METHOD FOR THE PARALLEL PRODUCTION OF SHINGLED PORTIONS WITH DIFFERENT NUMBER OF SLICES AND SUITABLE SLICING MACHINE

Abstract

In order to prevent a slice from being separated from each log during the last cut in the case of multiple portions produced in parallel, that is to say there is no unproductive cut in the last cut, as is required, for example, in EP 2942165 B1, the basic idea is to already provide an unproductive cut for at least one log during the first cut for the simultaneously produced portions, wherein a distinction must be made in the following procedure whether or not separately controllable portioning belts are present per lane and whether the portion lengths should be the same or not despite different numbers of slices.

Claims

1. A method for parallel, substantially simultaneous production of shingled portions with different numbers of slices by use of a multi-lane slicing machine for product logs with a rotating blade and portioning belts that can be controlled individually for each lane downstream of the blade, the method comprising: during slicing of a portion, separating by the blade a slice from each of the logs supplied in parallel during at least one revolution of the blade; and controlling the portioning belts such that a length of each of the portions produced in parallel next to one another is approximately the same independent of number of slices in each of the portions; wherein no slice is separated from at least one log during a first cut for a portion.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein a slice distance of adjacent slices within the portions is selected such that the portion length is the same in all portions independently of the number of slices.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein one slice is separated from each log during each cut between a first cut and a last cut.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one log from which no slice is separated during the first cut for a portion comprises multiple logs that are selected of a same type.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the multiple logs have a same consistency.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein no slice is separated from multiple logs during a last cut for a portion, and the multiple logs are selected of a same type.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the multiple logs have a same consistency.

8. The method according to claim 1, a slice distance is selected to be equal within all parallel portions.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein no slice is separated from at least one log in a last cut for a portion.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein multiple portions of the portions produced next to one another are subsequently introduced together into a packaging, spaced apart or partially overlapping in a transverse direction, and wherein before or during combining, front ends and/or rear ends of the multiple portions are brought to a same longitudinal position in the packaging.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein after a penultimate cut for the multiple portions produced next to one another, only the portioning belts of those lanes on which a last slice still has to be deposited for this portion are moved forwards.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein multiple portions of the portions produced simultaneously next to one another are then introduced together into a packaging, spaced apart or partially overlapping in a transverse direction, and wherein before or during combining, the multiple portions are left in their relative position relative to one another in a longitudinal direction.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein multiple portions of the portions produced next to one another are subsequently introduced together into a packaging, at a distance or partially overlapping in a transverse direction, and wherein before or during combining, the multiple portions are brought to a smaller initial distance and/or end distance from one another in a longitudinal direction than was present on the portioning belts.

14. A multi-lane slicing machine for slicing product logs into slices and producing shingled or stacked portions from slices, the slicing machine comprising: a slicing unit having a blade; a feeding unit for feeding multiple logs to the slicing unit; a discharge unit having at least one portioning belt; and a controller configured to control the slicing unit and the feeding unit such that during slicing of a portion, the blade separates a slice from each of the logs supplied in parallel during at least one revolution of the blade, and to control the at least one portioning belt such that a length of each of the portions produced in parallel next to one another is approximately the same independent of number of slices in each of the portions, and wherein the controller is configured to control the slicing machine such that no slice is separated from at least one log during a first cut for a portion.

15. The slicing machine according to claim 14, wherein the at least one portioning belt comprises a portioning belt in each lane and the portioning belts are controllable independently of one another.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0041] Embodiments in accordance with the disclosure are described in more detail below by way of example, with reference to the following figures:

[0042] FIGS. 1A, B: show a slicing machine in the form of a slicer in accordance with the prior art in different perspective views, with feed belt swung up into the slicing position;

[0043] FIG. 2A: is a side view of the slicing machine that is simplified and freed from panel parts, so that the individual conveyor belts can be seen more clearly, loaded with a product log;

[0044] FIG. 2B: is a side view in accordance with FIG. 2A, but with the feed belt swung down into the loading position and the product log sliced except for a log remnant;

[0045] FIGS. 3A-C: show situations on the discharge unit in the case of portioning belts controllable separately and independently of one another in plan view;

[0046] FIGS. 4A, B: show situations on the discharge unit in the case of portioning belts which are not controllable independently from one another, here shown in the form of a single continuous wide portioning belt across all lanes, in plan view;

[0047] FIGS. 5A-C: show situations in the plan view from above when multiple portions are combined next to one another in a packaging.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0048] FIG. 1A, 1B are different perspective views of a multi-lane slicer 1 for simultaneously slicing a plurality of product logs K in a respective lanes SP1 to SP4 next to each other and depositing them in shingled portions P each consisting of several slices S with a general direction of travel 10* through the slicer 1 from right to left.

