GB2243281A

GB2243281A - Method for folding food product

Info

Publication number: GB2243281A
Application number: GB9108658A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Joost De Bruyne
Original assignee: Bamach BV
Current assignee: Bamach BV
Priority date: 1990-04-27
Filing date: 1991-04-23
Publication date: 1991-10-30
Anticipated expiration: 2011-04-23
Also published as: NL9001024A; NL190183B; NL190183C; GB2243281B; GB9108658D0

Abstract

Method for folding a slice-shaped food product, in which a conveyor belt 3 convoys the food product 2 up to the point where the desired folding area of the food product is disposed between two pins 6 protruding above the edges of the conveyor belt 3, at which point the conveyor belt 3 is stopped and the portion of the conveyor belt 3 which extends beyond the pins 6 is swivelled over approx. 180 DEG until it is disposed above the portion of the conveyor belt that comes before the pins, disposing a front portion of the slice over a rear portion of the slice, after which the swivelled part of the conveyor belt is swivelled back, the conveyor belt is put in motion again and the slice is discharged in folded condition. <IMAGE>

Description

Folding process and apparatus therefor The invention relates to a method for folding a sheet-shaped or slice-shaped food product, in which an endless conveyor belt conveyes the food product up to the point where the desired folding area of the food product is disposed between two pins protruding above the edges of the conveyor belt, at which point the conveyor belt is stopped and the portion of the conveyor belt which extends beyond the pins is swivelled over approx. 1800 until it is disposed above the portion of the conveyor belt that comes before the pins, thus disposing a front portion of the slice over a rear portion of the slice, after which the swivelled part of the conveyor belt is swivelled back, the conveyor belt is put in motion again and the slice is discharged in folded condition.

The invention particularly aims to prepare a final food product in which the slice-shaped food product may be a slice of meat, such as a cutlet or composed meat slice, while another food product e.g. may be a slice of ham or cheese, the circumference of the latter always remaining at a distance from the edges of the slice of meat and at a distance from the folding pins. The other food product may e.g. also be ragout.

The slice of meat may be formed of compressed chunks of meat, or else the slices of meat may be formed by slicing a lump of meat, which lump has been formed by compressing and subsequently freezing chunks of meat. This implies that the slices of meat lack natural cohesion, and therefore may easily be pulled into pieces. In order to avoid this pulling into pieces, the slice should be supported by the conveyor belt during the folding process, and any shifting of the slice of meat with respect to the conveyor belt and with respect to other elements should be avoided.

According to the invention, this object is achieved by means of an apparatus for performing the above-indicated method, said apparatus comprising guide rollers and a reversing roller for the conveyor belt, two pins up to and in between which the food product on the conveyor belt can be conveyed, a frame swivellable from its normal position over approx. 180 and back, onto which at least two guide rollers and a reversing roller have been mounted, and a discharge conveyor arranged after the conveyor belt.

Preferably this apparatus is characterized in that the pins, the swivelling shaft of the frame, the reversing roller and the two guide rollers on the frame as well as the deflector roll are arranged in such a manner that in either position of the frame and during swivelling it, the conveyor belt is equally taut, or at least substantially so.

According to the present invention, after the invented folding apparatus, preferably a device is disposed which serves to transform the above-indicated food-product and which is characterized by a conveyor belt for discharging the food product brought into folded condition by the method and/or the apparatus indicated in the foregoing, and by a down-pressing roller disposed over the said discharging conveyor belt and having a recess with a shape adapted more or less to the shape of the food product, the conveyor belt and the down-pressing roller cooperating to such an extent that the portions of the folded, slice-shaped food product protruding beyond the other food product are pressed together.

The invented method and apparatus for folding and the trans or mation device will be discussed in further detail in the following description of an example of the said apparatus and the said de vice, which are both represented in the accompanying drawing. In the drawing: figure 1 is a schematic side view of the invented folding apparatus, the frame being in its normal position; figure 2 is a schematic top view of the folding apparatus according to fig. 1; figure 3 is a schematic side view as in figure 1, the frame having been swivelled over approx. 1800, however; figure 4 is a schematic side view according to figure 3, the frame having been swivelled back, however, to its position according to figure 1, and a schematic section of the transformation device having been added; figure 5 is a schematic side view of the transformation device according to figure 4, in which the food product has come out of the transformation device after having been transformed by it; figure 6 is a schematic top view of the transformation device according to figure 5.

The drawn embodiment of the invented folding apparatus comprises an endless conveyor belt 3, whose right-hand final section is indicated in figures 1 and 2. The conveyor belt 3 is driven by means which are known per se so as to convey a slice of meat 2 to the right in figures 1 and 2. The part of the conveyor belt that has not been drawn lacks any sort of means for keeping the length of the folding portion of the conveyor belt constant. The part of the conveyor belt that has not been drawn is not a subject of the invention and therefore it has neither been discussed nor drawn here.

Upon conveying the slice of meat 2, the conveyor belt 3 moves along a reversing roller 7, guide rollers 9 and 10 and subsequently along a deflector roll 11. In this embodiment the reversing roller 7 and the guide rollers 9 and 10 are mounted on a frame 12 that can be swivelled about a shaft 8 from the position shown in figure 1 to the position shown in figure 3, and subsequently back to the position shown in figure 4, which corresponds to the position shown in figure 1. Swivelling the frame 12 to and from is effected by means which are known per se, such as an assembly of piston and cylinder, which will be known to an expert and which are therefore neither discussed in further detail here, nor inaicatea in the drawing.

According to figures 1 and 2 a pin 6 extends over each marginal strip of the conveyor belt 3, said pin being of such a thicknes and being disposed such with respect to the swivelling shaft 8 of the frame 12 that in the swivelled position of the frame, as shown in figure 3, the part of the conveyor belt 3 from the pins 6 up to the reversing roller 7 extends substantially parallel to and at a distance of that part of the conveyor belt that precedes the pins 6.

