EP4032669A1 - Multi-track cutting machine with independently controllable grippers - Google Patents

Abstract

So that the grippers (14.1 - 14.4) can be moved and controlled independently of one another on the individual tracks (SP1 - SP4), they are not all mounted on the same gripper carriage guided on the only existing carriage guide (18), but there are at least two carriage guides (18a, b), each of which carries at least one gripper carriage (13a, 13b), which in turn either carries several grippers (14.1, 14.2 or 14.3, 14.4) or there are several along each carriage guide (18a, b). Gripper slides (13.1 - 13.4), then preferably with only one gripper (14.1 - 14.4) each, can be moved independently of one another.

Description

I. Field of application

The invention relates to slicing machines, in particular so-called slicers, with which strands of a product such as sausage or cheese that is only slightly compressible are cut into slices in the food industry.

II. Technical background

Since these strands can be produced with a cross-section that retains its shape and dimensions well, i.e. is essentially constant, over its length, they are called product calibers.

In most cases, several product calibers arranged parallel to one another are cut open at the same time, in that one slice is cut off in one pass by the same knife, which moves in the transverse direction to the longitudinal direction of the product calibers.

The product calibers are pushed forward by a feed conveyor of a feed unit in the direction of the blade of the cutting unit, usually on a feed conveyor pointing downwards at an angle, and are each guided through the product openings of plate-shaped, so-called cutting glasses, at the front end of which the protruding Part of the product caliber is cut off as a disc from the knife immediately in front of the cutting glasses.

As a rule, the slices fall onto a discharge conveyor of a discharge unit, by means of which they are transported away for further processing.

During the slicing, each product caliber is usually held by a gripper at its rear end facing away from the cutting glasses, which gripper is provided with corresponding gripper claws for this purpose.

The slicing machines are often designed with multiple lanes, which means that the feed unit feeds several product calibers next to each other, each held by a gripper at the rear end, to the cutting unit cut off a slice.

The grippers are usually all attached to a gripper carriage running transversely to the feed direction, which is in the feed direction of the process bar, which is why the grippers can essentially only be moved synchronously, and usually only a very small distance in feed Direction can be moved relative to each other in order to be able to compensate for production inaccuracies of the product caliber in terms of length.

However, this is not sufficient if either calibers of significantly different lengths are to be cut open next to one another on the individual tracks, or calibers with different slice thicknesses are to be cut open, since the grippers can move relatively large distances relative to one another in the feed direction have to.

At the same time, however, drive motors for the grippers on the gripper slide should be avoided in order to keep the moving mass as low as possible.

III. Presentation of the invention a) Technical task

It is therefore the object of the invention to provide a slicing machine, in particular a slicer, which is able to counteract the problems mentioned at the outset and at the same time has a high level of process reliability.

b) Solution of the task

This object is solved by the features of claim 1. Advantageous embodiments result from the dependent claims.

A multi -lane slicing machine of this type is known to include a cutting unit with a knife for cutting off the slices, a discharge unit for conveying away the cut slices and a feed unit with a feed conveyor for feeding the product caliber to the cutting unit. The feed unit has one gripper per track and the grippers, in particular all of them, are carried by a gripper carriage, which can be moved in a controlled manner along a carriage guide in the feed direction, controlled by a controller that controls the moving parts, in particular all moving parts. controls the slicing machine.

With such a slicing machine, the existing object is achieved according to the invention in that there are two parallel carriage guides and at least one or exactly one gripper carriage can be moved in a controlled manner on each.

As a result, it is possible to arrange a carriage guide on each of the two sides of the feed conveyor when viewed from above, which does not significantly impede viewing and gripping on the feed belt.

Such slicing machines often have several, e.g. four, tracks next to each other, on each of which a product caliber is fed, from which a slice is cut off quasi-simultaneously by only one knife extending across all tracks in the transverse direction.

One possibility with several, in particular two, carriage guides is to guide exactly one gripper carriage on each carriage guide, which can then be designed identically or only mirrored, but to arrange several grippers on each gripper carriage.

In order to be able to move the grippers present on a gripper carriage independently of one another, the at least one further gripper is guided in the supply direction relative to the gripper carriage carrying it and can be moved over a limited distance in a controlled manner.

