Method of manufacturing food loaf slice groups

• US 5,724,874 A
• Filed: 07/25/1996
• Issued: 03/10/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 10/11/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Formax Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Formax Incorporated
• Inventors: Wolcott, Thomas C., Janssen, Wilbur A., Lindee, Scott A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Peterson, Kenneth E.
• Application Number:
  US08/690,327
• Time in Patent Office: 593 Days
• Field of Search: 83/23, 83/27, 83/77, 83/88, 83/102, 83/155.1, 83/356, 83/932, 83/272, 83/403.1
• US Class Current: 83/27
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 1/0006 Cutting members therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 1/16 mounted on a movable arm or the like
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 2210/02 for cutting food products, e.g. food slicers
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 3/161 for obtaining more than one product at a time
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 5/00 Arrangements for operating and controlling machines or devices for cutting, cutting-out, stamping-out, punching, perforating, or severing by means other than cutting
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 5/086 Electric, magnetic, piezoelectric, electro-magnetic means
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 7/01 Means for holding or positioning work
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 7/06 Arrangements for feeding or delivering work of other than sheet, web, or filamentary form feeding or discharging sheets, webs, or filaments B65H
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 7/0625 by endless conveyors, e.g. belts
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 7/0683 specially adapted for elongated articles
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 7/12 by sharpening the cutting member
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 7/22 Safety devices specially adapted for cutting machines safety devices in general F16P
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 7/225 for food slicers
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 7/30 for weighing cut product
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 7/32 for conveying or stacking cut product means for removing cut-out material or waste B26D7/18
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 83/932 Edible
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 83/0467 By separating products from each other
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 83/182 With means to weigh product
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 83/2037 In stacked or packed relation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 83/2074 Including means to divert one portion of product from another
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 83/6475 : With means to regulate work-feed speed

Abstract

A high speed food loaf slicing machine slices two food loaves simultaneously, using one cyclically driven knife blade; the slices are stacked or shingled in groups on a receiving conveyor located below the slicing station. Independent loaf feed drives are provided; slices cut from one loaf may be thicker than slices from the other. Each loaf feed drive includes two "short" conveyors each driven at a predetermined speed; the conveyor speeds may be different. In each machine cycle the receiving conveyor is moved down to accommodate an increasing number of slices; when a slicing cycle is completed, the receiving conveyor rapidly discharges the slice groups onto a deceleration conveyor and moves back up to start a new slicing operation. The loaf feed drives are reversed at the end of a slicing cycle, stopped, and then reversed again before the next slicing cycle. In each machine cycle previously cut groups of slices are weighed as they traverse a scale conveyor; the weights thus determined control two transfer conveyors, one for each loaf sliced. The weights also control the loaf feed drives that determine slice thickness.

Claims

1. A method of manufacturing two series of groups of food loaf slices comprising the following steps:

A1. driving a first food loaf at a first constant loaf feed speed in a first loaf feed direction toward engagement with a continuously cyclically driven knife blade for X knife blade cycles so that the knife blade cuts a slice from the first food loaf in each knife blade cycle;

A2. driving a second food loaf at a second constant loaf feed speed in a second loaf feed direction, parallel to the first loaf feed direction, toward engagement with the knife blade for X knife blade cycles so that the knife blade cuts a slice from the second food loaf in each knife blade cycle;

B. collecting successive food loaf slices cut in steps A1 and A2 on a receiver to form two groups of X food loaf slices, one from each loaf, on the receiver;

C. driving both food loaves away from the knife blade at a given speed for a given time interval Y;

D. again driving both the food loaves toward the knife blade at their respective given speeds for a second time interval Y to counteract step C;

E. discharging the two groups of food loaf slices from the receiver onto a plural-belt scale conveyor driven in a forward direction away from the knife blade;

F. after step E, weighing the two groups of food loaf slices by means of two weighing grids each positioned below but interleaved with the belts of the scale conveyor to generate two weight signals, one representative of the weight of the food loaf slice group cut from the first food loaf and the other representative of the weight of the food loaf slice group cut from the second food loaf;

