FOOD-PROCESSING SYSTEM

Abstract

The invention relates to a food-processing system for processing food products (e.g. pieces of meat, pieces of cheese), comprising a cutting device (1) for cutting the food products into slices and a conveyor (4) for conveying the food product portions (6) away from the cutting device (1) along a main conveyor path, wherein the conveyor (4) fulfills several functions in the food-processing system, such as buffering, aligning, orienting and product formatting of the food product portions. The invention provides that the conveyor (4) fulfills the multiple functions by means of a discontinuous conveyor (4), the discontinuous conveyor (4) comprising at least one conveyed-products carrier (3) movable along the main conveying path, the main conveying path being freely programmable within a conveying area.

Claims

1. A food-processing system for processing food products, in particular for slicing pieces of meat, pieces of cheese, sausage sticks or salami sticks into slices, comprising: a cutting device for cutting the food products into slices to form food product portions each consisting of one or more slices, and a conveyor system for conveying the food product portions away from the cutting device along a main conveying path, wherein the conveyor system performs several of the following functions in the food-processing system: buffering the food product portions delivered from the cutting device in a buffer zone on the conveyor system prior to further transport of the food product portions along the main conveyor path, aligning of the food product portions in lateral direction transversely to the main conveying path by a displacement of the food product portions in lateral direction transversely to the main conveying path, orientation of the food product portions relative to the main conveying path by a rotation of the food product portions relative to the main conveying path, and product formatting from an incoming product format with a predetermined number of parallel conveyor tracks into an outgoing product format with a predetermined number of parallel conveyor tracks, wherein the number of incoming conveyor tracks is different from the number of outgoing conveyor tracks, at wherein the conveyor system fulfills said plurality of functions by means of a discontinuous conveyor, said discontinuous conveyor comprising at least one conveyed-products carrier movable along said main conveying path, said main conveying path being freely programmable within a conveying surface.

2. The food-processing system according to claim 1, further comprising a checking station for checking the food product portions conveyed by the conveyor system for compliance with predetermined product specifications and for detecting faulty portions among the food product portions that do not meet the predetermined product specifications, the checking station optionally being arranged between the cutting device and the conveyor system, and an ejection station for ejecting the faulty portions from the main conveying path.

3. The food-processing system according to claim 2, wherein the checking station weighs the food product portions and compares the weight of the food product portions with a predetermined target weight to determine the faulty portions, and/or wherein the checking station optically checks the food product portions by means of a sensor, in particular by means of a camera, in order to detect defects, and classifies the checked food product portions as faulty portions as a function of the defects determined, the defects optionally being deviations in weight, deviations in volume, deviations in shape or deviations in quality.

4. The food-processing system according to claim 2, wherein the ejection station discharges the faulty portions into a correction zone in which the faulty portions can be corrected manually or automatically, and that wherein the ejection station reintroduces the corrected faulty portions from the correction zone into the main conveying path after they have been corrected in the correction zone.

5. The food-processing system according to claim 1, wherein the cutting device produces, during a cutting operation of one of the food products, in each case an initial piece and an end piece, the initial piece and/or the end piece being non-recyclable and optionally consisting in each case of one or more slices, and wherein the conveying system also takes over the initial piece and/or the end piece on one of the conveyed-products carriers from the cutting device, and wherein the conveyor system comprises a discharge station for removing the non-usable initial piece and/or the non-usable end piece from the conveyed-products carrier and disposing of it.

6. The food-processing system according to claim 5, wherein the discharge station for removing the non-usable initial piece and/or the non-usable end piece from the conveyed-products carrier comprises: a gripper for gripping the initial piece and/or the end piece on the conveyed-products carrier, the gripper preferably being guided by a robot, or a suction device for sucking the initial piece and/or the end piece onto the conveyor support, the suction device preferably being guided by a robot, or a movably guided pusher for pushing the initial piece and/or the end piece down from the conveyed-products carrier, or a tilting device for tilting the conveyed-products carrier with the initial piece and/or end piece located thereon and for tilting the initial piece and/or end piece down from the conveyed-products carrier, or a blowing device for blowing down the initial piece and/or the end piece from the conveyed-products carrier, or a device for jerkily accelerating and/or braking the conveyed-products carrier, so that the non-usable end pieces slide off the conveyed-products carrier, or a finger conveyor belt.

