Butchering – Sausage making
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-04
2001-05-22
Little, Willis (Department: 3643)
Butchering
Sausage making
C452S035000, C366S248000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06234890
ABSTRACT:
The invention concerns a filling machine comprising a machine frame structure and a supply container which is pivotable from an operative position into a pivoted-away position and in front of the outlet of which is disposed a feed device which can be driven in rotation, in such a way that it can be pivoted away together with the supply container.
Such filling machines serve for example to introduce sausage meat or the like for example into sausage casings. Known filling machines have a machine frame structure in which there is disposed a delivery pump for for example sausage meat which is supplied from a supply container which is generally in the form of a hopper or funnel. That supply container generally sticks up above the machine frame structure and is provided with a helical feed device which extends along the wall of the supply container and whose diameter possibly increases in an upward direction like the diameter of the supply container. The feed device is driven and conveys meat adhering for example to the wall of the supply container downwardly in the supply container towards the delivery pump.
As the supply container generally sticks up above the machine frame structure and thus greatly impedes access for example to the delivery pump, the supply container is frequently designed in such a way that it can be pivoted away to the side. In that case, the feed device is pivoted together with the supply container. Pivotal movement of the supply container away from the machine is required for example when the lower part of the delivery path or the delivery pump have to be cleaned.
There are situations of use in which there is no wish to employ a feed device. For such cases, and for cleaning purposes, it should be possible to remove the feed device. The totality of the desired requirements, namely pivotability of the supply container together with the feed device, the possibility of dismantling the feed device, and the drive and mounting means for the feed device, constitute high demands in terms of the design structure of a filling machine.
Those demands are met by a filling machine in which the feed device is connected to a toothed ring which is releasably mounted in the lower part of a supply container which can be pivoted away, the toothed ring engaging into the pinion of a drive which is disposed in the machine frame structure, when the supply container is in the operative position, when it is not pivoted away.
A consideration which is unsatisfactory in the state of the art is that the feed device can only be dismantled with the involvement of a complicated procedure and high forces are applied to the pivotable supply container.
Therefore the object of the present invention is to afford an alternative filling machine which very substantially overcomes the disadvantages of the state of the art.
In accordance with the invention, that object is achieved with a filling machine of the kind set forth in the opening part of this specification, which is distinguished by a two-part drive ring for the feed device, whose first ring part is supported in the machine frame structure and is driven there and whose second ring part carries the feed device and can be pivoted away together with the supply container and in the operative position of the supply container is so coupled to the first ring part that the first ring part carries forces acting on the feed device and rotationally entrains the second ring part for driving the feed device. A great advantage of this structure is that, even when the feed device is being driven, the supply container is only subjected to the action of those forces which are applied by the feed device indirectly, for example by the meat, to the walls of the supply container. The supply container however does not have to carry the reaction and drive forces which act on the feed device as they are carried by the first part of the drive ring, which is supported in the machine frame structure. The mounting arrangement in the machine frame structure can readily be of a robust nature as it does not have to be released in contrast to the mounting arrangement for the feed device in the supply container. That affords a second great advantage of the invention, more specifically that the feed device can already be held by a simple holding configuration in the pivotable supply container. Designing such a simple holding configuration to be releasable is substantially simpler than providing a releasable mounting arrangement. The robust mounting arrangement for the feed device in the machine frame structure is moreover reflected in a higher degree of reliability of the filling machine.
A preferred filling machine is one in which the second part of the drive ring, in the operative position of the supply container, engages into the first part of the ring in such a way that the first ring part carries forces acting on the feed device and rotationally entrains the second ring part for driving the feed device. By virtue of that engagement of the second ring part into the first ring part of the drive ring, a further coupling between those two ring parts is superfluous. At the same time, a force flux is produced in a simple manner between those two ring parts; by virtue of that force flux, both the reaction and also the drive forces acting on the feed device can be transmitted to the first part of the support ring and further by way of the mounting arrangement thereof to the machine frame structure.
The drive ring is preferably arranged substantially horizontally and divided horizontally. That design configuration is advantageous in particular in the case of a supply container which is arranged above the machine frame structure, and has the result that the first ring part, as the lower part of the drive ring, is supported in the machine frame structure while the second ring part, as the upper part of the drive ring, carries the feed device. In this context “divided horizontally” means that both the first ring part and also the second ring part form a complete ring, which ring parts may respectively also have vertical projections, so that the ring does not have a horizontal separation plane in the narrower sense, but rather complex separation surfaces.
Thus, a preferred embodiment of the filling machine is one which is distinguished in that both the first ring part and the second ring part have projections with intermediate spaces disposed therebetween, in the direction of the circle, and that in the operative position of the supply container the projections engage into the intermediate spaces between the respective other projections for transmission of the drive forces in positively locking relationship. That ensures transmission of the drive force in positive locking relationship and avoids slippage between the two ring parts and thus between the feed device and the drive thereof.
In the last-mentioned embodiment the intermediate spaces are preferably larger than the projections respectively engaging into same. In that way it is particularly easy for the two ring parts, upon pivotal movement of the supply container out of the pivoted-away position into its operative position, to be coupled together in such a way that the drive forces are transmitted in positively locking relationship.
A preferred filling machine also has centering means for centering the feed device together with the second ring part with respect to the first ring part. In particular for that purpose a preferred embodiment of the filling machine provides that the second ring part has an axial extension with a concentric peripheral surface which tapers conically towards the first ring part and which, in the operative position of the supply container, engages into a corresponding receiving means of the first ring part. Such a tapering peripheral surface on the second ring part, with a corresponding counterpart surface on the first ring part, not only provides for centering of the two parts relative to each other, but in addition it is also suitable for transmitting axial and radial forces acting on the feed devi
Frerichs Heyo
Passoke Helmut
Altera Law Group LLC
Little Willis
Vermag Maschinen-und Anlagenbau GmbH
LandOfFree
Filling machine for sausage meat or the like having a supply... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Filling machine for sausage meat or the like having a supply..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Filling machine for sausage meat or the like having a supply... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2565732