Fluent material handling – with receiver or receiver coacting mea – With testing or weighing receiver content
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-13
2001-01-09
Jacyna, J. Casimer (Department: 3751)
Fluent material handling, with receiver or receiver coacting mea
With testing or weighing receiver content
C141S094000, C141S192000, C141S243000, C141S244000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06170540
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a high speed depositor which raises the number of deposits from 60 per minute maximum for conventional batter and filling depositors to 120 per minute minimum. This will eliminate the filling or depositing line from being considered the production bottleneck in a large bakery. This same depositor configuration can also be used for depositing other types of products including cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, other food products or any other product which requires precision deposits of liquid in each container or package.
BACKGROUND
2. Description of Prior Art
Currently, depositing of batter or filling into cake, muffin or pie pans is primarily done with piston depositors at a maximum rate of 60 deposits per minute. Piston depositors are popular since they are the most accurate when it comes to matching the cup weight for the product. Cup weight is the weight of the batter or filling in the individual muffin cup, cake pan or pie pan before it is baked. If the cup weight is higher than it has to be, then the food company is giving away product, and if it is lower than it should be, then the food company can be accused of false advertising.
The pump in U.S. Pat No. 4,262,709 to Mayfield, Apr. 21, 1981 is the piston type and so the piston capacity determines the exact cup weight deposited.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,370 to DeMars, Sep. 14, 1993 a pressure system is used in the place of a pump to push the hash brown material through the depositor delivery assembly. Changing the speed of rotation of the rotary valve components and/or size of the wiper blades controls the lengths of hash brown potato strands produced by the depositing apparatus.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,255 to Schertz et al, Jan. 2, 1973 cut-off valves reciprocate past the depositor delivery assembly openings to cut off the dough instead of stopping the pump. It is the size of the ring forming opening and the timing of the cutoff valves which determines the individual or cup weights of the donuts.
A metering pump in U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,833 to Pinto et al, Jul. 25, 1989 delivers precise amounts of icing to individual passageways formed in the stationary member, so that precisely metered amounts of icing are extruded through the extrusion orifices, the icing then being cut off by the stationary member located at the bottom portion of the rotary shell.
Objects and Advantages
One of the objects and advantages of the invention, the high speed depositor, is in the deposit delivery method. The degrees of turning of the positive displacement pump shaft, as controlled by the stepping motor and the depositor controller, are used to dispense the exact cup weight required. The high torque stepping motor starts and stops for each deposit. The cup weight delivered to the pan or pan cups is determined by how many degrees the pump shaft is turned by the stepping motor. The degrees of pump shaft turning is measured by a rotary encoder apparatus attached to the pump shaft. The microprocessor based controller takes the encoder input and based on its program setup for a particular product, including the pan size and the pump capacity, the controller advances the stepping motor the exact number of revolutions and/or partial revolutions to deliver the exact cup weight desired. This results in fewer moving parts than used in the prior art referenced above.
Another problem solved is providing a quick changeover period when going from one product to the next. Instead of having to replace the entire depositor as would using any of the prior art discussed, the operator merely has to download the correct product configuration to the microprocessor based controller and quickly disconnect the manifold used for the previous product pan layout and connect the correct manifold for that product pan layout. Product pans come in many different sizes and shapes and have different numbers and sizes of cups to hold the deposited product. The depositor dispensing apparatus may consist of a single spigot or nozzle for a cake or pie deposit or a manifold with separately orifice controlled nozzles for simultaneous muffin deposits in a single row of the baking pan.
Another problem solved is providing a means to automatically deposit the same cup weight in each cup of the pan. Whereas the prior art utilizes individual pistons or chambers of equal size to guarantee equal cup deposits, the invention utilizes individual sizing of the nozzle orifices. The individual cup weights in a simultaneous multiple deposit can be determined empirically and maintained as equal by inserting the correct size orifice plates in each nozzle of the depositor manifold. Cup weight can also be automatically controlled by using individual flow measurement and a control valve to vary the orifice on each nozzle to achieve equal nozzle flow and hence equal weight.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3357606 (1967-12-01), Kahlenberg
patent: 3698450 (1972-10-01), Taylor et al.
patent: 4401141 (1983-08-01), Rosen et al.
patent: 5148841 (1992-09-01), Graffin
patent: 5996650 (1999-12-01), Phallen et al.
Jacyna J. Casimer
Thompson David S.
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