7. The food-processing system according to claim 1, wherein the conveyor system comprises a rotating device for rotating the at least one conveyed-products carrier about an axis of rotation at right angles to the conveying surface in order to set a predetermined orientation of the food product portion on the conveyed-products carrier, wherein the rotating device is optionally formed by the discontinuous conveyor, wherein the conveyor system optionally comprises a sensor, in particular a camera, for detecting the orientation of the food product portions on the conveyed-products carriers. wherein the conveyor system optionally comprises a control device which is connected on the input side to the camera and on the output side to the rotating device and controls the rotating device as a function of the determined orientation of the food product portion, wherein the camera is optionally arranged further downstream in the main conveying path than the rotating device, and wherein the rotating device is optionally arranged directly on the cutting device, so that the slices off by the cutting device are deposited on the conveyed food product portion carrier, which is rotated by the rotating device into a desired orientation.

8. The food-processing system according to claim 1, wherein a belt conveyor with a specific conveying direction is arranged above the conveying surface of the discontinuous conveyor, wherein the discontinuous conveyor delivers a first conveyed-products carrier with a first food product portion which is taken over by the belt conveyor (24), wherein the discontinuous conveyor delivers a second conveyed-products carrier with a second food product portion and positions the second conveyed-products carrier on the conveying surface under the belt conveyor, wherein the discontinuous conveyor moves the second conveyed-products carrier out from under the belt conveyor in the conveying direction of the belt conveyor (24), whereby the belt conveyor deposits the first food product with an at least partial overlap on the second food product lying on the second conveyed-products carrier, and wherein optionally a control device controls the discontinuous conveyor and the belt conveyor for carrying out steps b) to d).

9. The food-processing system according to claim 1, wherein the conveyor system comprises a transfer device for transferring slices of the food product portions between different conveyed-products carriers for assembling complete food product portions from several incomplete food product portions, that wherein the transfer device is optionally a belt conveyor.

10. The food-processing system according to claim 1, wherein the food-processing system comprises a certain number of cutting devices, each supplying at least one conveying stream of the food product portions, the number of cutting devices being greater than or equal to one, and wherein the food-processing system comprises a certain number of packaging machines, each receiving a delivery stream of the food product portions and packaging the food product portions delivered in the delivery stream into packages, the number of packaging machines being greater than or equal to one.

11. The food-processing system according to claim 10, wherein the number of the cutting devices is different from the number of the packaging machines, and wherein the conveyor system divides the conveying streams arriving on the input side from the at least one cutting device into a plurality of conveying streams on the output side for feeding the individual packaging machines, or combines the multiple conveying streams incoming on the input side from the multiple cutting devices into at least one conveying stream for feeding the at least one packaging machines.

12. The food-processing system according to claim 9, wherein the conveyor system transfers loaded conveyed-products carriers between the different conveyor streams.

13. The food-processing system according to claim 1, wherein the food-processing system comprises a control device which controls the operation of the food-processing system, wherein the control device is connected to at least one of the following components of the food-processing system for controlling the operation of the food-processing system: the discontinuous conveyor, the cutting device, the checking station, the ejection station, the discharge station, the camera, the transfer device, the packaging machine, the delivery conveyor, and the take-off conveyor, and wherein the control device optionally includes a control computer and a program memory in which a control program is stored, the control program, when executed, causing the control computer to control the food-processing system.

14. (canceled)

Description

[0021] Other advantageous further embodiments of the invention are indicated in the dependent claims or are explained in more detail below together with the description of the preferred embodiments of the invention with reference to the figures.

[0022] FIG. 1 shows a schematic representation of a food-processing system according to the invention.

[0023] FIG. 2 shows a side view of a conveyed-products carrier of the food-processing system of FIG. 1.

[0024] FIG. 3 shows a top view of the conveyed-products carrier according to FIG. 2.

[0025] FIG. 4 shows a side view of a take-off conveyor for taking off the food product portions from the individual carriers.

[0026] FIG. 5 shows a side view of a discharge conveyor for discharging the food product portions onto the individual conveyed-products carriers.

[0027] FIG. 6 shows a schematic view of the reorientation of the food product portions on the conveyed-products carriers.

[0028] FIG. 7A shows a schematic top view of a food-processing system according to the invention which also allows overlapping of food product portions.

[0029] FIG. 7B shows a side view of the food-processing system according to FIG. 7A.