[0049] FIG. 2A is (with the log K inserted) a side view of this slicer 1, omitting covers and other parts not relevant to the disclosure, which are fastened to the base framework 2 in the same manner as all other units, so that the functional parts, especially the conveyor belts, can be seen more clearly. The longitudinal direction 10 is the feed direction of the logs K to the slicing unit 7 and thus also the longitudinal direction of the logs K lying in the slicer 1.

[0050] It can be seen that the basic structure of a slicer 1 according to the prior art is that a slicing unit 7 with a blade 3 rotating about a blade axis 3, in this case a sickle blade 3, is fed with multiple, in this case four, product logs K lying transversely to the feed direction 10 next to one another on a feed conveyor 4 with spacers 15 of the feed conveyor 4 between them by this feeding unit 20, from the front ends of said logs the rotating blade 3 cuts off a slice S with its slicing edge 3a in each case in one operation, that is to say almost simultaneously.

[0051] For slicing the product logs K, the feed conveyor 4 is in the slicing position shown in FIGS. 1A-2A and is oblique in side view, with a low-lying front end on the slicing side and a high-lying rear end, from which it can be folded down about a pivot axis 4 extending in its width direction, the first transverse direction 11, which is located in the vicinity of the slicing unit 7, into an approximately horizontal loading position as represented in FIG. 2B.

[0052] The rear end of each log K lying in the feeding unit 20 is held in accordance with FIG. 2A in each case by a gripper 14a-d by positive locking with the aid of gripper claws 16. These grippers 14a-14d, which can be activated and deactivated with regard to the position of the gripper claws 16, are fastened to a common gripper slide 13, which can be tracked along a gripper guide 18 in the feed direction 10.

[0053] In this case, both the feed of the gripper slide 13 and of the feed conveyor 4 can be driven in a controlled manner, wherein, however, the actual feed speed of the logs K is effected by so-called upper and lower product guides 8, 9 which are also driven in a controlled manner and which engage the upper side and lower side of the logs K to be sliced in their front end areas near the slicing unit 7:

[0054] The front ends of the logs K are each extended through a product opening 6a-d of a plate-shaped slicing frame 5, wherein the slicing plane 3, in which the blade 3 rotates with its slicing edge 3a and thus cuts off the protrusion of the logs K from the slicing frame 5 as slice S, extends directly in front of the front, downwardly inclined end face of the slicing frame 5. The slicing plane 3 extends perpendicularly to the upper run of the feed conveyor 4 and/or is spanned by the two transverse directions 11, 12 to the feed direction 10.

[0055] In this case, the inner circumference of the product openings 6a-d serves as a counter slicing edge of the slicing edge 3a of the blade 3.

[0056] Since both product guides 8, 9 can be driven in a controlled manner, particularly independently of one another and/or possibly separately for each track SP1 to SP4, these determine the (continuous or clocked) feed speed of the logs K through the slicing frame 5.

[0057] The upper product guide 8 is displaceable in the second transverse direction 12 (which extends perpendicularly to the surface of the upper run of the feed conveyor 4) to adapt to the height H of the log K in this direction. Further, at least one of the product guides 8, 9 can be designed to pivot about one of its deflection rollers in order to be able to change the direction of the strand of its guide belt resting against the log K to a limited extent.

[0058] The slices S, which are at an angle in the space when they are separated, fall onto a discharge device 17, which starts below the slicing frame 5 and extends in the direction of travel 10* and in this case consists of multiple discharge units 17a, b, c arranged one behind the other with their upper runs of their conveyor belts approximately aligned in the direction of travel 10*, of which the first discharge unit 17a in the direction of travel 10 can be designed as a portioning belt unit 17a and/or can also be designed as a weighing unit.

[0059] The slices S can hit the portioning belt unit 17a individually and be spaced apart from one another in the direction of travel 10* or, by appropriate control of the portioning belt 17a of the discharge device 17 (whose movement, like almost all moving parts, is controlled by the controller 1*) form shingled or stacked portions P by mostly stepwise forward movement or backward movement of the portioning belt 17a. In that regard, as one skilled in the art would understand, the controller 1*, as well an any other unit, machine, apparatus, element, sensor, device, component, system, subsystem, arrangement, or the like described herein may individually, collectively, or in any combination comprise appropriate circuitry, such as one or more appropriately programmed processors (e.g. one or more microprocessors including central processing units (CPU)) and associated memory, which may include stored operating system software and/or application software executable by the processor(s) for controlling operation thereof and/or for performing the particular algorithms represented by the various functions and/or operations described herein, including interaction and/or cooperation between any such controller, unit, machine, apparatus, element, sensor, device, component, system, subsystem, arrangement, or the like. One or more of such processors, as well as other circuitry and/or hardware, may be included in a single ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuitry), or several processors and various circuitry and/or hardware may be distributed among several separate components, whether individually packaged or assembled into a SoC (System-on-a-Chip).

