IES20100330A2 - A food carving apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a food carving apparatus for carving cooked chicken breast comprising a lower conveyor belt, a carving assembly disposed array of spaced-apart reciprocable blades; and an upper conveyor assembly comprising an upstream conveyor and a downstream conveyor, such that in use, the carving assembly is located between the upstream conveyor and the downstream. This provides for improved carving results, producing a plurality of slices from the carved chicken breast, while retaining the overall shape of a chicken breast for ease of subsequent handling. <Figure 1>

Description

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“A FOOD CARVING APPARATUS Introduction The present invention relates to a food carving apparatus. In particular it relates to a food carving apparatus suitable for carving cooked chicken breasts.

Cooked meats, such as ham, chicken and turkey are popular food products and are often sold to consumers in a pre-carved or pre-sliced format. Chicken is a very popular product and chicken breast is one of the most popular chicken products. Portions of presliced chicken breast are highly desirable, and furthermore, chicken breast that appears hand-carved is more popular, as it increases the ‘home-made’ sense of the product.

The industrial preparation of pre-cooked chicken involves many steps, including cooking, de-boning, slicing, packaging and labeling; each of which has particular issues associated therewith.

Given the irregular shaped of chicken breasts it can be difficult to provide an industrial process that will provide good quality carved slices of chicken breast in an efficient manner. Some of the known problems include providing a slicing tool that can handle a sufficiently high through-put of chicken breasts; the manner in which the chicken breasts are presented to the slicing tool; and the manner in which the carved slices are outputted from the slicing tool.

It is an object therefore of the present invention to provide a food carving apparatus that overcomes at least some of the above-mentioned problems Statements of Invention According to the invention there is provided a food carving apparatus for carving cooked chicken breast comprising a support frame mounting an elongate, substantially horizontal, lower conveyor belt having a direction of movement; fiaac <31/oo IE1 0 0 3 30 -2a carving assembly disposed slightly above the elongate lower conveyor belt and orthogonal to the direction of movement thereof, the carving assembly comprising a vertically disposed array of spaced-apart reciprocable blades; and an upper conveyor assembly comprising an upstream conveyor which, in use, is located above the lower conveyor belt upstream of the carving assembly, the upstream conveyor having a conveyor face which, in use, is substantially parallel to, and spaced apart from, the lower conveyor belt; the upstream conveyor being adjacent to a downstream conveyor which, in use, is located above the lower conveyor belt downstream of the carving assembly, the downstream conveyor having a conveyor face which, in use, is substantially parallel to, and spaced apart from, the lower conveyor belt, such that, in use, the carving assembly is located between the upstream conveyor and the downstream conveyor.

In this way, chicken breasts may be loaded into the apparatus by placing them on the lower conveyor belt which will bring them towards the carving assembly. As the chicken breasts approach the carving assembly, they encounter the upstream conveyor of the upper conveyor assembly. The upstream conveyor slightly compresses the chicken breasts and holds them in place. The combination of conveyors therefore feeds the chicken breasts into the carving assembly wherein the reciprocating array of blades carves the chicken breasts into a plurality of slices, similar to those that would be obtained by carving a roast chicken by hand. As the first part of the chicken breasts pass though the carving assembly and onwards, they will encounter the downstream conveyor, which compresses the carved chicken breasts, holding the slices in place. Therefore, for a standard sized chicken breast, the first part thereof will have been sliced and contained between the downstream conveyor of the upper conveyor assembly and the lower conveyor belt before the end part of the chicken breast has stopped being IE 1 ο Ο 3 30 -3contained by the upstream conveyor and lower conveyor belt. In this way, when the carved chicken breasts travel beyond the downstream conveyor, they retain the overall shape of a chicken breast, allowing for ease of handling in the later stages of the chicken breast processing, such as transfer to further stations and division into portions for packaging. Furthermore, the carving assembly comprising the vertically disposed array of spaced-apart reciprocating blades carves each chicken breast into a plurality of slices as it the chicken breast passes through it, providing for very efficient carving. The upstream and downstream conveyors resist any tendency for the carved slices of chicken breast to be spread out by the reciprocating motion of the carving assembly.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a food carving apparatus in which the conveyor face of the downstream conveyor has an upstream end and a downstream end, wherein the conveyor face is inclined to the horizontal such that the downstream end is slightly more elevated than the upstream end thereof. In this way, the pressure on the chicken breasts is reduced as they pass through the upstream conveyor.

In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a food carving apparatus in which the upstream conveyor and downstream conveyor each comprise a pair of rollers surrounded by a continuous belt, the pair of rollers comprising a driven roller and a free20 wheeling roller, the free-wheeling roller being of smaller diameter than the driven roller being situated, in use, closest to the carving assembly, in this way, the upstream and downstream conveyors may be driven conveniently at an appropriate speed to convey the chicken breasts through the apparatus, while also ensuring that sufficient pressure is placed on the chicken breasts on each side of the carving assembly so as to assist the chicken breasts in resisting the sideways movement imparted by the carving assembly.

In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a food carving apparatus in which the upper conveyor assembly is pivotable from a lowered, in-use position to a raised, access position. In this way, the upper conveyor assembly may be raised to allow access to the carving assembly and the lower conveyor belt. Similarly, the upper conveyor assembly may be accessed more easily for maintenance and cleaning while in the raised position. f 161 Ο -4ο 3 Detailed description of the Invention The invention will now be more clearly understood from the following description of an embodiment thereof given by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic representation of the side view of the apparatus according to the invention; and Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic representation of the side view of an exemplary conveyor used in the apparatus according to the invention; Figs. 3(a), (b) and (c) are side, plan and front view of the carving assembly used in the apparatus according to the invention.

