Foods and beverages: apparatus – Subjecting food to an enclosed modified atmosphere – Including means to influence movement of gas within enclosure
Patent
1992-01-21
1993-10-26
Hornsby, Harvey C.
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Subjecting food to an enclosed modified atmosphere
Including means to influence movement of gas within enclosure
99443C, 99478, 99479, A23B 4044
Patent
active
052555968
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a system for processing products, particularly food.
Typical examples for such system are smoke systems for processing meat and sausages as well as other food like cheese, the processing temperature being up to about 70.degree. C. The process smoke is produced by known industrial methods, e.g. by using super heated water steam, by carbonising at low temperatures or by dry destillation. A smoke system can comprise one or a plurality of successive treatment chambers. The doors of such a smoke system must close in tight manner, this requirement concerning the charging door as well as the discharging door providing access to a succeeding treatment chamber. A tightly closing door system warrants that a different climate can be adjusted in the different treatment chambers. Furthermore tightness of the treatment chambers is necessary to avoid annoyance caused by smell of the process smoke and to effectively cope with emissions.
Tight closing of the doors is warranted, if the doors are moved towards and onto a stationary sealing edge such that the closing movement has a component being perpendicular to the plane of the doorway, the stationary sealing edge cooperating with an elastic sealing gasket provided at the periphery of the door. Such a sealing arrangement implies that there is a threshold projecting over the surface of the floor adjacent to the lower end of the door. In view of retaining condensate and in view of troublefree cleaning of the interior of the the treatment chamber it is also desirable, if the floor of the treatment chamber in the vicinity of the door is not level with the floor of the surrounding hall but cooperates with the threshold of the door to form a trough.
In the known processing systems product carriers are used having wheels running on the floor of the treatment chamber. These product carriers are intermittently moved through the various positions of the treatment chamber using e.g. hydraulic actuators of important stroke. If such product carriers running on wheels are used, obviously one cannot provide a threshold at the door of the treatment chamber as would be desirable in view of good sealing properties of the door and in view of forming the lower portion of the treatment chamber as a trough, as has been pointed out above.
The object of the present invention is thus to improve a processing system in accordance with the preamble of claim 1 in such manner that automatic charging and discharging of the treatment chambers can be achieved, simultaneously warranting tight closing properties of the door and retaining of liquid, that may have accumulated on the floor of the treatment chamber.
In accordance with the present invention this object is achieved by a processing system as described hereafter.
In the processing system in accordance with the present invention the product carriers run on a rail. Thus a lower threshold can be easily provided at the doors of the treatment chamber as is desirable in view of good sealing properties and in view of forming a trough. In order to allow opening and closing of the doors a section of the rail is apt to be moved out of the basic configuration of the rail thus providing a respective gap allowing movement of the doors.
Advantageous further improvements of the invention are given in the subclaims.
The further improvement of the invention in accordance with another embodiment is advantageous in that the drive used for moving the movable rail section need not take up the weight of product carriers moved across the movable rail section. Furthermore taking up of the load by the stationary end of the rail is effected in a safe manner and without creation of major bending moments.
Often the conveyor rails of power and free conveyors are formed as hollow rails, e.g. twin C rails, being open at the lower face thereof and receiving the load carrying rollers and guiding rollers of the trolleys of the product carriers. The further improvement of the invention in accordance with another embodiment is advantageous in that perfect sea
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Germos-Fessmann GmbH & Co KG
Hook James F.
Hornsby Harvey C.
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