Since the drive for such a relative movement should also be stationary on the carriage guide, a drive train must be provided from there to the grippers on the gripper carriage.

The other possibility is that a gripper carriage carries only one gripper and several carriages are present on each of the carriage guides and can be moved in a controlled manner, which then, however, usually cannot overtake one another.

Here, too, the drive sources for the individual gripper carriages are preferably all arranged in a stationary manner, e.g. at the rear end of the carriage guide, and also the optionally stationary arranged gripper activators, by means of which the grippers are actuated.

The shifting of the gripper carriage can take place in the feed direction absolutely directly to the feed unit, or only relative to the other gripper carriage guided on the same carriage guide, so that one gripper carriage then has its position directly relative is changed to the base frame, as master and the other acts as a slave in its displacement in the feed direction.

In both cases, the carriage guides and/or the gripper carriages guided thereon and/or the carriage drives used and/or the gripper drives used can be of identical design, which reduces the manufacturing effort.

c) exemplary embodiments

Figuren 1a, b:

eine Aufschneide-Maschine in Form eines Slicers gemäß dem Stand der Technik in unterschiedlichen perspektivischen Ansichten, mit in die Aufschneidestellung hochgeklapptem Zufuhr-band,

Figur 1c:

die Aufschneide-Maschine der Figuren 1a , b in der Seitenan-sicht mit entfernten Verkleidungsteilen, sodass die verschiede-nen Förderbänder besser zu erkennen sind

Figur 2a:

einen gegenüber Figur 1c vereinfachte Seitenansicht der Aufschneide-Maschine, beladen mit einem Produkt-Kaliber,

Figur 2b:

eine Seitenansicht gemäß Figur 2a , aber mit in die Beladestel-lung herabgeklapptem Zufuhrband und bis auf einen Kaliber-Rest aufgeschnittenen Produkt-Kaliber,

Figur 3a:

eine erste Ausführungsform der Erfindung in der Aufsicht auf die Aufschneide-Maschine der Figuren 1a , b , betrachtet lot-recht auf das in die Aufschneidestellung hochgeklappte Zufuhr-band,

Figur 3b:

eine zweite Ausführungsform der Erfindung in der Aufsicht auf die Aufschneide-Maschine der Figuren 1a , b , betrachtet lot-recht auf das in die Aufschneidestellung hochgeklappte Zufuhr-band.

Embodiments according to the invention are described in more detail below by way of example. Show it:

Figures 1a, b:

a slicing machine in the form of a slicer according to the prior art in different perspective views, with the feed belt folded up into the slicing position,

Figure 1c:

the slicing machine Figures 1a , b in side view with the paneling removed so that the different conveyor belts can be seen better

Figure 2a:

one opposite Figure 1c simplified side view of the slicing machine loaded with a product caliber,

Figure 2b:

a side view according to FIG Figure 2a , but with the infeed conveyor folded down into the loading position and the product caliber cut open to a caliber remnant,

Figure 3a:

a first embodiment of the invention in the top view of the slicing machine Figures 1a , b , viewed perpendicular to the infeed belt folded up into the cutting position,

Figure 3b:

a second embodiment of the invention in the top view of the slicing machine Figures 1a , b , viewed perpendicular to the feed belt folded up into the cutting position.

the Figures 1a , 1b show different perspective views of a multi-lane slicer 1 for the simultaneous slicing of several product calibers K on one lane SP1 to SP4 next to each other and depositing in shingled portions P each consisting of several slices S with a general direction of passage 10* through the slicer 1 from right to left .

Figure 1c and Figure 2a show - without and with the caliber K inserted - a side view of this slicer 1, omitting covers and other parts that are not relevant to the invention and which, like all other units, are attached to the base frame 2, so that the functional parts, especially the conveyor belts, are better shown are recognizable. The longitudinal direction 10 is the feeding direction of the calibers K to the cutting unit 7 and thus also the longitudinal direction of the calibers K lying in the slicer 1.