[0030] FIGS. 8A-8F show various steps of the operating method for overlapping food product portions according to the invention.

[0031] FIG. 9 shows a schematic representation of a food-processing system according to the invention, in which a cutting device feeds two packaging machines.

[0032] FIG. 10 shows a schematic diagram for the transfer of slices between different conveyors.

[0033] The following describes an example of a food-processing system according to the invention as shown in FIG. 1.

[0034] The food-processing system first of all has a cutting device 1, which is also referred to as a slicer in accordance with the usual technical terminology, and which slices food products (e.g. pieces of cheese, pieces of meat, salami sticks, etc.). In the illustrated embodiment, the cutting device operates in three tracks, i.e., the food products are sliced in three tracks side by side.

[0035] In addition, the food-processing system has a delivery conveyor 2 that picks up the slices cut by the cutting device 1 and deposits them on conveyed-products carriers 3 (movers) of a planar motor drive system 4. The planar motor drive system 4 is the planar motor drive system XPlanar, which is distributed by the German company Beckhoff Automation GmbH. It should be mentioned that the conveyed-products carriers 3 can be moved freely within a horizontal conveying surface without being bound to a fixed conveying path. The conveying surface is composed of numerous rectangular modules 5, whereby this modular structure of the planar door drive system 4 allows great flexibility with regard to the shape of the conveying surface.

[0036] The delivery conveyor 2 deposits a food product portion 6 on each of the conveyed-products carriers 3, whereby the food product portions 6 in the illustrated embodiment are shingles consisting of several slices which lie staggered one above the other.

[0037] The conveying surface of the planar motor drive system 4 is spanned by a checking station 7, which contains several cameras for checking the food product portions 6 on the conveyors 3. For example, the cameras in the checking station 7 can detect the number of slices in the individual food product portions 6 and thereby detect faulty portions with an insufficient number of slices. In addition, the cameras in the checking station 7 can, for example, also detect other defects (e.g., fat eyes) in the food product portions 6.

[0038] The checking station 7 can also measure the weight of the conveyed-products carriers 3 with the food product portions 6 on them. Thus, during operation, the conveyed-products carriers 3 with the food product portions 6 thereon float above the conveying surface of the planar door drive system 4 at a certain distance, which depends on the weight of the conveyed-products carrier 3 with the food product portions 6 thereon. The width of the air gap between the conveyed-products carrier 3 and the conveying surface of the planar motor drive system 4 thus forms a measure of the weight of the food product portions 6 on the conveyed-products carrier 3. In the test station 7, therefore, the width of the air gap between the conveyed-products carrier 3 and the conveying surface of the planar motor drive system 4 can also be measured as a measure of the weight of the loaded conveyed-products carrier 3. Alternatively, it is possible that the width of the air gap between the conveyed-products carrier 3 and the conveying surface of the planar motor drive system 4 is kept constant by adjusting the power of the planar motor drive system 4 accordingly, with the power of the planar motor drive system 4 then forming a measure of the weight of the loaded conveyed-products carrier.

[0039] Alternatively, however, it is also possible for the weight of the conveyed-products carriers 3 to be measured in a separate weighing station located between the conveyor system and the slicer.

[0040] The checking station 7 thus determines the weight of the food product portions 6 on the conveyors 3 and also inspects the food product portions 6 optically with the cameras. The checking station 7 then sends a corresponding signal to a higher-level control device 8, which also controls the cutting device 1 and the delivery conveyor 2. If the checking station 7 determines that the food product portion 6 is an incorrect portion, the control device 8 controls the planar motor drive system 4 so that the conveyed-products carrier 3 with the food product portion 6 is discharged to a correction station 9. At the correction station 9, the faulty portion can then be corrected by, for example, adding a missing slice, to give just one example. Subsequently, the planar motor drive system 4 can feed the corrected miss portion back into the main conveying path.

[0041] If, on the other hand, the inspection in the checking station 7 shows that there is a non-usable initial piece or end piece on one of the conveyed-products carriers 3, the associated conveyed-products carrier 3 is transported by the planar motor drive system 4 to a discharge station 10, where the non-usable initial pieces or end pieces are then removed from the conveyed-products carrier 3 and disposed of.

[0042] The conveyed-products carriers 3 with the food product portions 6 thereon are then transported by the planar motor drive system 4 to a take-off conveyor 11, which removes the food product portions 6 from the respective conveyed-products carrier 3 and transports them in two parallel tracks to a packaging machine 12.