[0060] Below the feed conveyor unit 20 there is usually an approximately horizontally extending residue conveyor 21, which starts with its front end below the slicing frame 5 and directly below or behind the discharge unit 17 and with its upper run thereon (by means of the drive of one of the discharge conveyors 17 against the direction of travel 10) transports away falling residues to the rear.

[0061] It has to be distinguished whether the portioning belts 17a can be controlled separately and independently of one another, i.e. with regard to the movement of the circulating conveyor belt, or all existing portioning belts 17a have a common drive and can only be driven together and synchronously, which has the same effect as a continuous wide portioning belt 17a across all lanes SP1 to SP4 of the machine 1 in the transverse direction 11.

[0062] FIGS. 3A-C show a discharge unit 17 of a slicer 1 with portioning belts 17a which can be controlled independently of one another, i.e. per lane one portioning belt 17 a.

[0063] In this case, on the lanes SP1 and SP3the logs K1 and K3 on these lanes are preferably of the same type, i.e. in particular have the same cross-section (apart from production inaccuracies) and/or consist of the same food-portions having five slices each are created, whereas portions with four slices S each are created on the lanes SP2 and SP4. Nevertheless, the length L of the portions P is the same on all lanes SP1 to SP4, which is achieved in that, in the small portions (i.e. the portions with a smaller number of slices) on the lanes SP2 and SP4, the slice distance DS is selected to be correspondingly larger than in the large portions on the lanes SP1, SP3.

[0064] Here, in the lanes SP2 and SP4, an unproductive cut LS is carried out when the first slices are cut on the two other lanes SP1 and SP3 (represented symbolically by a hatched rectangle) and after the first cut, all portioning belts 17a are moved forwards by one slice distance DS of the respective portioning belt 17a.

[0065] In this way, portions P having the same length L are formed on each of the portioning belts 17a, although the front end of the small portions is set back in the direction of travel 10* by an initial distance ID compared to the front ends of the large portions.

[0066] In this constellation, according to FIG. 3A all four portions are synchronously transferred to the transfer belt 17b (which is typically a conveyor belt that is continuous over the entire width in the transverse direction 11) so that the corresponding initial distance ID is also present there and, conversely, analogously, a corresponding end distance DE, by which the rear end of the small portions on the lanes SP2 and SP4 is set back compared the rear ends of the large portions on the lanes SP1 and SP3.

[0067] According to FIG. 3B (depending on the corresponding work order) these starting and final distances ID, DE can naturally be compensated for by the initial distance ID during the transfer from the portioning belts 17a to the transfer belt 17b by faster running or earlier starting of those portioning belts 17a on which the front ends of the portion P is set back in relation to the other portions P by the initial distance ID so that the portions P (which are equally long in any case) are then located at the same longitudinal position in the direction of travel 10* on the transfer belt 17b both with their front and their rear ends.

[0068] However, according to FIG. 3C, it can also be desirable that a deliberately (but usually then smaller than the original) initial distance ID is produced between the small and the large portions P in order to thereby achieve a certain visual appearance, for example if, according to FIGS. 5A-C, portions P which are not the same are then to be deposited together with a packaging.

[0069] FIGS. 4A, B, in contrast, show a discharge unit 17 in which the portioning belts per lane SP1 to SP4 cannot be controlled independently of one another, but in this case even only one portioning belt 17a is present and passes through all lanes SP1 to SP4 in the transverse direction 11.

[0070] Here also (as in FIGS. 3A-C) portions having five slices are produced on the lanes SP1 and SP3 and portions having only four slices are produced on the lanes SP2 and SP4, but, independently thereof, the slice distances DS within the portions P are necessarily of equal length in all portions P, i.e. on all lanes SP1-SP4, so that different portion lengths L result.

[0071] In this case, in FIG. 4A in the first four cuts, a slice S is separated from each log K1 to K4 and in the last cut only from the logs K1 and K3, the portions P of which are to comprise one slice S more.

[0072] Thus, in the case of the lanes SP2 and SP4, an unproductive cut LS took place in the last cut in that the logs K2 and K4 there did not project over the slicing plane 3 during the last cut.

[0073] Accordingly, the portions P start on all lanes SP1 to SP4 at the same longitudinal position on the portioning belt 17a.

