Slicing apparatus

Abstract

A slicing apparatus for a continuous slicing of products comprises a slicing unit having a movable cutting blade, a supply apparatus for a multi-track supply of the products to the slicing unit to cut off slices from the products and a removal apparatus for removing portions of cut-off slices along a transport direction. The removal apparatus has a first removal conveyor and a second removal conveyor arranged downstream of the first removal conveyor with respect to the transport direction. The slicing apparatus comprises a slicing apparatus provided between the first removal conveyor and the second removal conveyor for cut-off product parts to be discarded and a track combiner which is configured to take over portions not to be discarded in each case from a number of different conveyor tracks of the first removal conveyor consecutively in time and to combine them in a smaller number of tracks on the second removal conveyor.

Claims

1. A slicing apparatus for a continuous slicing of products, the slicing apparatus comprising: at least one slicing unit having a movable cutting blade; a two-track supply apparatus for supplying the products to the slicing unit to cut off the products into slices and discarded product parts; a removal apparatus for removing the slices and the discarded product parts along a transport direction, the removal apparatus provided after the at least one slicing unit along the transport direction; wherein the removal apparatus has a first removal conveyor and a second removal conveyor arranged downstream of the first removal conveyor with respect to the transport direction; wherein the at least one slicing unit is provided between the first removal conveyor and the two-track supply apparatus, and wherein the first removal conveyor conveys the discarded product parts to a discarding device provided after the first removal conveyor; wherein the second removal conveyor is a single track conveyor; and a track combiner configured to take over the respective slices from the first removal conveyor and transfer and place them on the second removal conveyor; wherein the track combiner is positioned between the first removal conveyor and the second removal conveyor, and bridges over the discarding device; wherein the track combiner is a deflection conveyor whose conveying width is smaller than a conveying width of a conveyor track of the first removal conveyor and whose end adjacent to the first removal conveyor is displaceable transversely to the transport direction; wherein the track combiner comprises a fixed-position roller and a displaceable roller.

2. The slicing apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the track combiner is a multi-belt conveyor having a plurality of individual conveyor belts.

3. The slicing apparatus in accordance with claim 2, wherein the fixed-position roller is a deflection roller and is disposed at an outgoing side adjacent to the second removal conveyor and the displacement roller is a drive roller adjacent to the first removal conveyor and displaceable transversely to the transport direction.

4. The slicing apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the discarding device extends, viewed transversely to the transport direction, at least substantially across all conveyor tracks of the first removal conveyor.

5. The slicing apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein a length of the discarding device is greater than a length of the slices with respect to the transport direction.

6. The slicing apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first removal conveyor has two conveyor tracks.

7. A method for the continuous slicing of products, the method comprising the steps of: providing the slicing apparatus of claim 1; supplying the products on the two-track supply apparatus to convey the products to the at least one slicing unit to cut off the products into slices and discarded product parts; transferring the slices and the discarded product parts away from the at least one slicing unit by the first removal conveyor; transferring the discarded product parts to the discarding device located between the first removal conveyor and the second removal conveyor; taking over the slices on the first removal conveyor consecutively in time by the track combiner; and transferring and placing the slices on the second removal conveyor by the track combiner.

8. The method in accordance with claim 7, wherein, during the slicing of a first product on one of the tracks of the two-track supply apparatus, another track is loaded with a second product, with a start end of the second product being cut off before the first product is completely sliced.

9. The method in accordance with claim 8, wherein the start end of the second product is sliced into discarded product parts by the at least one slicing unit, with the slicing of the start end of the second product being started when the number of remaining slices of the first product equals the number of discarded product parts of the start end of the second product.

Description

(1) The invention will be described in the following by way of example with reference to the drawing and shows in a single FIGURE a simplified plan view of a slicing apparatus in accordance with the invention.

(2) A slicing apparatus 11 in the form of a high-performance slicer is shown in simplified form in the FIGURE. The slicing apparatus 11 comprises a supply apparatus which is not shown separately and which is configured for a two-track supply of food products 15 such as sausage bars or cheese loaves. The products 15 are delivered to a slicing unit 16 by means of the supply apparatus, with a cutting blade, not shown, of the slicing unit 16 moving in a rotating and/or revolving manner in the cutting plane S continuously cutting off slices from the products 15. The supply apparatus can have a loading apparatus which is configured for receiving the products 15 and which is adjustable between a loading position and a supply position.

(3) The slicing apparatus 11 is configured for a continuous slicing of products 15, that is it is designed to produce a completely continuous product stream without loading interruptions and without similar situations reducing the throughput. The slicing apparatus 11 is furthermore configured to avoid a retraction of the products 15 from the cutting blade for the purpose of preventing snippet formation.

