GB2154205A - Paste-dispensing machines for automated food manufacture - Google Patents

Abstract

A paste dispensing machine for the automated manufacture of food products in which the machine comprises a composite casing which is made up from matching casing parts 6, 24, 25 each including one or more augers 21 and which are bolted together in side-by-side abutting relationship according to the required number of auger outlets 23. Several similar casing sections 6, 24, 25 having the same or a different number of auger outlets 23 may be selected to provide a machine with an even or odd number of outlets. The machine deposits paste on a conveyor in food manufacture, eg. pie manufacture. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Machines for automated food manufacture This invention relates to machines for use in the automated manufacture of food products such as pies and tarts and in particular to a food depositor for despositing measured amounts of food material onto a conveyor belt during a production line process.

Known types of food depositors, for example paste depositors, comprise one or more extruder screws or augers and a pair of contra-rotating feed rollers which feed paste into a dispensing chamber in which the augers are rotatable. The augers then operate to extrude the paste through nozzles and deposit it onto a conveyor belt in one or more 'production lines'. In this known arrangement the feed rollers and the auger, or augers, are accommodated in a single casing with the axes of the feed rollers and the auger, or augers, aligned. A drive transmission is required for the contra-rotation of the feed rollers and the augers. If it is required to change the number of production lines, and hence the number of augers, it is necessary to redesign the depositor to cater for a different number of auger outlets. This involves expense and delay in meeting the new requirement.

Another drawback associated with food depositors of the kind defined is that if more than one auger is placed in the same dispensing chamber with their axes parallel to the roller axes the distribution of the paste throughout the chamber may not always be even, with the result that the amount of paste extruded by the augers may not always be substantially the same. In food manufacture it is very important to control the amount of the food deposit accurately.

It is an object of the present invention to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks.

According to the present invention a food depositor machine for dispensing measured amounts of food material during the automated manufacture of food products comprises a centre casing section and a pair of end covers clamped against opposite ends of the centre casing section to form a composite housing, the centre casing section being adapted to provide one or more dispensing orifices for dispensing said material.

Preferably each end cover also includes at least one dispensing orifice.

In one preferred embodiment of the invention the centre casing section is interchangeable with other similar centre casing sections provided with a different plurality or dispensing orifices according to the number of production lines to be served.

In another preferred embodiment of the invention the centre casing section comprises one or more similar individual casings disposed in abutting relationship each having a single dispensing orifice.

The individual casings comprising the centre section are preferably made as standard opensided casing parts of the same size having mutual complementary wall formations which in use mate with each other and with complementary wall formations on the end covers.

Each standard casing part is preferably provided with complementary wall formations defining a pair of opposed cylindrical apertures for receiving an extent of a pair of feed rollers which are journalled in the end covers and which feed the food material into a dispensing chamber formed in the composite housing beneath the rollers. Preferably, the wall formations are extended upwardly above the rollers to form part of a hopper mouth for receiving food material.

The means for dispensing the food material from the or each orifice is preferably a screw or auger device rotatable within the dispensing chamber.

The screw or auger device will hereinafter be referred to as an auger.

In another preferred embodiment where there is a plurality of augers the axes of rotation of the feed rollers are arranged to be substantially at right angles to the axes of rotation of the augers.

Such an arrangement ensures that the food material is distributed substantially evenly to the augers.

Preferably, the dispensing chamber is subdivided so that each auger is rotatable in a part cylindrical channel comprising the dispensing chamber walls and the walls are extended upwardly towards the feed rollers and act as baffles. These baffles serve to prevent the migration of food from one channel to another and permit a greatly simplified auger drive arrangement in which all the augers are rotated in the same direction.

Without the provision of part cylindrical channels adjacent augers would have to rotate in opposite directions otherwise substantially even distribution of food material could not be guaranteed and the auger at one end of a row would not necessarily dispense the right weight of material as the chamber contents may have undesirably shifted to the opposite end of said row where overloading of the auger drive may occur.

In order to achieve a simple drive train for a multiple auger machine in which all the augers rotate in the same direction, one auger shaft may be directly driven and the remainder indirectly driven through idler gears or a mechanical equivalent.

Any suitable drive and clutch arrangement to produce intermittent simultaneous rotation of the augers at the required moment may be used.

Although the preferred casing material is aluminium, stainless steel is a possible alternative.

One preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:l Figure 1 shows a diagrammatic outline of a conveyor used in the automated manufacture of pies, Figure 2 shows a known type of depositor machine mounted on one end of a conveyor, Figure 3 shows a side view of a central casing for a depositor machine according to this invention, Figure 4 shows an end view of the casing as viewed on arrow 'B' of Figure 3, Figure 5 shows a central casing of Figures 3 and 4 mounted between opposed end casings, and Figure 6 is a horizontal section along the line 'A' 'A' of Figure 4.

