Plastic article or earthenware shaping or treating: apparatus – Female mold and charger to supply fluent stock under... – With coupling between charger and mold
Reexamination Certificate
2001-02-22
2003-02-11
Heitbrink, Tim (Department: 1722)
Plastic article or earthenware shaping or treating: apparatus
Female mold and charger to supply fluent stock under...
With coupling between charger and mold
C425S574000, C425S575000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06517340
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to food patty-molding machines. The invention particularly relates to food patty-molding machines which incorporate a reciprocating mold plate having patty-forming cavities which are cyclically filled to form patties, and then emptied, the patties being discharged to a patty-receiving area.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Food patty-forming or molding machines are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,887,964; 4,372,008 and 4,821,376. A typical food patty-forming machine or apparatus
20
is illustrated in FIG.
1
. This machine is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 3,887,964 and has been marketed as the FORMAX 26 machine by Formax, Inc., of Mokena, Ill. Molding machine
20
includes a machine base
21
which supports the operating mechanisms of the machine and contains hydraulic actuating systems, electrical actuating systems, and most of the machine controls.
The food patty-molding machine
20
includes a supply means
24
for storing and supplying a moldable food product, such as ground beef, fish, pork, chicken, potatoes, or the like, to the processing mechanisms of the machine. Supply means
24
includes a large food product storage hopper
25
that supplies a food pump system
26
. System
26
includes two alternately operating food pumps (one shown); other machines typically include only a single food pump. The two food pumps continuously pump food, under pressure, into a valve manifold connected to a cyclically operable molding station
28
. Molding station
28
includes a multi-cavity mold plate
32
that moves cyclically between a fill position, shown in
FIG. 1
, and a discharge position in which its mold cavities are outside of station
28
, aligned with a set of knock-out cups
33
.
Food supply means
24
includes a conveyor belt
31
that extends completely across the bottom of hopper
25
. In
FIG. 1
, a limited supply of food product
38
is shown in hopper
25
; a much greater supply could be stored in the hopper without exceeding its capacity. The forward end of hopper
25
communicates with a vertical hopper outlet
39
that leads downwardly into two pump chambers; only one pump chamber
69
is shown. Three motors drive three vertical feed screws. Only one motor
47
and one feed screw
53
are shown in FIG.
1
.
The upper part of a pump housing
71
comprises a plate
81
that supports the mold plate
32
. The mold plate
32
includes a plurality of individual mold cavities
86
distributed in a single row across the width of the mold plate; mold cavities
86
are alignable with the manifold outlet fill passage
79
. A mold cover
82
is disposed immediately above mold plate
32
, closing off the top of each of the mold cavities
86
. The mold cover
82
may include a conventional breather plate. Suitable spacers (not shown) are provided to maintain the spacing between the cover
82
and the support plate
81
, essentially equal to the thickness of the mold plate
32
. A housing
88
is positioned over the cover plate
82
. The housing
88
encloses the operating mechanism (not shown) for the knock-out cups
33
.
In the operation of the patty-molding machine
20
, a supply of ground meat or other moldable food product
38
is placed into the hopper
25
, and is advanced toward the hopper outlet
39
by the conveyor
31
. Whenever one of the food pump plungers, such as the plunger
68
, is retracted to expose a pump cavity (e.g., the cavity
69
), the vertical feed screws
53
aligned with that pump cavity are actuated to feed the food product into the pump cavity.
In
FIG. 1
, pumping system
26
is illustrated with the mold plate
32
in its fill position, and with the pump
61
pumping the moldable food product through the manifold
27
. The pump
61
, as shown, has just begun its pumping stroke, and has compressed the food product in pump cavity
69
, forcing it under pressure into the manifold
27
. As operation of the machine
20
continues, the plunger
68
advances and food product flows into the mold cavities
126
, there is a relatively constant pressure on the food product and chamber
69
, manifold
27
, fill passage
79
, and cavities
86
.
In describing the operation of molding mechanism
28
, and particularly the mold plate
32
, it is convenient to start with the mold plate
32
in the fill position in FIG.
1
. In each molding cycle, mold plate
32
remains in this fill position for a limited dwell interval. As the mold cavities
86
move into the fill position, one of the two food pumps of machine
20
pumps food product through manifold
27
and fill passage
79
, filling the mold cavities. To assure complete filling of the mold cavities, the food pump must apply a substantial pressure to the food product.
Following the fill dwell interval, mold plate
32
is moved outwardly, to the right from its fill position, as shown in
FIG. 1
, until it reaches a discharge position with its mold cavities
86
aligned with knock-out cups
33
. As mold plate
32
moves toward its discharge position, mold cavities
86
all move clear of fill passage
79
before any part of those cavities projects out of mold station
28
, beyond support plate
81
and cover
82
. Thus, the food pump in machine
20
, as shown in
FIG. 1
, remains sealed off at all times. A second dwell interval occurs at the discharge position of mold plate
32
, during which knock-out cups
33
move downwardly through the mold cavities, discharging the molded food patties onto a patty-receiving area, e.g. a take off conveyor (not shown).
Following discharge of the molded food patties, mold plate
32
is moved back toward its fill position so that mold cavities
86
can again be filled with food product. Again, mold cavities
86
are completely inside molding mechanism
28
, sealed off, before they come into alignment with fill passage
79
.
Although a single fill passage
79
is shown in
FIG. 1
, it is also known to provide multiple fill orifices which together are substantially coextensive with the area of the cavities, such as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,356,595; 4,821,376 and 4,372,008.
The present inventor has recognized that the throughput (quantity of patties per time period of machine operation), of food patties formed by the aforementioned food patty-forming machine is limited by the speed of the machine and the number of cavities that can be aligned across the single row. The present inventor has recognized that it would be desirable that the throughput of such a machine be increased, while maintaining a consistent quality of the patties formed by such a machine.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an improved food patty-forming apparatus of the aforementioned type having a reciprocating mold plate, and which includes two or more rows of cavities, for example, forward and rearward rows, which are substantially aligned along a reciprocation direction of the mold plate. The two or more rows of cavities are filled with food product from two or more corresponding forward and rearward rows of fill openings, which communicate food product through one face side of the respective cavities. A valve plate is arranged to reciprocate between an open and closed position, to control food product flow between food product fill openings and the cavities.
According to the invention, the valve plate reciprocates to open the two rows of cavities to respective two rows of fill openings in a synchronized fashion such that the two rows of cavities are supplied with food product in identical, consistent fashion. In this regard, the rearward row of cavities is not thereby exposed to the open forward fill openings during retraction of the rearward cavities during mold plate reciprocation. Thus, the forward row of cavities is exposed to only the open forward fill openings during the filling interval; and the rearward row of cavities is exposed to only the open rearward fill openings during the filling interval. In this way, the rearward row of cavities which pass over the forward fill openings is not over-filled o
Formax, Inc.
Heitbrink Tim
Polit & Associates, LLC
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