GB2508249A

GB2508249A - Reorientating and straightening articles

Info

Publication number: GB2508249A
Application number: GB201303508A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Patrick Thomas
Original assignee: WHITBY SEAFOODS Ltd
Current assignee: WHITBY SEAFOODS Ltd
Priority date: 2012-11-27
Filing date: 2013-02-27
Publication date: 2014-05-28
Also published as: GB2510461B; IE20130358A1; IE20130357A1; GB201303508D0; GB2510240A; GB2510240B; GB201320948D0; IE86760B1; GB2510461A; GB201320950D0; IE20130359A1; GB2510460A; GB2508229A; GB201320949D0; IE86643B1; GB201221257D0

Abstract

The present invention reorient wrongly orientated shellfish crustacean such as Nephrops norvegicus and small lobster along a channel in a downwardly inclined vibrating conveyor 12. Air is passed through jets or air knives 26 to cause the tails of the small lobster that face upwards on the conveyor to flip over. The conveyor is vibrated to cause the small lobster to rest on their shells and to assist in moving the small lobster along the conveyor. Turner blades, projections and guides (figs 4-6) along the channel may also be used to further assist orientation. Sometimes shellfish may become curled up due to rigor mortis, so a corrugated, flexible stationary straightening apparatus (fig 3) is used to contact and straighten curled articles moving on the conveyor.

Description

REORIENTATING OR STRAIGHTENING ARTICLES

The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for reorientating wrongly orientated articles and to straightening curled articles. The present invention is particularly, although not exclusively, applicable to reorientating wrongly orientated Nephrops norvegicus.

It is known to remove the shells on tails of Nephrops norvegicus by placing the tails to rest on the shell and with the end of the tails leading the way on a conveyor. The tails are advanced towards two opposed drive rollers. As the tails pass between the rollers the shells move forward between the rollers and the meat is squeezed off the shells to fall into openings in the conveyor in advance of the opposed rollers.

The tails are placed within the shell and the ends of the tails leading by a manual operation. This is time-consuming. Further, the tails are floppy and they are difficult to handle and orientate, thus further increasing the time to effect the alignment.

It is an object of the present invention to attempt to overcome at least one of the above or other disadvantages.

According to one aspect of the present invention, apparatus is arranged, in use, to reorientate the direction of wrongly orientated articles comprising a conveyor arranged to, in use, pass articles over a jet such that the jet is arranged to cause wrongly orientated articles to be impacted by the jet to cause the wrongly orientated articles to flip over such that they are correctly orientated.

According to another aspect of the present invention straightening apparatus is provided arranged in use to straighten curled articles comprises a conveyor arranged in use to transport articles in a first direction, which articles may be curled, and a straightening member created above the upper surface of the conveyor whereby the engagement of the articles with the conveyor and the stationary member is arranged to at least partially straighten the curled articles.

According to a further aspect of the present invention a method of at least partially straightening articles comprises passing the curled articles between an upper stationary member and a lower conveyor whereby engagement of the curled articles with the stationary member and the conveyor at least partially straightens the curled articles.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a method of orientating wrongly orientated articles to a correct orientation comprises conveying the articles over a jet with the jet causing the wrongly orientated articles to flip over to such that they are correctly orientated.

The present invention is further defined in the claims and elsewhere in the specification.

The present invention can be carried into practice in a number of ways and one embodiment will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a schematic perspective view of a machine 10 arranged to align Nephrops norvegicus such as small lobster and to separate the shells from the meat; Figure 2 is a perspective view of part of a conveyer 12 used in Figure 1; Figure 3 is a side view of supply station arranged to feed Nephrops norvegicus to the machines of Figure 1; Figure 4 is a plan view of the end region of the conveyor shown in figure 1; Figure 5 is a detailed view of the end region of the conveyor shown in figure 1, and Figure 6 is a plan view of part of the conveyor.

As shown in Figure 1, the machine 10 includes a hopper 14 arranged to convey small lobster 16 from the hopper onto a conveyor 12. Whilst only one conveyor is shown a plurality of conveyors may be provided which plurality of conveyors may be side by side or parallel to each other or both. The conveyer 12 supplies the small lobster onto a transporter 18 that feeds the small lobster through opposed driven rollers 20 that strip the meat off the tails in a known manner. The conveyor 12 includes a channel that is narrower in width than the lengths of the small lobster. The shells of the small lobster passes through the rollers which shells are later dispersed of The meat is squeezed off the shell and passes through openings 22 in advance of the rollers for subsequent processing.