With reference to Figure 1 of the drawings a conveyor 1 for the automated production of pies has mounted thereon, a paste depositor 2, a blocking head 3, a filler 4 and a lidding head 5. The depositor 2 is of known type comprising an auger and contra-rotating feed rollers driven by an electric motor. The auger controls the weight of the paste deposit and is rotated intermittently in synchronisation with the rollers by a mechanical clutch as the conveyor indexes in the direction of the arrow.

Figure 2 shows another depositor 2 of known type having three augers, in which the auger casing has been designed to the user's specification and is not interchangeable with other casings to increase or decrease the number of augers to meet different production line requirements.

For the reasons hereinbefore stated this invention is able to provide a simplified design of multiauger depositor which is flexible in meeting different specifications and yet maintains the required weight control of the deposit within fine limits.

In the embodiment hereinafter described a triple auger paste depositor comprises a composite casing which is made up from three sections comprising a standard central casing section and two end cover sections which are bolted together in side by side abutting relationship to provide a housing for a pair of feed rollers and three augers. One auger is mounted in the central section and one in each end cover. The axes of rotation of the feed rollers and the augers are at right angles to each other.

With reference to Figures 3 and 4, a generally rectangular central casing section 6 for a paste depositor housing is cast in aluminium to form a central web 16 having flanges of equal width extending normally on either side thereof. The flanges terminate in parallel flat mating faces 27.

The casing 6 is formed with spaced upper wall parts 7 and 8 of unequal height comprising flanged wall portions 11 and 12 which extend downwardly and converge inwardly to define part of a mouth 9 to which a hopper, such as that shown at 10 in Figure 2 is mounted. The flanged portions 11 and 12 merge at a central part of the casing with opposed part-cylindrical wall portions 13 and 14 respectively. The wall portions 13 and 14 define arcuate recesses which receive, in use, an extent of sideby-side contra-rotating rollers rotatable about axes 26 shown in ghosted outline at 15 in Figure 3. The rollers 15, which may have plane or toothed faces are spaced apart by a gap 17 through which the dough is fed downwardly into a dispensing chamber of the depositor and which comprises an auger feed chamber 18.The chamber 18 is formed as a pocket or trough in the dispensing chamber and extends over substantially the full length of the casing beneath and at right-angles to the arcuate recesses 13 and 14. The chamber 18 has a semicylindrical floor 20 which merges along its diameter with upwardly extending and outwardly inclined sidewalls 19 which, when the machine is assembled, subdivide the dispensing chamber into the troughs 18. The sidewalls 19 reach almost to the lower edges the arcuate wall portions 13 and 14 provided for the rollers 15 and contribute considerably to the efficiency of a multiple auger machine by preventing dough forced into the chamber 18 by the feed rollers from migrating to an adjacent chamber 18 of the depositor.

The chamber 18 receives, in use, an auger (not shown) which is journalled in bores 21 in the opposed end walls of the casing 6. A cylindrical recess 23, co-axial with the bore 21 at one end of the casing receives a nozzle (not shown) for extruding dough issuing from the auger. At the opposite end of the casing a further coaxial bore 22 of smaller diameter receives a drive shaft from a tranmission housing (not shown) which is attached to the depositor housing. The opposite face of the central casing section 6 to that shown in Figure 3 is a mirror image of that shown in Figure 3.

To complete a composite housing for a triple auger depositor, for example, according to the method provided by this invention the open sided central casing 6 is closed on each side by left and right handed cover housings 24 and 25 as shown in Figure 5. in Figure 5 the forward or nozzle end of the depositor faces the reader.

The cover housings 24 and 25 will not be described in detail as it will now be appreciated from the drawings and the foregoing description that they are dish-like in shape and provide left-hand and right hand complementary features to those of the central casing section 6. That is to say there are matching lateral flanges and semi-cylindrical wall portions 13 and 14 which receive the pairs of rollers 15 as well as matching floor portions 20 and sidewalls 19 for the auger feed chambers 18. Both sides of the central casing 6 have plane, parallel mating flanges 27 which seal with complementary flanges on the cover housings 24 and 25.

The webs 16 on central casing 6 are provided with bosses 28 which have through-bores. The left hand cover housing 24 is provided with external bosses 29 which likewise have through-bores but the right hand cover housing 25 is provided with bosses 30 on the inside face which have blind bores screw threaded to receive the end of a stud (not shown). All the aforementioned bores are in corresponding positions on their respective casings. The left hand cover housing 24 has an ovalshaped boss 31 which is tapped for the mounting of a cover plate over two large bores 33 through which the feed rollers 15 are inserted. The right hand cover housing 25 has a pair of smaller bores 32, coaxial with the bores 33, which receive the roller spindles.

