Machine for injecting liquids

Details Machine for injecting liquids Machine for injecting liquids

2001-07-03

2004-07-20

Alexander, Reginald L. (Department: 1761)

Foods and beverages: apparatus

Means to treat food

Automatic control or time means

C099S533000, C099S535000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06763760

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a machine for injecting liquids into materials having the consistency of foodstuffs.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,053,237 of Deloy G. Hendricks and Conly L. Hansen provides an apparatus for the needleless injection of injectate into meat.
According to lines
33
through
40
in column
4
of that patent, “[A] nozzle injection apparatus causes the injectate to travel from a reservoir under pressure through a valve and out of a nozzle. Sufficient pressure must be provided such that the injectate can travel completely through the cut of met, if desired. At the same time, temperature controls must be provided so that the injectate leaves the nozzle at a temperature within a desired temperature range.”
Lines
41
through
48
of column
6
and lines
3
through
26
of column
7
consistently explain:
“ . . . The injection apparatus
10
will, in most cases, include a temperature control feature, such as a water bath
12
, for controlling the temperature of the fluid to be injected (“injectate”). The actual injectate fluid will be contained within reservoir
14
disposed within the confines of water bath
12
. It is crucial that the temperature be controlled within certain ranges in order to provide for proper injection.
“The apparatus of the present invention also includes a pump
16
and an adjustable relief valve
18
or pressure control assembly. Thus, the injectate can be pumped in a controlled manner from the reservoir through a nozzle assembly
20
.
“Also useful in the present apparatus is an electric solenoid valve
22
, which may be placed in communication with an adjustable timer to control duration of the bursts of injectate. Thus, the volume of injectate can be carefully controlled as can the amount of injectate which leaves the system. This apparatus can then be connected to a starter and relay to operate the valve
22
.
“The injection apparatus will include a nozzle assembly
20
. The nozzle assembly will function to direct the injectate in the proper direction and to maintain the stream of injectate at the proper volume. The nozzle assembly
20
may include a plurality of individual nozzles
24
.
“The various components of the apparatus are placed in fluid communication by lines including recycle line
26
, a feed line
28
, and reservoir line
30
.
“Finally, the apparatus illustrated in
FIG. 9
includes an injection table
32
to provide support for the meat being injected.”
U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,528 of Yoshihiko Tanaka et al. discloses another apparatus for the needleless injection of injectate into meat, which it terms a “pickle injector.” This patent asserts, on line
66
of column
9
through line
8
of column
10
:
“The pickle injector of the invention is a device for injecting the liquid substance into the green meat. The pickle injector is provided with a high-pressure liquid generator, a liquid-substance injecting section, and a pressure controller which can control the injection pressure while injecting the liquid substance when the liquid substance is injected from the injecting section to the green meat.”
“The high-pressure liquid generator in the pickle injector the invention may be any mechanism, as long as it can increase the pressure of the liquid substance to a high level . . . ”
No recognition is given in U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,528 is given to the fact that the injectate will be heated by passing through the pump and the pressure controller; nor is there any discussion concerning reclaiming injectate that does not find its way into the meat.
The apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,528 does, however, preferably employ a manifold, as described in line
33
through
60
of column
10
:
“ . . . the high-pressure liquid substance is transferred from the high-pressure liquid generator via the high-pressure piping to the injecting section, and it is preferable to use the injecting section which has a member called a manifold for branching a single flow from the high-pressure piping to plural flows. The manifold is preferably placed on the tip end of the injecting section, but can be placed midway in the piping as the case may be.
“The injecting section of the conventional high-pressure liquid generator is of a single-hole type or has a form in which the piping in the manifold is branched radially. The present inventors have manufactured a manifold especially suitable for a pickle injector for meat, and a piping in the manifold is branched and the branched pipes are parallelly arranged. Here, the parallel arrangement includes not only the arrangement where the pipes are arranged parallel in a row but also the arrangement where the pipes are arranged zigzag or parallel in multiple rows. By arranging nozzles parallel, a nozzle interval can be narrowed to 10 mm or less, e.g., 5.6 mm for injection. Therefore, a highly dense and uniform injection is feasible. Further preferably used is a manifold which has multiple coherent stream injection nozzles arranged parallel in this manner.
“When the manifold is used, the high-pressure liquid substance is injected as the coherent stream from the nozzle on the tip end of each piping. The liquid substance is injected simultaneously from the parallel arranged nozzles to the green meat. . . . ”
Subsequently, U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,528 explains, in lines
44
through
47
of column
17
, “ The liquid substance is injected as a coherent stream from the tip end of the injection nozzle of the manifold
7
in contact with the green meat.” Thus, the nozzle actually touches the meat, creating an increased risk of contamination.
In lines
42
through
45
of column
18
, similar language describes another embodiment. Also for this other embodiment, however, lines
34
through line
36
of column
18
indicate, “The manifold
7
is . . . lowered from above to hit against the green meat.”
Although in lines
10
through
11
of column
17
and in line
16
of column
18
, U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,528 states that high-pressure piping
6
is “constituted of a flexible hose,” no purpose is given for this flexibility. Thus, it is logical to assume that the flexibility is for the traditional purpose in high-pressure lines, viz., absorbing forces associated with the pressure that could damage a more rigid line.
Finally, in its Description of the Related Art, U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,528 provides a summary of needleless injectors and related devices.
To the best of the inventors' knowledge, all previous needleless injectors have utilized pumps, such as positive displacement pumps, which must run continuously in order to maintain the fluid to be used as an injectate under constant high pressure. Heat generated by such continuous operation is transferred to the injectate as it passes through the pump.
Moreover, in the practical implementation of U.S. Pat. No. 5,053,237, once the pressure in the system reached the desired level, a pressure relief valve
18
would prevent the continuously running pump
16
from further raising the pressure. This was accomplished by allowing the injectate to flow from the pump
16
, through the pressure relief valve
18
, and back to the reservoir
14
that supplied the pump
16
with injectate. A solenoid valve
22
allowed the injectate to flow to the nozzles
24
of the nozzle assembly
20
when desired. The re-circulation of the injectate through the continuously running pump
16
tended to raise the temperature of the injectate even more.
Not only is a cooling system necessary to keep the injectate within the required temperature range, but the added volume in plumbing necessary to provide the recycling and the additional capacity within the reservoir
14
to account for the injectate that is being cooled within the water bath
12
requires a greater quantity of injectate than would otherwise be necessary. This, in turn, mandated the use of a larger pump
16
. More energy was required both because of the larger capacity of the pump
16
and because of the continuous operation. And since injectate is purged when

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Machine for injecting liquids does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Machine for injecting liquids, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Machine for injecting liquids will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3235775