed by a weigher. The same applies to doses of additional products.

  The installation 1 essentially comprises a horizontal conveyor belt 3 advancing step by step and on which two columns of parallel bowls are provided. This conveyor belt 3 has on its outer face transverse tabs which delimit the locations of the rows of two bowls.

  The conveyor belt 3 advances step by step at a predetermined rate and managed by a device for controlling and synchronizing the installation 1, not shown in the drawings, so that the bowls which it supports pass successively through several work stations.

  At the upstream end of the conveyor belt 3, arranged on the left in FIG. 3, there is provided a loading station 4 for bowls on the belt 3. This loading station 4 can be mechanized. However, the loading of the bowls can possibly be carried out manually without departing from the scope of the invention.

  Downstream of the loading station 4, a partial filling station 5 is provided for the empty bowls 2 with a dose of salad. This filling station 5 is automated and is the subject of the invention.

  Reference 6 designates the station for adding doses of additional products to the dose of salad contained in bowl 2 arriving at this station. This station 6 is also automated.

  Downstream of the addition station 6, at the control station 7, personnel ensure that products do not cover the edges of the bowls 2, which could harm the subsequent closing of the filled bowls 2. These personnel push these products towards the interior of the bowls 2, and place a cup of sauce and a plastic fork enclosed in a sachet on the load contained in each bowl. A control desk 8 of the installation 1 is available to this personnel.

  The filled bowls 2 continue on their way and pass successively through a closing station 9 for the bowls 2, a labeling station 5 for the closed bowls, a marking station 11 for the expiration date, and a detection station 12 for metals in labeled and marked bowls. Then we proceed to the packaging of the bowls 2 for delivery.

  The closing stations 9, labeling 10, marking 11 and 10 for metal detection 12 are preferably automated. However, these devices which are not part of the invention do not deserve further explanation.

  At the partial filling station 5 and at the adding station 6 for additional products, there is provided above the conveyor belt 3, a weighing system 20 for doses of salad, and a weighing system 30 for doses of additional products. These devices 20 and 30 comprise, in known manner, means 21 and 31 for supplying raw materials, weighing means 22 and 32, hoppers 23 and 33 for receiving a dose of product, and means for opening of the hoppers 24 and 34 in order to evacuate the doses of products.

  All these means are controlled synchronously by the installation control and synchronism device. The means referenced 21 to 24 relate to the weighing system 20 of doses of salads, and the means referenced 31 to 34 are included in the weighing system 30 of doses of additional products.

  FIGS. 4 and 5 show, on a larger scale, the weighing system 30 for doses of additional products placed above the conveyor belt 3, at the addition station 6.

  The weighing system 20 arranged at the filling station 4 for the 30 doses of salad is functionally identical to that of the weighing system 31, except that the number of feed devices 21 for raw material, the number of weighing devices 22 and the number of hoppers 23 is less than the number of the same devices in the weighing system 30.

  In FIG. 5, the row of bowls to receive doses of additional products has been designated by the reference 40b and by the reference 40a the next row of bowls. The weighing system 30 is centered above the median plane of these two rows, and above the median plane of the two columns 2a, 2b of bowls 2.

  Under the hoppers 33, is arranged a chute 50 mounted 5 oscillating in its upper part around an axis 51 parallel to the conveyor belt 3. This chute 50 of conical shape and flared upwards and can take three positions, a first position 52a in which its lower orifice 53 is located above row 2b of bowls 2, a second position 52b in which orifice 53 is located above row 2b of bowls 2, and a third position 52c in which l orifice 53 is disposed laterally above the conveyor belt 3, in order to dump the doses received towards a waste bin 54, this third position being occupied only when the weighing system 30 has detected a weighing error.

  In the first position 52a or the second position, the orifice 53 of the chute 50 is located above an orifice 60a or 60b formed in the upper wall of a tunnel 61a, 61b disposed horizontally in the direction of the advancement of the conveyor belt 3. The tunnel 61a is arranged above the row 2a of bowls 2 and the tunnel 6lb is arranged above the row 2b. These tunnels 61a and 6lb of substantially rectangular section play the role of gutters into which the doses of products delivered by the weighing system 31 are discharged, via the chute 50.