It can be seen that the basic structure of a slicer 1 according to the prior art consists of a cutting unit 7 with several knives, in this case four, rotating about a knife axis 3′, such as a sickle knife 3, next to one another transversely to the feed direction 10 Product caliber K lying on a feed conveyor 4 with spacers 15 of the feed conveyor 4 in between are fed by this feed unit 20, from the front ends of which the rotating knife 3 with its cutting edge 3a cuts off a slice S in one operation, i.e. almost simultaneously.

For cutting the product caliber K, the feed conveyor 4 is in the Figures 1a - 2a shown, in the side view at an angle, with a low-lying front end on the cutting side and a high-lying rear end, from which it can be folded down about a pivot axis 20' running in its width direction, the first transverse direction 11, which is located in the vicinity of the cutting unit 7 can be placed in an approximately horizontal loading position, as shown in Figure 2b is shown.

The rear end of each caliber K lying in the feed unit 20 is according to FIG Figure 2a each held by a gripper 14a - d in a form-fitting manner 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 attached to a common gripper carriage 13, which can be tracked along a gripper guide 18 in the feed direction 10.

Both the feed of the gripper carriage 13 and the feed conveyor 4 can be driven in a controlled manner, although the specific feed speed of the calibers K is effected by a so-called upper and lower product guide 8, 9, which is also driven in a controlled manner and is located on the top and Attack the underside of the caliber K to be cut in the front end areas near the cutting unit 7:
The front ends of the caliber K are each guided through a so-called spectacle opening 6a - d of a plate-shaped cutting spectacle 5, with the cutting plane 3" running directly in front of the front face of the cutting spectacle 5, which points downwards, and in which the knife 3 with its Cutting edge 3a rotates and thus separates the protruding caliber K from the cutting frame 5 as a disc S. The cutting plane 3" runs perpendicular 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.

The inner circumference of the spectacle openings 6a-d of the cutting edge 3a of the knife 3 serves as a shearbar.

Since both product guides 8, 9 can be driven in a controlled manner, in particular independently of one another and/or possibly separately for each track SP1 to SP4, these determine the - continuous or clocked - feed rate of the calibers K through the cutting glasses 5.

The upper product guide 8 is in the second transverse direction 12 - which is perpendicular to the surface of the upper run of the feed conveyor 4 - displaceable to adapt to the height H of the caliber K in this direction. Furthermore, at least one of the product guides 8, 9 can be designed to be pivotable about one of its deflection rollers in order to be able to change the direction of the strand of its guide belt resting on the caliber K to a limited extent.

The slices S, which stand at an angle in space during separation, fall onto a discharge unit 17 beginning below the cutting glasses 5 and running in the direction of passage 10*, which in this case consists of several discharge conveyors 17a, b, c, of which the first removal conveyor 17a in the throughput direction 10 can be designed as a portioning belt 17a and/or one can also be designed as a weighing unit.

The slices S can hit the discharge unit 17 individually and at a distance from one another in the direction of passage 10*, or by appropriate control of the portioning belt 17a of the discharge unit 17 - the movement of which, like almost all moving parts, is controlled by the controller 1* - shingled or stacked Form portions P by stepwise forward movement of the portioning belt 17a.

Below the feed unit 20 there is usually an approximately horizontally running residue conveyor 21, which begins with its front end below the cutting frame 5 and immediately below or behind the discharge unit 17 and with its upper strand there on it - by means of the drive of one of the discharge conveyors 17 against the flow direction 10 - falling residues are transported to the rear.

Figure 3a shows a first embodiment of the drive and the guidance of the individual grippers 14.1 - 14.4 in the feed direction 10 in a plan view from above, i.e. perpendicular to the feed belt 4 of the feed unit 20:
In this case, on both sides of the feed belt 4, in particular symmetrically to the longitudinal center 10' of the feed belt 4, there is a carriage guide 18a, 18b in the form of a guide rod, for example.

Two gripper slides are guided on each of the two slide guides 18a, b, namely on the slide guide 18a the two gripper slides 13.1, 13.2 arranged on this side of the longitudinal center 10', which are spaced apart in the feed direction 10 with their respective Guide part are guided on the guide 18a.

The guide carriage 13.1 carries only one gripper 14.1, which is arranged on the track SP1 and holds the caliber K1 shown there as an example at its rear end, while the carriage 13.2 only carries the gripper 14.2, which can be moved along the track SP2 immediately next to it .