[0074] Due to the lack of a possibility to change the lanes individually, after transfer of these portions P produced simultaneously next to one another, the four portions, after transfer to the transfer belt 17b, are likewise located there in the same constellation, i.e. longitudinal position, relative to one another, as previously on the portioning belt 17a.

[0075] FIG. 4B, in contrast, shows the situation that, in the case of the small portions to be produced, i.e. on the lanes SP2 and SP4, an unproductive cut LS was carried out in the first cut for the portions P to be produced in parallel and thus the front end of the portions on the lanes SP2 and SP4 is set back by a slice distance DS (which in this constellation is the same within all portions) with respect to the front end of the large portions P on the lanes SP1 and SP3.

[0076] Here too, due to the lack of a possibility to change the lanes individually, the portions produced simultaneously next to each other in the transverse direction 11 are located, after transfer to the transfer belt 17b, in the same constellation there with regard to the longitudinal position in the direction of travel 10*.

[0077] FIGS. 5A-C show the combining of two portions P produced next to one another together in a packaging V, here a packaging trough of a deep-drawing belt into which they are inserted by an inserter 22.

[0078] If the inserter 22 or a belt unit located between the discharge unit 17 and the inserter 22 consists of adjacent conveyor belts which can be driven separately and independently of one another (here the inserter 22 itself) the longitudinal positions of the portions P combined in a packaging V can still be varied before or during introduction into the packaging V with regard to their mutual longitudinal position.

[0079] As a result, the longitudinal positions of the portions in the packaging V can also be changed in the case of a portioning belt 17a made of portioning belts 17a which cannot be controlled independently of one another, but of course the slice distances DS between the slices S in one portion and/or thus also the portion lengths L can no longer be changed.

[0080] FIG. 5A shows the situation that the portion beginnings of the portions previously located next to one another in the discharge unit 17 having both an initial distance ID and an end distance DE are brought to the same longitudinal position and, due to the same portion length L, the portion ends also lie at the same longitudinal position in the packaging V, regardless of whether the portions P in the packaging V are deposited next to one another at a distance or are deposited overlapping in the transverse direction 11, which are both shown alternatively in FIG. 5A.

[0081] FIG. 5B shows, in contrast, the situation that the portions having an initial distance and an end distance, which was already reduced on the inserter 22 compared to the original initial and final distance because it is desired according to visual specifications, is then left as is when being transferred to the packaging V.

[0082] FIG. 5C shows the situation that the portions having an unequal length, as can be exclusively produced with a portion belt 17a that can only be controlled uniformly in the case of a different number of slices and which either have an initial distance ID or an end distance DE between portions of unequal size, are offset relative to one another in the longitudinal direction when being inserted, instead of only by an initial distance or only an end distance, in such a way that they have both an initial distance ID and an end distance DE, but this is smaller than the originally present only initial distance ID or only final distance DE, generally in each case half thereof.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

[0083] 1 Slicing machine, slicer [0084] 1* Controller [0085] 2 Base frame [0086] 3 Blade [0087] 3 Axis of rotation [0088] 3 Blade plane, slicing plane [0089] 3a Slicing edge [0090] 4 Feed conveyor, feed belt [0091] 5 Slicing frame [0092] 6a-d Product opening [0093] 7 Slicing unit [0094] 8 Upper product guide, upper guide belt [0095] 8.1 Contact run, lower run [0096] 8a Blade-side deflection roller [0097] 8b Deflection roller facing away from the blade [0098] 9 Lower product guide, lower guide belt [0099] 8.1 Contact run, upper run [0100] 9a Blade-side deflection roller [0101] 9b Deflection roller facing away from the blade [0102] 10 Transport direction, feed direction, [0103] 10* Direction of travel through machine, longitudinal direction of machine [0104] 11 1st Transverse direction (width slicer) [0105] 12 2nd Transverse direction (height-direction of log) [0106] 13 Gripper unit, gripper slide [0107] 14, 14 a-d Gripper [0108] 15 Spacer [0109] 15 Support surface [0110] 16 Gripper claw [0111] 17 Discharge unit [0112] 17a, b, c Portioning belt, discharge conveyor [0113] 18 Gripper guide [0114] 19 Height sensor [0115] 20 Feeding unit [0116] 21 Residual piece conveyor [0117] 22 Inserter [0118] DS Slice distance [0119] ID Initial distance [0120] DE End distance [0121] K Product, product log [0122] KR Log remainder, remaining piece [0123] L Length of portion [0124] LS Unproductive cut [0125] S Slice [0126] P Portion [0127] V Packaging element, packaging