[0043] The packaging machine 1 operates here at two tracks, while the cutting device 1 operates at three tracks. The planar motor drive system 4 thus also enables track conversion from three input tracks to two output tracks.

[0044] Furthermore, it should be mentioned that the control device 8 not only controls the cutting device 1, the planar motor drive system 4 and the delivery conveyor 2. Rather, the control device 8 is also connected to the checking station 7, the correction station 9, the discharge station 10, the take-off conveyor 11 and the packaging machine 12. It should be mentioned here that the control device 8 is shown as a single component for simplicity. In fact, however, the control device 8 can also be realized as a distributed system with several controllers, whereby the controller can also be realized partly in hardware and partly in software.

[0045] Finally, it should be mentioned that the planar motor drive system 4 may also have a return track to transport empty conveyed-products carriers 3 back to the delivery conveyor 2. However, the return track is not shown in the drawing for simplicity.

[0046] FIGS. 2 and 3 show different views of one of the conveyed-products carriers 3 on the planar motor drive system 4. The design and operation of the conveyed-products carrier 3 is also described in the German patent application DE 10 2020 105 678.8, the contents of which are fully attributable to the present description. At this point, it is only necessary to mention that the conveyed-products carrier 3 has numerous pins 13 on its upper side, which protrude parallel to the top and are arranged in matrix form in rows and columns. The adjacent rows and also the adjacent columns include here at respective elongated recesses 14, 15 which facilitate the conveying away of the food product portions 6 from the conveyed-products carrier 3, as will be described in detail. Thus, FIG. 4 shows a side view of one of the take-off conveyors 11, which are pivotable about a pivot axis 16. In this case, the individual take-off conveyors 11 consist of a number of adjacent and relatively narrow finger conveyors which can dive into the elongated recesses 14 or 15 on the upper side of the conveyed-product carrier 3 in order to grip underneath and convey away the food product portions 6 on the conveyed-product carrier 3.

[0047] FIG. 5, on the other hand, shows a schematic representation of the delivery conveyor 2, which deposits the food product portions 6 on the individual conveyed-products carriers 3.

[0048] FIG. 6 shows a schematic illustration of the orientation function of the planar motor drive system 4. Thus, the planar motor drive system 4 can rotate the conveyed-products carriers 3 about their vertical axis so that the food product portions 6 on the conveyed-products carrier 3 have a predetermined orientation. FIG. 6 shows the conveyed-products carrier 3 during the product deposition of the food product portions 6 from the cutting device 1. Thus, the food product portions 6 are initially deposited on the conveyed-products carrier 3 with a misalignment angle ? relative to the main conveyor device, which is detected by a camera 17. The conveyed-products carrier 3 is therefore rotated accordingly before the food product portion 6 is deposited on the conveyed-products carrier 3. After the product deposition of the food product portion 6 on the conveyed-products carrier 3, the conveyed-products carrier 3 is then rotated again accordingly, as shown in dashed lines in the drawing, whereby the food product portion 6 is then correctly aligned again despite the initial misalignment during the product deposition.

[0049] FIGS. 7A and 7B show different views of an alternative embodiment of a food-processing system according to the invention, which also allows overlapping of food product portions 18, 19. Here, the food product portions 18, 19 are conveyed on conveyed-products carriers 20, 21 in two parallel conveyor tracks 22, 23.

[0050] A belt conveyor 24 is arranged in the right-hand conveyor track 22, which consists of a take-off conveyor 25, an intermediate conveyor 26 and a discharge conveyor 27. The take-off conveyor 25 takes over the food product portions 18 from the conveyed-products carrier 20 and then passes the taken-over food product portion 18 on to the intermediate conveyor 26 and to the delivery conveyor 27. The delivery conveyor 27 then deposits the food product portions 18 on top of the food product portion 19 on the other conveyed-products carrier 21.

[0051] FIGS. 8A-8F now show the overlapping process in several successive stages.

[0052] In the stage according to FIG. 8A, the two conveyed-products carriers 20, 21 with the two food product portions 18, 19 are conveyed in the two conveyor tracks 22, 23.

[0053] At the stage shown in FIG. 8B, the food product portion 18 is removed from the conveyed-products carrier 22 and taken over by the take-off conveyor 25. At this stage, the conveyed-products carrier 21 with the food product portion 19 continues to move alongside the belt conveyor 24.