Referring to the drawings, and initially to Figs. 1 and 2 thereof, there is shown a food carving apparatus indicated generally by the reference numeral 100, the food carving apparatus 100 being suitable for carving a cooked chicken breast 150 and comprising a support frame 102 mounting an elongate, substantially horizontal, lower conveyor belt 104 having a direction of movement indicated by arrow A. The support frame 102 further mounts a carving assembiy 106 disposed slightly above and extending across the elongate lower conveyor belt 104, orthogonal to its direction of movement. Finally, the support frame 102 mounts an upper conveyor assembly, indicated generally by the reference numeral 108. The upper conveyor assembly 108 comprises an upstream conveyor 110 and a downstream conveyor 112. The upper conveyor assembly 108 further comprises a cranked arm 114 which is pivotably mounted on the support frame 102, so that the upper conveyor assembly 108 may be pivoted from a lowered in-use position to a raised access position. Fig. 1 shows the upper conveyor assembly 108 in the in-use position. The upstream conveyor 110 and downstream conveyor 112 are mounted on the cranked arm 114, such that in the in-use position, the upstream conveyor 110 is located above the lower conveyor belt 104 before the carving assembly 106 in the direction of movement of the lower conveyor belt 104, and the downstream conveyor 112 is located above the lower conveyor belt 104 and after the carving assembly 106. -5Each of the upstream conveyor 110 and downstream conveyor 112 comprises a driven roller 202 and a free-wheeling roller 204 with an endless belt 206 secured around the rollers, wherein the driven roller is larger in diameter than the free-wheeling roller, by a factor of between three to five times.

Referring now to Fig. 3, in which like parts have been given the same reference numerals as before, there is shown a diagrammatic representation of the carving assembly 106 used in the apparatus of the invention, in side, plan and front views. The carving assembly 106 comprises a vertically disposed array of spaced-apart reciprocable blades 302, in this case four blades. In use, the blades reciprocate longitudinally, orthogonally to the direction of movement of the lower conveyor belt 104. The carving assembly 106 is mounted slightly above the lower conveyor belt 104 such that the distance between the surface of the lower conveyor belt 104 and the lowest blade 302 of the carving assembly 106 is similar to the distance between the blades 302. Using a carving assembly of four blades 302 will therefore carve a cooked chicken breast into six slices of approximately equal thickness.

In use, an operator loads cooked de-boned chicken breasts 150 onto the lower conveyor belt 104 at point X. The movement of the lower conveyor belt 104 carries the chicken breasts 150 downstream, that is, in the direction of movement indicated by arrow A. The chicken breasts 150 will then come into contact with the upstream conveyor 110, which slightly compresses the chicken breasts 150 and further assists in conveying them downstream. Just after the chicken breasts 150 begin to pass out from under the upstream conveyor 110, the forward part of the chicken breasts 150 will encounter the blades 302 of the carving assembly 106. The blades 302 are driven such that they reciprocate swiftly so as to carve through the chicken breasts 150. As the forward part of the chicken breasts 150 pass on from the carving assembly 106 they engage the downstream conveyor 112 which once again compresses the chicken breasts 150 and assists in keeping the slices in place. Once the chicken breasts 150 exit at the downstream end of the downstream conveyor 112, they are removed by an operator for further processing. lit Ο 0 3 30 -6The conveyors 110, 112 of the upper conveyor assembly 108 may be parallel to the lower conveyor belt 104 or may be angled slightly, of the order of Γ - 5°, such that the ends thereof closest to the carving assembly are slightly lower than the outer ends. In this way, there is increased pressure on the chicken breasts adjacent the carving assembly.

In the specification the terms ‘comprise’, ‘comprises’, ’comprised’ and ‘comprising’ or any variation thereof and the terms ‘include’, includes’, ‘included’ or ‘including’ or any variation thereof are considered to be totally interchangeable and they should all be afforded the widest possible interpretation.

The invention is not limited to the embodiment herein described, but may be varied in both construction and detail within the terms of the claims.

Claims (5)

Claims

1. A food carving apparatus for carving cooked chicken breast comprising 5 a support frame mounting an elongate, substantially horizontal, lower conveyor belt having a direction of movement; a carving assembly disposed slightly above the elongate iower conveyor 10 belt and orthogonal to the direction of movement thereof, the carving assembly comprising a vertically disposed array of spaced-apart reci procable blades; and an upper conveyor assembly comprising 15 an upstream conveyor which, in use, is located above the lower conveyor belt upstream of the carving assembly, the upstream conveyor having a conveyor face which, in use, is substantially parallel to, and spaced apart from, the lower conveyor belt; 20 the upstream conveyor being adjacent to a downstream conveyor which, in use, is located above the lower conveyor belt downstream of the carving assembly, the downstream conveyor having a conveyor face which, in use, is substantially parallel to, and spaced apart from, the lower conveyor belt, such that, in use, the carving assembly is located between the upstream conveyor and the downstream conveyor.

2. A food carving apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which the conveyor face of the downstream conveyor has an upstream end and a downstream end, wherein the conveyor face is inclined to the horizontal such that the downstream end is slightly more elevated than the upstream end thereof. It1 Ο 03 30 -83. A food carving apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or 2 in which the upstream conveyor and downstream conveyor each comprise a pair of rollers surrounded by a continuous belt, the pair of rollers comprising a driven roller and a freewheeling roller, the free-wheeling roller being of smaller diameter than the driven 5 roller being situated, in use, closest to the carving assembly.

3. 4. A food carving apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim in which the upper conveyor assembly is pivotable from a lowered in-use position to a raised access position.

4.

5. A food carving apparatus as hereinbefore described in relation to the accompanying drawings.