  As can be seen in FIG. 5, one end 62 of each tunnel 61a, 6lb is located above the edge of a bowl 2 of row 25 of bowls 40b, and in each tunnel 61a, 6lb is slidably mounted a first piston 70 actuated back and forth by a first rod 71 which slides in said tunnel the doses of products so that they pour into a bowl through the end 62, the piston 70 being able to move to this end 62.

  Each tunnel 61a, 61b is secured at its end 62 to a sleeve in the form of a hoop of vertical axis 80 in which is slidably mounted a second piston 81 actuated vertically by a second rod 82.

  The sleeve 80 is placed just above a bowl 2 of row 35 40a of bowls to be filled and its section is less than the inlet of each bowl.

  At the loading station 4 of the empty bowls with a dose of salad, the first pistons 70 make it possible to pour into each bowl 2 of row 40b a dose of salad. The sleeve 80 prevents the pieces of salad of the dose from overflowing from the bowl 2. However, the abundant salad, 5 the dose of salad fills the bowl 2 to form a heap whose top is in the volume of the sleeve 80. The movement vertical of the second piston 81, after filling the bowl 2, makes it possible to compress the dose of salad in order to reduce the volume of this dose.

  During the step-by-step movement of the bowls 2, the upper pieces of salad from the bowls which have just been filled will not be planed or leveled by the lower edge of the sleeve 80.

  The same principle is applied to the station for adding 5 doses of complementary products. In this station, the doses of product are poured over the dose of salad contained in a bowl 2. At the addition station 5, the second piston 81 advantageously has a lower face having a concave surface.

  In general, several doses of additional products are placed on the dose of salad. To prevent the doses from mixing up excessively at the addition station, the tunnels 61a and 6lb of this addition station 20 are separated longitudinally by a vertical middle wall 63, as shown in FIG. 6, which divides the corresponding tunnel into two elementary tunnels, each receiving a dose or several doses of products arranged one behind the other.

  The first piston 70 can then be made up of two elementary pistons operating in unison and sliding each in an elementary tunnel, or be made up of a single piston having a slot in which the central wall 63 of the tunnel slides.

  At the loading station 4, the chute 50 is constituted by four flat walls. The weighing system 20 can comprise two weighing devices and two hoppers 23 which pour their doses into the chute 50. This arrangement can allow the installation to be used to replace the bottoms of the bowls with a mixture of two products, salad and

dough for example.

  At the addition station 5, the weighing system 20 comprises four hoppers 33 and the chute 50 has dividing partitions perpendicular to each other and perpendicular to the four outer planar walls to form four elementary chutes which can each receive a dose of additional product. Because only three additional products are poured onto the dose of salad contained in a bowl, one of the installation hoppers is inoperative during the operation of the installation, and can be removed for cleaning.

  As seen in Figures 4 and 5, the axis 51 of the chute is mounted on a frame 90, made from beams, which support the device 91 for tilting said chute 50, device produced in the form of a hydraulic cylinder for example.

Claims (10)