[0054] At the stage shown in FIG. 8C, the food product portion 18 has then reached the intermediate conveyor 26 and the other conveyed-products carrier 21 is located laterally next to it.

[0055] At the stage shown in FIG. 8D, the conveyed-products carrier 21 with the food product portion 19 is then below the intermediate conveyor 26.

[0056] At the stage shown in FIG. 8E, the two food product portions 18, 19 are then located one above the other on the delivery conveyor 27, on the one hand, and below it on the conveyed-products carrier 21, on the other hand.

[0057] In FIG. 8F, it is then shown that the delivery conveyor 27 has deposited the food product portion 18 on top of the food product portion 19 on the conveyed-products carriers 21, with the two food product portions 18, 19 overlapping.

[0058] Thus, the arrangement shown allows the food product portions 18, 19 to be arranged in an overlapping manner.

[0059] FIG. 9 shows a schematic representation of a food-processing system according to the invention with a press 28 which first presses the food products, which can be useful, for example, with frozen products and is known from the state of the art.

[0060] The press 28 then delivers the pressed food products to a cutting device 29 (slicer), which here operates in a single track.

[0061] The slicer 29 then transfers the food product portions from several slices to a planar motor drive system 30, as already described above, whereby the planar motor drive system 30 in each case moves conveyed-products carriers with the individual food product portions.

[0062] On the output side, the planar motor drive system 30 then feeds two packaging machines 31, 32. The planar motor drive system 30 thus enables two packaging machines 31, 32 to be fed by only a single cutting device 29.

[0063] Finally, FIG. 10 shows a schematic diagram for transferring individual slices 33 between two food product portions 34, 35 lying on two conveyors 36, 37. In the embodiment shown, the food product portion 35 on the conveyed-products carrier 37 is not complete, so the disc 33 is removed from the food product portion 34 and placed on the food product portion 35 for completion. For the transfer of the disk 33 between the two conveyed-products carriers 36, 37, a conveyor 38 is provided here, which has several narrow finger conveyors on the input side, which can dive into the elongated recesses between the adjacent pins in order to grip under the food product portion 34, as has already been described above. The drawing here is only schematic in order to illustrate the principle of transfer of the discs 33 between the conveyed-products carriers 36, 37. Furthermore, it should be mentioned that the conveyed-products carriers 35, 36 can be freely moved here on a planar motor drive system 39 within a horizontal conveying surface 40.

[0064] The invention is not limited to the preferred embodiments described above. Rather, the invention encompasses a multitude of variants and variations which also make use of the inventive concept and therefore fall within the scope of protection. In particular, the invention also claims protection for the subject matter and the features of the dependent claims independently of the claims referenced in each case and in particular also without the features of the main claim. The invention thus comprises various aspects of the invention which enjoy protection independently of each other.

LIST OF REFERENCE SIGNS

[0065] 1 Cutting device (slicer) [0066] 2 Delivery conveyor [0067] 3 Conveyed-products carriers [0068] 4 Planar motor drive system for driving the conveyed-products carriers [0069] 5 Modules of the planar motor drive system [0070] 6 Food product portion on the conveyed-products carrier [0071] 7 Checking station with cameras for checking the food product portions [0072] 8 Control device [0073] 9 Correction station [0074] 10 Discharge station [0075] 11 Take-off conveyor [0076] 12 Packaging machine [0077] 13 Pins on the upper side of the conveyed-products carrier [0078] 14, 15 Elongated recesses between the pins [0079] 16 Swivel axis of the take-off conveyor [0080] 17 Camera [0081] 18, 19 Food product portions [0082] 20, 21 Conveyed-products carriers [0083] 22, 23 Conveyor tracks [0084] 24 Belt conveyor [0085] 25 Take-off conveyor [0086] 26 Intermediate conveyor [0087] 27 Discharge conveyor [0088] 28 Press [0089] 29 Cutting device (slicer) [0090] 30 Planar motor drive system for driving the conveyors [0091] 31, 32 Packaging machines [0092] 33 Slice [0093] 34, 35 Food product portions [0094] 36, 37 Conveyed-products carriers [0095] 38 Transfer conveyor [0096] 39 Planar motor drive system [0097] 40 Conveying surface of the planar motor drive system