(4) A removal apparatus 17 is provided for removing the cut-off slices in the form of portions 20 along a transport direction T, said removal apparatus having a two-track incoming conveyor 19 and a single-track outgoing conveyor 21 arranged downstream thereof with respect to the transport direction T. The incoming conveyor 19 and the outgoing conveyor 21 are each configured as band conveyors in the embodiment shown. The incoming conveyor 19 furthermore forms a portioning conveyor and the outgoing conveyor 21 is connected upstream of a packaging machine, with this, however, not necessarily having to be provided in this manner. In principle, a portion in 20 can comprise a single slice or an arrangement of a plurality of slices, e.g. stacked slices, overlapping slices or slices placed in a round shape.

(5) A discarding device 25 for cut-off product parts 27 to be discarded is located between the incoming conveyor 19 and the outgoing conveyor 21. The cut-off product parts 27 to be discarded can be unusable remainders, first-cut slices, end pieces, defective portions, snippets or the like. The embodiment shown provides a simple ejector opening as the discarding device 25. A reject container, preferably removable, can be provided beneath the discarding device 25, which is however, not shown in the FIGURE.

(6) The discarding device 25 extends, viewed transversely to the transport direction T, across both conveyor tracks of the incoming conveyor 19 and is longer than a portion 20, viewed in the transport direction T.

(7) A single-track track combiner 29, likewise arranged between the incoming conveyor 19 and the outgoing conveyor 21, bridges the discarding device 25 and serves for the transfer of portions 20 not to be discarded from the incoming conveyor 19 onto the outgoing conveyor 21. The track conveyor 29 is designed as a deflection conveyor here and comprises an arrangement of a plurality of individual round belts 31 which are guided around a drive roller 33 and a deflection roller 35. While the deflection roller 35 is in a fixed position and, as shown, is aligned with the outgoing conveyor 21, the drive roller 33 is displaceable transversely to the transport direction T, as is indicated by the double arrow in FIG. 1. The drive roller 33 is specifically designed in the manner of a sleeve and is supported rotationally fixedly, but displaceably on a rotatingly drivable carrier shaft 39. The drive-effective connection between the sleeve-like drive roller 33 and the carrier shaft 39 can be established by shape matching, e.g. by a polygonal section. An adjustment apparatus 41, e.g. a pneumatic adjustment apparatus, is provided for the controlled movement of the drive roller 33. The portions 20 are shown as transparent for a better visibility of the track combiner 29. Portions 20 can be selectively fed to the outgoing conveyor 21 on the first or second conveyor tracks of the incoming conveyor 19 by adjusting the drive roller 33.

(8) If a discarding of unusable product parts 27 is desired during the operation of the slicing apparatus 11, the drive roller 33 is positioned such that it is located in the region of the conveyor track remote from the product parts 27. The product parts 27 are then conveyed from the incoming conveyor 19 to the discarding device 25 and drop into the ejector opening. A conveying on of portions 20 can simultaneously take place on the other track during this process so that as a result a continuous product stream is produced on the outgoing conveyor 21 to the extent that the two tracks at the incoming side are therefore combined in only one single track on the outgoing conveyor 21.

(9) When the slicing apparatus 11 is loaded with a new product 15 on a track, the slicing of its product start into first-cut parts is paused as required. The production of first-cut parts is rather in particular only started when the product remainder of the first product is still just sufficient for producing that number of slicers to produce or complete a portion which corresponds to a predefined number of unusable first-cut parts of the new product 15.

(10) A control device, not shown in FIG. 1, is associated with the slicing apparatus 11 and controls the operating procedure and in particular the time interplay of the individual components.

(11) In the embodiment shown, the slicing apparatus 11 is configured as a single multi-track slicer. Alternatively, the slicing apparatus could also comprise a plurality of mutually independent slicing units 16, including corresponding product supply devices, that is e.g. a plurality of (e.g. respective slicers which only work over one track and which therefore cannot process a plurality of products simultaneously) and in this manner allow a multi-track slicing.

(12) An alternative embodiment of the invention provides that the incoming conveyor 19 has three or four conveyor tracks. The track combiner 29 can furthermore also be configured with multi-tracks as required. It is, however, desirable that the conveyor width of the track combiner 29 is smaller by at least one conveyor track than the conveyor width of all conveyor tracks of the incoming conveyor 19.

REFERENCE NUMERAL LIST

(13) 11 slicing apparatus 15 product 16 slicing unit 17 removal apparatus 19 incoming conveyor 20 portion 21 outgoing conveyor 25 discarding device 27 product parts 29 track combiner 31 round belt 33 drive roller 35 deflection roller 39 carrier shaft 41 adjustment apparatus S cutting plane T transport direction