Each of the gripper slides 13.1, 13.2 protrudes from the slide guide 18a only far enough in the direction of the longitudinal center 10' that it can carry the gripper 14.1 or 14.2 located on the corresponding track SP1 or SP2.

At the rear end of the carriage guide 18a, facing away from the cutting unit 7, there is a stationary carriage drive source 22a - usually a carriage motor - for moving each of the gripper carriages 13.1, 13.2 assigned to this carriage guide 18a in the feed direction 10 and optionally a gripper activator 23a for activating and deactivating each gripper 14.1, 14.2 associated with this carriage guide 18a, if the gripper activation is not automatic when the caliber, for example K1, is contacted by the gripper, for example 14.1 takes place. There is preferably a separate carriage drive source 22a for each carriage and a separate gripper activator 23a for each gripper for their independent operation.

It is crucial - as with the turned designs - that the corresponding drive sources for carriages and grippers can be arranged as far away as possible from the cutting unit 7 and, above all, stationary in order to be able to easily connect energy lines to these drive sources - not shown - at and To be able to supply signal lines that do not have to move along with the slides 13.1 to 13.4.

Thus, by means of the carriage drive source 22a, each of the two gripper carriages 13.1, 13.2 guided on this carriage guide 18a can be driven independently of one another in the feed direction 10, apart from the fact that the two carriages running on this carriage guide 18a 13.1, 13.2 cannot overtake each other.

In this case, the gripper carriage 13.1 is arranged with its guide part, with which it acts on the carriage guide 18a, in the direction of the cutting unit 7 in front of the carriage 13.2 on the carriage guide 18a, which is why the other carriage 13.2 on its gripper-side end has a support bracket pointing in the feed direction 10, at the front free end of which the gripper 14.2 is held, so that this gripper 14.2 can definitely also assume positions in the feed direction 10 before the gripper 14.1, whose gripper carriage 13.1 is guided on the same guide 18a.

If the carriage guide 18a is not a guide rod encompassed by the guide parts of the carriages 13.1, 13.2, individual carriage guides, for example in the form of guide grooves, can be present on a guide beam on, for example, different sides of its circumference, on which one of the gripper slides 13.1, 13.2 can be guided, which can then also overtake each other.

The carriage drive train connecting the carriage drive source 22a to the respective carriage can, for example, be formed integrally with the latter, for example in the form of a sliding shaft as a carriage guide 18a, or parallel to this, drive movements can be made along the carriage guide 18a into the respective gripper guided thereon -Carriage 13.1, 13.2, and also the gripper drive 23a in each of the two grippers 14.1, 14.2, in order to be able to operate them independently of one another, i.e. to be able to open and close them.

In order to set the two carriages 13.1, 13.2 to a predetermined position in the feed direction 10, one carriage, here 13.2, as the master carriage, is set to its absolute target position relative to the stationary carriage drive source 22a by means of the carriage drive, while the other carriages 13.1, assigned to the same carriage guide 18a, are set as slave carriages only to a predetermined desired position relative to carriage 13.2 by means of an adjusting element 24a, which is preferably variable in length and is connected to the two carriages 13.1, 13.2 , controlled in turn by the carriage drive source 22a.

The carriage drive train for the slave carriage thus preferably runs from the corresponding carriage drive source 22a along or by means of the carriage guide 18a and through or along the master carriage 13.2 to the slave carriage 13.1.

Which of the two carriages serves as the master and is set to the absolute desired position in the feed direction 10 and which as a slave, which is only set in its relative distance relative to the master, is irrelevant.

Nevertheless, both carriages 13.1, 13.2 are each guided with their guide part directly on the carriage guide 18a.

For the gripper slides 13.3, 13.4 guided on the other side of the longitudinal center 10' on the slide guide 18b there and the gripper slides 13.3, 13.4 held thereon The same applies analogously to grippers 14.3, 14.4, which are driven by the analog carriage drive source 22b and gripper activator 23b located there.

Figure 3b shows a second solution according to the invention.

