Package making – With contents treating – Reshaping
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-16
2001-08-28
Goodman, Charles (Department: 3724)
Package making
With contents treating
Reshaping
C053S514000, C053S389300, C053S389400, C083S086000, C083S170000, C083S176000, C083S441000, C083S648000, C083S932000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06279302
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an automatic slicing machine. More particularly this invention concerns a device for interposing sheets between, under, and on top of a stack of slices deposited on a substrate by such a machine.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A standard slicing machine has an input table that can be reciprocated longitudinally past a normally circular rotating blade to cut slices from a foodstuff, for instance a piece of meat or cheese, sitting on the input table. On the other side of the blade the slices are picked up by a conveyor, typically a fork-, belt-, or chain-type arrangement having a vertical support plate and provided with a multiplicity of sharp points so that the slices can be caught on the conveyor as they issue from the downstream side of the blade. A transfer fork has tines engaged between adjacent elements of the conveyor and can be pivoted to pull the slices off the conveyor and deposit them on an output table which is positioned horizontal underneath the downstream side of the blade. Thus as the input table is moved back and forth, slices are cut from the foodstuff thereon, these slices pass the blade and are picked up the conveyor, and the transfer fork deposits them in a stack on the output table. Such machines are described in detail in my earlier U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,185,527, 4,217,650, 4,338,836, 4,379,416, 4,586,409, 4,598,618, 4,763,738, and 4,867,257.
In order to separate the slices from each other, to separate groups of slices, and/or to form a package around the slices, it is known to insert underneath the stack, between the slices, and/or on top of the stack a sheet or foil. In one system a sheet is set on the conveyor before the stack is started so that the stack is formed atop this bottom sheet, then sheets are interposed between succeeding slices as they are deposited on the bottom sheet and on each other or are interposed after a certain number of slices corresponding to a standard portion has been deposited. A top sheet is deposited on top of the stack when the desired number of slices have been deposited.
The standard system for doing this has a supply, normally a roll, of the sheet material and a feeder that is typically a pair of pinch rollers that can be driven to pull the sheet material from the roll. The end of the roll is pushed by the rollers out onto a flat table and a cutter slices off the end. Then a separate manipulator normally having a plurality of suction grippers picks the sheet formed by the cut-off end and deposits it on the conveyor where the foodstuff slices are stacked.
While such a system is highly effective, it is quite complex. The device for paying out the sheet material and cutting it off is relatively simple, but the manipulator for picking up the cut-off sheet and depositing it in the stacking station is fairly complex. It has not only a relatively sophisticated articulated mechanism, but must be connected by suction lines to a pump and must be controlled by plural actuators.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved sheet-interposing device for an automatic slicing machine.
Another object is the provision of such an improved sheet-interposing device for an automatic slicing machine which overcomes the above-given disadvantages, that is which is of simple construction but that accurately cuts and positions sheets in the stacking station of the slicing machine.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A slicing machine that deposits foodstuff slices in a stack atop a support in a stacking station has a sheet-interposing device provided with a supply roll of sheet material and a feed roller for feeding a leading end of the sheet material in a direction to the stacking station. According to the invention a guide between the station and the roller imparts to the sheet leading end an upwardly concave U-shape to stiffen the sheet leading end so it projects horizontally stiffly from the guide above the station. A cutter movable between the guide and the station cuts off the sheet leading end so that the cut-off end drops down in the station.
By imparting to the leading end of the sheet a U-shape centered generally on a horizontal axis extending in the sheet-travel direction, this leading end can be extended in the air across the stacking station with no other support. When the cutter slices off the leading end, it drops down flat atop the conveyor or atop the top sheet of the stack. Thus this arrangement completely eliminates the complex manipulator that carries a cut sheet from a cutting station to the stacking station. All that is needed is sheet material that is sufficiently stiff that, when shaped according to the invention, it is stiff enough to support itself in the stacking station.
In accordance with the invention the guide is formed as a plate with an upwardly concave U-shaped slot through which the sheet material passes. This is an extremely simple construction, especially as compared to the complex articulated manipulator used to date. It would also be possible to form the guide of a group of rollers arrayed in an arc or some other structure to convert the sheet material, which is flat and planar as it issues from the feed roller, to the desired upwardly concave shape that is stiff enough to hold its shape when only supported at one end.
The cutter is a blade displaceable transverse to the direction along the plate. Thus this blade simply rides along the plate, using one edge of the slot as a counterblade.
The supply includes a pair of rollers pinching the sheet material. This ensures that accurate lengths of the sheet material will be pulled off the roll and fed to the stacking station with each cycle.
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patent: 5918444 (1999-07-01), Kuchler
Dubno Herbert
Goodman Charles
Wilford Andrew
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