F1. effectively lowering the scale conveyor relative to the two weighing grids once during each step F to deposit any group of food loaf slices present on the scale conveyor on a weighing grid;

F2. after sub-step F1, restoring the scale conveyor to its original level above the weighing grids to lift the food loaf slice group from the weighing grid;

F3. weighing each empty weighing grid at a time when the scale conveyor is at its original level above the weighing grids to generate two tare weight signals;

F4. subtracting each tare weight signal of sub-step F3 from the corresponding weight signals of step F to generate two weight control signals relating to the net weight of a stack of food loaf slices;

G. depositing each group of food loaf slices from the scale conveyor onto a transfer conveyor;

H. deflecting each transfer conveyor between a reject position and an accept position in response to the transfer conveyor weight control signal of step F4;

I. recording two target weights, one for a group of food loaf slices cut from the first food loaf and the other for a group of food loaf slices cut from the second food loaf;

J. adjusting the first and second loaf feed speeds of steps A1 and A2 in accordance with differences between the target weights of step I and the related weight control signals of step F4;

and repeating steps A through H and J in manufacturing two series of food loaf slice groups, each group including X slices.

2. A method of manufacturing two series of groups of food loaf slices comprising the following steps:

A1. driving a first food loaf at a first constant loaf feed speed in a first loaf feed direction toward engagement with a continuously cyclically driven knife blade for X knife blade cycles so that the knife blade cuts a slice from the first food loaf in each knife blade cycle;

A2. driving a second food loaf at a second constant loaf feed speed in a second loaf feed direction, parallel to the first loaf feed direction, toward engagement with the knife blade for X knife blade cycles so that the knife blade cuts a slice from the second food loaf in each knife blade cycle;

B. collecting successive food loaf slices cut in steps A1 and A2 on a receiver to form two groups of X food loaf slices, one from each loaf, on the receiver;

C. driving both food loaves away from the knife blade at a given speed for a given time interval Y;

D. again driving both the food loaves toward the knife blade at their respective given speeds for a second time interval Y to counteract step C;

E. discharging the two groups of food loaf slices from the receiver onto a plural-belt scale conveyor driven in a forward direction away from the knife blade;

F. after step E, weighing the two groups of food loaf slices by means of two weighing grids each positioned below but interleaved with the belts of the scale conveyor to generate two weight signals, one representative of the weight of the food loaf slice group cut from the first food loaf and the other representative of the weight of the food loaf slice group cut from the second food loaf;

F1. effectively lowering the scale conveyor relative to the two weighing grids once during each step F to deposit any group of food loaf slices present on the scale conveyor on a weighing grid;

F2. after sub-step F1, restoring the scale conveyor to its original level above the weighing grids to lift the food loaf slice group from the weighing grid;

F3. weighing each empty weighing grid at a time when the scale conveyor is at its original level above the weighing grids to generate two tare weight signals;

F4. subtracting each tare weight signal of sub-step F3 from the corresponding weight signals of step F to generate two weight control signals relating to the net weight of a stack of food loaf slices;

I. recording two target weights, one for a group of food loaf slices cut from the first food loaf and the other for a group of food loaf slices cut from the second food loaf; and

J. adjusting the first and second loaf feed speeds of steps A1 and A2 in accordance with differences between the target weights of step I and the related weight control signals of step F4;

and repeating steps A through F and J in manufacturing two series of food loaf slice groups, each group including X slices.

3. A method of manufacturing two series of groups of food loaf slices, according to claim 2, in which the receiver of step B includes a receiver conveyor, and comprising the following sub-step:

E1. during step E, discharging any food loaf slice group from the receiving conveyor by driving the receiving conveyor rapidly, in a predetermined forward direction, away from the knife blade.

4. A method of manufacturing two series of groups of food loaf slices, according to claim 2, in which step F3 occurs before step F1 in each manufacturing cycle.

5. A method of manufacturing two series of groups of food loaf slices, according to claim 2, and comprising the following additional sub-steps:

C1. interrupting driving of each food loaf for a given time interval at the end of the time interval Y of step C; and

C2. maintaining the interruption of sub-step C1 for a predetermined time interval.