The invention concerns a conveyor system for formatting slice-shaped food products in product stacks. The conveyor system includes an inlet, a lower product conveyor, an upper product conveyor, a vertically swiveling distributor conveyor for distributing the incoming food products selectively to the lower product conveyor or to the upper product conveyor, an output conveyor receiving the food products partially stacked from the lower product conveyor and the upper product conveyor, and an outlet for outputting the stacked food products in product rows. The individual conveying tracks of the distributor conveyor can be swivelled vertically independently of one another in order to forward the incoming food products individually for each conveying track selectively to the lower product conveyor onto the upper product conveyor.

A method for feeding articles including the steps of: feeding transversally, by means of a first conveyor, a succession of parallel rows of articles to a transfer area; moving longitudinally, using a second conveyor, a succession of rows of articles from the transfer area; sending at least one row of articles, coming from the first conveyor, to a storage unit whilst the row of articles is fed transversely, preferably perpendicularly, to the row; transferring the row of articles inside the storage unit, positioning said row of articles in a longitudinal direction at an outfeed section of the storage unit; extracting longitudinally portions in sequence of said row, portions formed preferably by one or more articles, from the storage unit feeding said portions of row to the transfer area.

A non-contact conveyance device includes a conveyance head in which a flat facing surface opposing a conveyed object is formed, a gas supply port connected to a supply source of compressed air is provided in the conveyance head, each of ejection ports of a plurality of ejection paths that communicate with the supply port and are formed in the conveyance head is provided at a position separated by an opening distance from a holding center point of the facing surface, an inclination angle of the ejection path with respect to the facing surface is set to an acute angle, and the compressed gas ejected from each of the ejection ports flows along the facing surface and holds the conveyed object without causing the convey object to contact with the facing surface.

An apparatus 10 for removing the skin of poultry pieces at a skinning station 12 includes an infeed conveyor 14 for transporting or feeding poultry pieces to the skinning station 12. The infeed conveyor 14 includes an endless belt 16 that is trained around an end roller 18 at the downstream end of the infeed conveyor. A pinch block 20 is configured with a concave pinch surface 22 having curvature closely following the curvature of the endless belt 16 trained around the end roller 18 to define a narrow gap 24 therebetween for capturing the skin of the poultry piece and forcing the skin through the gap 24, thereby pulling the skin away from the underlying flesh of the poultry piece. A transfer roller 26 assists in transferring the skinned poultry piece to an outfeed conveyor 28. A hold down structure 30 is provided for applying downward pressure on the poultry piece as the poultry piece is carried by the infeed conveyor 14 towards the skinning station 12, while the poultry skin is being removed, and also while the skinned poultry piece is being transferred to the outfeed conveyor 28.

The present disclosure is directed to a flighted conveyor insert for robotic picking of food products and a flighted conveyor having the same. In one forth, an insert for a flighted conveyor, such as a bucket chain, defines a forward edge configured for insertion through an aperture of a flight of the flighted conveyor such that when the insert is attached to the flight, the forward edge is positioned on a first side of the flight; and a rear edge configured such that when the insert is attached to the flight, the rear edge is positioned on a second side of the flight that is oppose to the first side of the flight.

A slotted conveyor floor 16 in milling tandem, slots 34 extend across the direction of liquid flow shown by arrow 35 which is against the flow of fibre. The slots are cut through the material of floor 16 on the vertical as depicted by centre-line 35 taken relative to the inclination of floor 16. Thus the centre-line corresponds to gravity feed for the liquid. Rather than being directly across the floor 16, the slots are inclined in the direction of flow. The fibre is in the opposite flow relation to the liquid, in this example, the slots are across the line of the fibre and are about 6 mm wide and 180 mm long with about 60 mm spacing. Adjacent lines of slots are set interdigital in the direction of travel. This arrangement minimises fibre being trapped in the slots as the fibre is being carried by the rakes up the floor.

A bale stacker and method of using a bale stacker for consolidating a plurality of bales into a bale stack. The bale stacker including a bale stacker chassis supported for translational motion over a surface and one or more: of a bale lift, a bale receiving platform disposed over the bale stacker chassis to receive bales released from the bale lift, a bale transfer table disposing a plurality of bales in bale stack, a bale stack bed having at least one fork movable to abut a bale stack on said bale stack bed, a bale shuffler operable to engage the bale stack to align the bales in the bale stack, and a bale stack push of operable to engage the bale stack disposed on said bale stack bed in primarily vertical orientation to push a plurality of bale stacks off from the bale stack bed.

The ingredient feeder for automated cooking apparatus, covered in the present invention, is a horizontally oriented dispensing apparatus, having a variety of shapes and dimensions, constructed from different materials, thus optimized for a wide range of ingredients. Individually controlled, the feeders accurately and precisely dispense ingredients, while their positioning and orientation utilize space. Easy ingredient changes and refill by quick ingredient container replacement, enables a non-stop operation. A simple construction is aiming for operability and quick setup.

A cartridge having a housing, an outer looped element affixed at least partially in a cavity that spans substantially all of a length of the housing. A movable inner looped element is mounted a roller and positioned inside the outer looped element. Panels are radially attached to the movable inner looped element such that each of the plurality of panels extends toward the outer looped element. Movable chambers defined by a space between the panels. A first opening that spans substantially all of a first side of the outer looped element. A second opening is disposed on the outer looped element proximate to a bottom end of the outer looped element providing access to outside the cartridge. A second movable door covers substantially all of the second opening and partially defining the outer looped element when the second movable door is in a second movable door closed position.

A device for orienting wound dough products includes a first conveyor belt circulating with a first conveying speed and transporting a wound dough product having an end protruding from a circumference of the dough product. A second conveyor belt receives the wound dough product from the first conveyor belt and circulates with a second conveying speed which is different from the first conveying speed. The difference between the first conveying speed and the second conveying speed sets the wound dough product received from the first conveyor belt in a desired rolling motion on the second conveyor belt, wherein after the wound dough product has reached a defined end position in which the end of the wound dough product abuts on the second conveyor belt, the rolling motion of the wound dough product stops.