The positioning of the pins 6, the reversing roller 7, the guide rollers 9 and 10 and the deflector roll 11 is such that when the frame 12 is swivelled from the position shown in figure 1 to the position shown in figure 3, the conveyor belt 3, which was stopped prior to swivelling and which remains stationary during swivelling, is not stretched, so that the slice of meat 2 is not stretchea either when the frame 12 is being swivelled. It is em phasized here that the part of the conveyor belt 3 that has not been drawn lacks any sort of means to keep the length of the folding portion of the conveyor belt constant.

This is an important feature of the present invention, as since the slice of meat 2 is prevented from being stretched when the frame 12 is swivelled, it may be composed of pieces of meat with no natural cohesion. Thus chunks of meat can be compressed so as to form a slice of meat, or else they can be compressed to a lump, subsequently deep-frozen, and finally sliced, so that each slice of meat 2 can be folded from the flat position shown in figure 1 to the folded position shown in figure 3 without falling apart into pieces due to stretching.

In the normal, i.e. unswivelled position of the frame 12, a second conveyor belt 4 follows the first conveyor belt 3, so that the slice of meat, after having been folded according to figure 3, can be discharged by the conveyor belt 3 to the second conveyor belt 4, as shown in figure 4. Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4 only show the lefthand portion of this discharge conveyor belt 4. Such a conveyor belt is known and will therefore not be discussed here any further.

As shown in figures 1 and 2 at least one slice 1 of ragout, cheese and/or ham may have been placed upon the slice of meat 2, said slice 1 either terminating at a distance from the edges of the slice of meat 2 or not. Here it may be desired to transform the parts of the folded slice of meat 2 extending beyond the slice of ham or cheese towards one another, so that upon being transformed, the slice of meat encloses the slice 1 of ham or cheese as indicated in figure 5.

For this purpose the invention provides a down-pressing roller 4, disposed over the conveyor belt as shown in figures 4 and 5, and being rotatable about the shaft 15. As shown in figures 5 and 6, this roller comprises such a recess 13, 14 that on account of the rotation of the roller 5 synchronously to the motion of the conveyor belt 4, the portions of the slice of meat 2 which protrude beyond the slice of ham 1 are pressed together and remain in this condition, as schematically shown in figures 5 and 6.

It will be clear that it is also possible to perform the invented process of folding and transforming according to the enclosed claims with a sheet 2 of e.g. dough instead of a slice of meat 2, and to fill it with ragout instead of with a slice of ham and/or cheese. Therefore the inventea folding apparatus and the invented transformation device can be applied to many types of food products without having to deviate from the enclosed claims in any non-obvious way.

Claims

1. Method for folding a sheet-shaped or slice-shaped food product, in which an endless conveyor belt conveyes the food product up to the point where the desired folding area of the food product is disposed between two pins protruding above the edges of the conveyor belt, at which point the conveyor belt is stopped and the portion of the conveyor belt which extends beyond the pins is swivelled over approx. 1800 until it is disposed above the portion of the conveyor belt that comes before the pins, thus disposing a front portion of the slice over a rear portion of the slice, after which the swivelled part of the conveyor belt is swivelled back, the conveyor belt is put in motion again and the slice is discharged in folded condition.

2. Apparatus for executing the method according to claim 1, comprising guide rollers and a reversing roller for the conveyor belt, two pins up to and in between which the food product on the conveyor belt can be conveyed, a frame swivellable from its normal position over approx. 1800 and back, onto which at least two guide rollers and a reversing roller have been mounted, and a discharge conveyor arranged after the conveyor belt.

3. Apparatus according to claim 2, characterized in that the pins, the shaft about which the frame can be swivelled and a deflector roll cannot be displaced, wherein said deflector roll, seen in the direction of travelling of the conveyor belt, is arranged after the guide rollers which are mounted on the frame.

4. Apparatus according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that the pins, the swivelling shaft of the frame, the reversing roll and the two guide rollers on the frame as well as the deflector roll are arranged in such a manner that in either position of the frame and during swivelling it, the conveyor belt is equally taut, or at least substantially so.

5. Apparatus according to claim 4, characterized in that the portion of the conveyor belt preceding the pins and following the deflector roll is not provided with means for maintaining a constant length of the folding portion of the conveyor belt.

6. Food product to be treated in accordance with the method or by means of the apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, comprising the sheet-shaped or slice-shaped food product and another food product placed onto at least part of the former.

7. Food product according to claim 6, characterized in that the slice-shaped food product is a slice of meat, such as a cutlet or composed meat slice, while the other food product is e.g. a slice of ham, ragout, or cheese, the circumference of the latter always remaining at a distance from the edges of the slice of meat and at a distance from the folding pins.

8. Device for transforming the food product according to claim 6 or 7, characterized by a conveyor belt for discharging the food product brought into folded condition by the method and/or the apparatus according to any one of claims 1 through 5, and by a down-pressing roller disposed over the said discharging conveyor belt and having a recess with a shape adapted more or less to the shape of the food product, the conveyor belt and the down-pressing roller cooperating to such an extent that the portions of the folded, slice-shaped food product protruding beyond the other food product are pressed together.

9. Food product treated by the apparatus according to claim 8.

10. A method of folding a sheet-shaped or sliceshaped food product substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

11. Apparatus for folding a sheet-shaped or sliceshaped food product, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as illustrated in, Figures 1 to 3 of the accompanying drawings.

12. A folded slice-shaped or sheet-shaped food product substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as illustrated in, the accompanying drawings.

13. A device for transforming a food product according to claim 12, such device being substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as illustrated in, Figures 4 to 6 of the accompanying drawings.