  1. Method for filling bowls with a dose of salad and with at least one dose of additional products placed on the dose of salad, method according to which at least one column of bowls (2) is advanced step by step along '' a scrolling path of bowls in a filling installation (1) successively comprising a filling station (4) partial of said bowls with a dose of salad and an addition station (5) of at least one dose of additional products above the dose of salad contained in a bowl characterized in that, in the filling station (4) partial of said bowls (2) with a dose of salad, a dose of salad is delivered in a first horizontal gutter one end (62) of which is disposed above the edge of the bowl (2) to be filled, the dose of salad delivered is slid into said first gutter in order to pour it into said bowl, by means of a first piston ( 70) with a horizontal reciprocating motion, e t pressure is applied to the dose of salad poured into said bowl (2) in order to reduce the volume by means of a second piston (81) driven by a vertical reciprocating movement.   2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that, in the adding station (4) of at least one dose of additional products above a dose of salad contained in a bowl (2), is delivered to minus a dose of additional products in a second horizontal gutter (61a, 62b), one end (62) of which is disposed above the edge of a bowl partially filled with a dose of salad, the doses of additional products delivered in order to pour them into said bowl (2) above the dose of salad by means of a third piston (70) driven in a horizontal reciprocating movement, and pressure is applied to the contents of said bowl 30 in order to reduce its volume by means of a fourth piston (81), of concave surface, driven by a vertical reciprocating movement.   3. Installation for filling bowls with a dose of salad and at least one dose of additional products placed above said dose of salad, said installation (1) comprising: means for advancing at least one column step by step (2a, 2b) of bowls (2) along a scrolling path of bowls, a filling station (4) partial of said bowls (2) with a dose of salad, an addition station (5) of at least one dose of additional products above the dose of salad contained in a bowl, said 5 addition station (5) being arranged downstream of said filling station (4) in the direction of advancement of the bowls, and control and synchronization means of said installation, characterized in that it comprises, at the filling station (4) partial of said bowls with a dose of salad, a first gutter (61a, 6lb) arranged horizontally above of the travel path of a column (2a, 2b) of bowls (2) and one end (62) of which is disposed at u above the edge of a bowl intended to receive a dose of salad, a first chute (50) disposed above said first gutter and intended to receive a dose of salad from a salad dose delivery device (20 ), and to deposit it in said first gutter (61a, 61b) a first piston (70) mounted mobile in said first gutter (61a, 61b), between the rear of the zone for depositing the dose of salad and said end (62) of gutter and intended to pour said dose of salad into said bowl (2), and a second piston (81) mounted vertically mobile above the bowl to be filled and intended to compress the dose of salad contained in the bowl to decrease the volume.   4. Installation according to claim 3, characterized in that the first gutter (61a, 6lb) is arranged parallel to the column (2a, 2b) of bowls (2).   5. Installation according to one of claims 3 or 4, characterized in that it also comprises, at the adding station (5) at least one dose of additional products above a dose of salad contained in a bowl, a second gutter (61a, 61b) arranged horizontally above the running path of a column (2a, 2b) of bowls (2) and one end (62) of which is disposed above '' an edge of a bowl partially filled with a dose of salad, a second chute (50) disposed above said gutter (61a, 6lb) and intended to receive at least one dose of additional products from a delivery (30) of doses of additional products, and to deposit it in said second gutter (61a, 61b), a third piston (81) mounted movably in said second gutter (61a, 61b) between the rear of the deposit area of said doses and the end (62) of said 5 second gutter (61a, 61b) and intended to pour the di your doses above the dose of salad contained in said bowl, and a fourth piston (81), of concave surface, mounted vertically movable above said bowl and intended to compress the content of said bowl to reduce its volume.   6. Installation according to claim 5 for adding at least two doses of additional products above a dose of salad, characterized in that the second chute (50) is divided into as many elementary chutes as doses of products to add, the second gutter being divided into at least two elementary gutters by at least one longitudinal wall (63), said elementary gutters receiving at least one dose of additional products, and the third piston (70) having at least one complementary lateral groove of said wall (63) and being arranged astride said wall (63).   7. Installation according to one of claims 5 or 6, characterized in that the second gutter (61a, 61b) is arranged parallel to the column (2a, 2b) of bowls.   8. Installation according to one of claims 3 to 7, characterized in that it makes it possible to simultaneously treat at least two columns 25 (2a, 2b) of bowls.   9. Installation according to claim 8, characterized in that the first chute (50) is mounted to oscillate around an axis (51) parallel to the path of travel of the columns of bowls and makes it possible to successively deliver a dose of salad in the gutters (61a, 62a) associated with said columns (2a, 2b) of bowls.   10. Installation according to claim 9 and one of claims 5 to 7, characterized in that the second chute (50) is mounted oscillating around an axis parallel (51) to the path of movement of the bowls columns and allows to successively deliver 35 doses of additional products into the second gutters (61a, 61b) associated with said columns of bowls.