Chip packing apparatus and method
First Claim
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1. In an apparatus for orienting and packing food chips in a cylindrical container comprising:
- a. conveyor means having infeed and outlet ends and including chip receiving recesses on an inclined conveying surface for receiving randomly oriented food chips at the lower end of the conveying surface and translating said chips into continuous tandem alignment at the upper end of the conveying surface,b. an upright mounted cylindrical stacking tube disposed adjacent the outlet end of said conveyor means to receive and stack food chips from said conveyor,c. feed means adapted to position the upper open end of a series of empty cylindrical containers in a chip receiving station below said stacking tube in sequence so that the top edge of said container in said station is in abutting relationship with the bottom of said stacking tube, andd. valve means associated with said stacking tube for loading a stack of predetermined size of said food chips in said cylindrical container.
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Abstract
An apparatus for stacking food chips in a cylindrical container. Random chips are oriented into tandem alignment on an inclined conveyor traveling in an upward direction and are deposited into an upright cylindrical stacking tube above a station for the empty cylindrical containers. A valve comprising operatively associated upper and lower blades in the stacking tube load vertical stacks of chips into the cylindrical containers.
47 Citations
13 Claims
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1. In an apparatus for orienting and packing food chips in a cylindrical container comprising:
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a. conveyor means having infeed and outlet ends and including chip receiving recesses on an inclined conveying surface for receiving randomly oriented food chips at the lower end of the conveying surface and translating said chips into continuous tandem alignment at the upper end of the conveying surface, b. an upright mounted cylindrical stacking tube disposed adjacent the outlet end of said conveyor means to receive and stack food chips from said conveyor, c. feed means adapted to position the upper open end of a series of empty cylindrical containers in a chip receiving station below said stacking tube in sequence so that the top edge of said container in said station is in abutting relationship with the bottom of said stacking tube, and d. valve means associated with said stacking tube for loading a stack of predetermined size of said food chips in said cylindrical container. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. In an apparatus for orienting and packing food chips in cylindrical container comprising:
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a. conveyor means having infeed and outlet ends and including recesses on the conveying surface for receiving randomly oriented food chips and translating said chips into continuous tandem alignment, b. an upright mounted cylindrical stacking tube disposed adjacent the outlet end of said conveyor means to receive and stack food chips from said conveyor, c. feed means adapted to position the upper open end of a series of empty cylindrical containers in a chip receiving station below said stacking tube in sequence so that the top edge of said container in said station is in abutting relationship with the bottom of said stacking tube, said valve means comprising vertically spaced upper and lower retractable blades disposed across said stacking tube, the distance between said blades corresponding to the predetermined food chip stack size, said valve means including a stacking tube loading position in which said upper blade is retracted and said lower blade is in a chip blocking position, and a container filling position in which said upper blade is in a chip blocking position and said lower blade is retracted. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7)
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8. In a method for orienting and stacking rigid food chips from a source of randomly oriented chips in a cylindrical container, the steps of:
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a. directing the randomly oriented chips into recesses of an inclined moving conveyor at the conveyor infeed end to translate the chips into continuous tandem alignment, b. feeding the aligned chips from the conveyor into the top of an essentially upright cylindrical stacking tube disposed below the outlet end of said conveyor and gravitating said chips onto a lower retractable chip blocking blade across said stacking tube in a manner that said chips are permitted to form a vertical stack, c. positioning the open end of an empty cylindrical container in an essentially upright position in a chip receiving station below said stacking tube, and d. retracting said lower blade to permit a chip stack of predetermined size to gravitate into said container. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. In a method for orienting and stacking food chips from a source of randomly oriented chips in a cylindrical container, the steps of:
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a. directing the randomly oriented chips into recesses of a moving conveyor at the conveyor infeed end to translate the chips into continuous tandem alignment, b. feeding the aligned chips from the conveyor into the top of an essentially upright cylindrical stacking tube disposed below the outlet end of said conveyor, an associated upper retractable chip blocking blade being disposed across said stacking tube vertically spaced from a lower retractable chip blocking blade a distance corresponding to the predetermined food chip stack size, c. gravitating said chips onto said lower retractable blade in a chip blocking position with said upper blade retracted in a manner that said chips are permitted to form a vertical stack, d. positioning the open end of an empty cylindrical container in an essentially upright position in a chip receiving station below said stacking tube, and e. filling said container with said predetermined chip stack by moving said upper blade into a chip blocking position and retracting said lower blade.
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Specification