Butchering – Sausage making – Sausage link handling
Reexamination Certificate
2002-06-13
2004-09-07
Price, Thomas (Department: 3643)
Butchering
Sausage making
Sausage link handling
Reexamination Certificate
active
06786813
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to movement or transfer of product within processing facilities and is particularly suitable for automated loaders of lengths of products such as elongated extruded or stuffed food products in food preparation and production systems.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Conventionally, extruded or stuffed food products such as pasta, dough, and meats such as hot dogs, links, or sausages, can be processed so that the desired food material is extruded or mixed and prepared, then propelled through a “stuffer machine” that includes a stuffing nozzle, extrusion machine, or co-extrusion machine. In operation, in certain food items, as the food moves through the stuffing nozzle or extrusion head, a natural or synthetic casing is disposed about and/or deposited or wrapped around the external surface of the food material to form a continuous length of encased elongated food product. To form certain products (such as hotdogs and sausages), the casing can be twisted, tied, nipped, and/or crimped at certain intervals, forming a chain-like string or strand of encased food product. Extruders and co-extruders are available from various commercial manufacturers including, but not limited to, Townsend Engineering Co., located in Des Moines, Iowa. Stuffers are available from various commercial manufacturers including, but not limited to, HITEC Food Equipment, Inc., located in Elk Grove Village, Ill., Townsend Engineering Co., located in Des Moines, Iowa, Robert Reiser & Co., Inc., located in Canton, Mass., and Handtmann, Inc., located in Buffalo Grove, Ill. Exemplary stuffer and/or linker apparatus are also described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,788,563; 5,480,346; 5,049,108; and 4,766,645. The contents of these patents are hereby incorporated by reference as if recited in full herein.
After stuffing or extruding, the encased elongated food product is expelled from the stuffer or extruder via a material discharging exit port.
FIG. 1A
illustrates a conventional stuffer
10
and stuffer material discharge port
10
p.
The stuffer discharge port
10
p
is positioned proximate a “linker” or looping and transferring device
15
(
FIG. 1B
) that rotates an endless chain of books
15
h
about the discharge port
10
p.
Generally described, the material discharge port
10
p
is configured so that, during operation, the product is expelled and directed so that the traveling hooks, which serially travel to be adjacent the discharge port
10
p
, catch a portion of the length of the product, with the result that the product forms loops on the hooks at certain intervals. More specifically, certain devices are configured so that the hooks
15
h
travel to the discharge port
10
p
and the discharge port
10
p
discharges into a downwardly inclined channel that directs the elongated food downward and, as the hooks turn to face the discharged food, the hooks sequentially individually reach out to grasp the product at certain intervals. Other devices propel the encased product onto hooks that rotate thereabout (typically under) to catch the product at certain intervals to transfer the encased material onto the transfer device. The hooks
15
h
then suspend the product in a looped configuration (hanging in a vertical orientation) as shown in
FIG. 1B
, with each hook
15
h
supporting a single loop of product.
FIG. 1C
illustrates a slightly different prior art stuffer
10
and associated linker
15
with hooks that are oriented to rotate in a different plane from that shown in
FIG. 1A
(i.e., a vertical plane rather than a horizontal plane). In addition, in this prior art stuffer/linker, the discharge port
10
p
terminates into a short expanse of tubing that forms a rotating discharge nozzle
10
r
. The rotating nozzle
10
r
, again, propels the extruded encased product onto the hooks
15
h.
After the product is suspended on the hooks
15
h
, a rod or stick is typically manually inserted through the suspended looped product above the hooks and below the upper looped portion of the food, and the product is manually lifted up and off the hooks
15
h
and transferred to a trolley, oven, or other food processing station.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need to provide automated processing systems that can improve the production process to facilitate the loading of food receiving members such as sticks and/or reduce the need for manual labor to load sticks and/or that can more controllably transfer strands of elongated items in an automated manner.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an automated winder system, methods, and devices that can automate the loading of extruded or stuffed product onto a transfer support member such as a stick loader. The automated winders can be configured to remove the need for a hook-based continuous looping system, and/or manual insertion of rods to lift the looped product onto the rods, from the production process. Indeed, in particular embodiments, the automated winder can load the elongated product directly onto a stick or desired support transfer member that can then be used to transfer the product to (and/or through) the next processing station (such as a smoker, oven, curer or the like).
In certain embodiments, the automated winder is configured with an arm that extends a distance away from the discharge port. The arm is configured to repetitively translate a vertical distance so as to travel above and below a suitably aligned transfer member. The arm may be configured to move up and down and/or to rotate in a substantially circular, oval, elliptical, or other desired motion. Typically the generated motion in a path that has two different directions of travel, such as a motion that includes both x and y axis directional components. The transfer member may be configured to (linearly) translate as the arm translates (moved either forward or backward toward or away from the stuffer discharge port) so that the automated winder can load, straddle-wrap or loop, the released product starting at one end portion of the transfer member and terminating at the opposing end portion so that substantially the entire length (or a desired length) of the transfer member is covered with a continuous length of straddled and/or looped product.
Certain embodiments of the present invention are directed towards methods for loading a carrier member with suspended elongated product. The method includes suspending an elongated product over a carrier member in a straddled configuration in which sections of elongated product form bights draped from the carrier member, with serially consecutive bights having a plurality of bends, being draped on opposing sides of the carrier member. In other embodiments, a plurality of discrete segments are straddled and suspended over the carrier member.
In certain embodiments, the system of operations or methods can include: (a) receiving a continuous length of at least one elongated product onto an elongated arm, the elongated arm having opposing receiving and releasing end portions; (b) moving the elongated arm to cause it to travel repetitively along a first desired path; (c) directing the at least one elongated product to travel forward a desired distance over the elongated arm during the moving step; (d) positioning a transfer support member having an associated length in alignment with the elongated arm; then (e) translating the transfer support member along a second desired path that so that the transfer support member travels adjacent the first path as the at least one elongated product is released from the releasing end portion of the elongated arm; and (e) suspending at least one continuous length of released elongated product on the transfer support member in response to the translating step so that the elongated product is arranged in a straddled configuration with (i) a plurality of adjacently arranged non-looped lengths hanging on the same side of the transfer support member and a plurality of different adjacent non-looped lengths hanging on the opposing side of the transfer support member and/
Chandler Lawrence Alan
Hawkins Richard Rodeheaver
Horvath, Jr. Frank Michael
Phillips John Michael
Shefet Sarid M.
ConAgra Foods Inc.
Myers Bigel & Sibley Sajovec, PA
Price Thomas
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