In order to assemble a three auger housing for a depositor according to this invention, the augers are inserted into their respective chambers 18 through the cylindrical recesses 23 and the rollers are inserted respectively through the large bores 33, through the arcuate portions 13 and 14 of the central casing 6 and located in each end casing 24, 25 by their spindles and the cover plate (not shown). The three casing sections which together form a composite housing are accurately aligned by transverse studs extending through the open bores 28, 29 and screwed into the threaded bores 30. The sections are then clamped together by nuts on threaded end portions of the studs extending from the bosses 29. The flange side faces 27 make face to face sealing joints between the housing sections to complete a strong box-like structure.

The drive transmission housing (not-shown), which includes a clutch and worm mechanism for driving the rollers and augers intermittently in synchronisation, is mounted on that sidewall of the housing section 25 which is devoid of bosses. The transmission includes idler wheels to provide for auger rotation in the same direction and gear drive means to provide for contra rotation of the rollers.

If it is desired to increase the number of augers to meet a new specification for, say four augers, it is a simple matter to add a further standard central casing section 6 and increase the length of the rollers 15.

In operation of the depositor dough is fed through the rollers 15 into the central portion of each auger feed chamber 18 and then forced lengthwise of each chamber 18 between the housing side walls 19 until each auger is packed with dough along the whole of its length. This arrangement helps to ensure consistently accurate deposit weights for a multi-auger depositor.

This and other embodiments of the invention facilitate the construction of a multi-purpose depositor machine and enable such a machine to be readily adapted for use on a range of multi-line conveyor belts used in automated food manufacture. The arrangements hereinbefore described enable odd or even numbers of augers to be incorporated in a single machine having one pair of feed rollers. Auger casing assemblies designed for up to 8 or 9 dispensing orifices are considered to be a practical proposition with this invention.

In use the depositor is not restricted to paste. It may be used for depositing a variety of food material which is of a suitable consistency, for example sausage meat. When the depositor is used as in intermediary for depositing sausage meat, the rollers and the augers will be driven continuously in synchronism.

Claims (12)

1. A food depositor machine for dispensing measured amounts of food material during the automated manufacture of food products, wherein the machine comprises a centre casing section and a pair of end covers clamped against opposite ends of the centre casing section to form a composite housing, and wherein the centre casing section is adapted to provide one or more dispensing orifices for dispensing said material.

2. A machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein each end cover is provided with at least one dispensing orifice.

3. A machine as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the centre casing section is interchangeable with other similar centre casing sections provided with a different plurality of dispensing orifices as required.

4. A machine as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the centre casing section comprises one or more similar individual casings disposed in abutting relationship each having a single dispensing orifice.

5. A machine as claimed in claim 4, wherein the individual casings are standard open-sided casing parts of the same size having mutual complementary wall formations which mate with each other and with complementary wall formations on said end covers when clamped in abutting relationship with said end covers.

6. A machine as claimed in claim 5, wherein each standard casing part has complementary wall formations defining a pair of opposed part cylindrical apertures for receiving an extent of a pair of feed rollers which are journalled in the end covers and which feed the food material into a dispensing chamber formed in the composite housing.

7. A machine as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the means for dispensing food material from the or each orifice is an auger rotatable within the dispensing chamber for dispensing food material through said orifice.

8. A machine as claimed in claim 7, wherein said pair of feed rollers are arranged with their axes of rotation substantially at right angles to the axes of rotation of the or each auger and extend above the dispensing chamber for substantially the full width of said composite housing.

9. A machine as claimed in any of claims 6 to 8, wherein the wall formations of each casing part defining said pair of opposed cylindrical apertures are extended upwardly above said feed rollers and form part of a hopper mouth for receiving food material.

10. A machine as claimed in any of claims 7 to 9, wherein the or each auger is rotatable in a part cylindrical channel comprising the dispensing chamber, the arrangement being such that the channel walls are extended upwardly towards the feed rollers to subdivide the dispensing chamber and act as baffles which serve to prevent migration of food material from one channel to another and so permit a screw device drive arrangement in which all the screw devices are rotated in the same direction.

11. A machine as claimed in claim 10, wherein the drive arrangement includes idler wheels to provide for auger rotation in the same direction and gear drive means to provide for contra rotation of the feed rollers.

12. A food depositor machine for dispensing food material during the automated manufacture of food products, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.