In contrast to the solution of Figure 3a only one gripper carriage is guided on each of the carriage guides 18a, b, namely the respective master carriage 13.2, 13.3. The respective slave carriage 13.1, 13.4, on the other hand, is guided on the respective master carriage 13.2, 13.3 by means of a relative movement 25a.

The drive trains for the individual gripper carriage 13.1-13.4 are preferably as Figure 3a explained designed.

In this case, too, the actuating element 24a, b can be controlled from the carriage drive source 22a via the respective master carriage 13.2, 13.3 in order to bring the gripper 14.1 or 14.4 into the desired desired position.

REFERENCE LIST

1

Slicing machine, slicer

1*

steering

2

base frame

3

knife

3

axis of rotation

3"

knife level, cutting level

3a

cutting edge

4

Infeed conveyor, infeed belt

5

cutting glasses

6a - d

eyeglass opening

7

cutting unit

8th

upper product guide, upper guide belt

8.1

Contact strand, lower strand

8a

Glasses-side pulley

8b

Glasses-averted pulley

9

lower product guide, lower guide belt

8.1

contact run, upper run

9a

Glasses-side pulley

9b

Glasses-averted pulley

10

Feed direction, longitudinal direction, axial direction

10'

longitudinal center

10*

Direction of flow through machine

11

1. Cross Direction (Width Slicer)

12

2. Transverse direction (elevation direction caliber)

13, 13a, b

Gripper unit, gripper carriage

13.1 - 13.4

Gripper unit, gripper carriage

14:14a-d

gripper

15

spacers

16

Grab Claw

17

discharge unit

17a,b,c

Portioning belt, discharge conveyor

18

gripper guide

19

height sensor

20

feeding unit

21

remnant conveyor

22a, b

carriage drive

23a, b

gripper drive

24a, b

actuator

25a, b

Relative leadership

K

product, product caliber

KR

remnant

S

disc

P

portion

V

packing element

Claims (7)

Multi -lane slicing machine (1), in particular slicer (1), for slicing product calibers (K) into slices (S). - a base frame (2), - a cutting unit (30), - a removal unit (17) for removing the slices (S), - A feed unit (20) with a feed conveyor (4) for feeding the caliber (K) to the cutting unit (30) comprising - a gripper (14.1 - 14.4) per track (SP1 - SP4), - a gripper carriage (13) which carries the grippers (14.1 - 14.4), - a carriage guide (18) along which the gripper carriage (13) can be moved in a controlled manner in the feed direction (10), - a controller (1*) for controlling the moving parts of the slicing machine (1), characterized in that - there are two parallel carriage guides (18a, b), - On each of which at least one gripper carriage (13) can be moved in a controlled manner. (several grippers per slide:) A slicing machine according to claim 1, wherein - Exactly one gripper carriage (13a, b) is movably guided on each carriage guide (18a, b), - each gripper carriage (13a, b) carries at least two grippers (14.1 - 14.4), characterized in that - At least one of the grippers (14.1 - 14.4) is guided in the feed direction (10) and can be displaced in a controlled manner relative to the gripper carriage (13a, b) carrying it. (each gripper on its own slide:) Slicing machine according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that - along each carriage guide (18a, b) several gripper carriages (13.1 - 13.4) can be moved independently of one another in a controlled manner, - In particular, each gripper carriage (13.1 - 13.4) carries only one gripper (14.1 - 14.4). (Each relative to the base frame:) Slicing machine according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that
each of the gripper slides (13) can be moved in a controlled manner relative, in particular directly relative, to the base frame (2) in the feed direction (10).
(master slave:) Slicing machine according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that
one of the gripper slides (e.g. 13.2) can be displaced relative, in particular directly relative, to another gripper slide (e.g. 13.1) which is guided on the same slide guide (18a, b).
(both sides :) Slicing machine according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that - if two carriage guides (18a, b) are present, these are arranged on opposite sides of the longitudinal center (10') of the feed belt (4) when viewed from above, - are arranged in particular symmetrically to the longitudinal center (10 '). (Identical components:) Slicing machine according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that
the two carriage guides (18a, b) and/or the gripper carriages (13.1 - 13.4) guided thereon and/or the carriage drives and/or the gripper drives are of identical design.

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