The conveyor 12, which may be a conveyor inclined downwardly at an angle of between 10° and 3Q0 as shown at 17 for instance towards the transporter 18, may be vibrated to orientate the small lobster such that the small lobster rests on its shell 40 with the meat 42 facing upwardly. The vibration effects this orientation as a result of the heaviest part of the small lobster being in the shell region of the small lobster. The vibration is effected by an eccentric drive 24. The vibration may be continuous or periodic. The vibration assists in causing the small lobster to move down the conveyor. When the lobsters are on their backs or shells they proceed rapidly down the conveyor: on their fronts the meat and the spines from the shells impedes their progress.

Some small lobster on the conveyor will have the tails 44 facing forwardly. Other small lobster will have the tails facing rearwardly. In order to ensure that all of the small lobster leaves the conveyor with the tails facing forwardly, a jet, such as an air jet 29 which may be an air knife, is supplied through the base 26 of the conveyor from a pump 27. The air may be continuously or periodically supplied. The period of air supply may correspond to the period of vibration of the conveyor. There may be more than one such air jet which is spaced from the first air jet.

The rate of flow of air supplied may be between 2 L/M and 16 L/M and is preferably 4 LIM for the trailing air jet and 10 L/M for the leading air jet. The base 26 of the conveyor may include between 5 and 20 openings and is preferably supplied through 10 openings. The diameter of at least some of the openings may be between 4 mm and 0.2 mm and is preferably 1 mm. At least one or some of the openings may be forward facing such as at an angle of 45° to the base of the conveyor in the direction of travel of the lobsters. Alternatively or additionally the or each air jet may comprise an air knife slit which may be longer than it is wide. The air through such slits may enter at an inclusive angle to channel of less than 60° such as 30°. The air through such slits may have a different pressure and or volume of air at different locations along the slit which may assist in altering the orientation of products. The air jets may be attached to the conveyor or may be separate from the conveyor.

Either as a result of the end of the tails being lighter than the rest of the small lobster or as a result of the end of the tails having a greater cross-sectional area than the remainder of the small lobster, the tail end regions of the small lobster are caused to be raised as the small lobster passes over the air jets. When the end of the tail leads the small lobster over the jets, the ends of the tails may rise up slightly. However, as the conveyor is inclined downwardly, this raising of the ends of the tails is not sufficient to cause the tails to flip over. However when the ends of the tails face upstream on the conveyor, the raising of the ends of the tails is sufficient to cause the ends of the tails to flip over and to reorientate the tails with the ends leading. This is assisted by the downwards inclination of the conveyor which makes the flipping more readily able to occur. When there is more than one air jet and the tail is facing the wrong way the tail end will lift to bring the tail end into the move concentrated part of the air flow. This brings the other end of the lobster touches the channel causing friction which allows the combination of the two slightly spaced apart air knifes to turn the tail over. There may be a local constriction in the width of the channel in the lower region of the channel on the trailing end of the slit of the upstream slit or the downstream slit or both to assist in the friction effect.

Such a local constriction may also assist in allowing different sized products such as the lobster tails to be turned over when required.

Downstream of the air jets and upstream of the end of the conveyor 12 an inclined turner such as a blade 64 may be provided or shown in Figure 4. The blade 64 may extend from the base 26 of the conveyor and may extend up one side 64 of the conveyor. The blade may assist some of the product 62 which may be on its side, as opposed to on its back, to move onto its back. The product 62 includes small barbs on the shell that engage with the blade 64 to further assist in turning the products to resting on their shell.

Figure 4 also shows a guide 68 which may be provided. The guide may extend beyond the end of the conveyor. The guide may comprise a wire guide. The guide may extend forwardly and downwardly with respect to the inclination of the conveyor 12. The guide 68 may be connected to a non vibrating part 70 of the machine as shown in Figure 5. This connection may serve to limit the vibration of the guide from that of conveyor 12.

When the leading tail of a lobster on its back comes to the wire guide part of the tail is initially between the wire guide and the side of the channel. Then part of that side of the shell comes between the wire guide and the shell. This causes the lobster tail to flick over such that the meat now faces downwardly as it leaves the conveyor 12. The meat is then stripped from the rollers as previously described. The meat coming off the shell from the underside of the shell rather than from the top side.

It will be appreciated that the meat can be extracted from the shell from either orientation of the product.

Sometimes the small lobsters may be curled up which be due to rigor mortis. Previously such curled products have to be straightened by hand. Figure 3 shows a supply station so that straightens such products.

The small lobsters are fed between a conveyor 52 and an upper stationary member 54.

Whilst the member 54 has been described as a stationary member it will be appreciated that the member 54 may flex -it is only stationary relative to the movement of the conveyor.

The small lobsters are fed between a conveyor 52 and the upper stationary member 54.

The upper stationary member may be a planar member which may be a rubber member.

Alternatively the upper member 54 may comprise a profiled member which may comprise a corrugated member which corrugations may extend transverse such as perpendicular to the direction of travel 58 of the conveyor 52. The corrugations may be formed of rubber or plastic.

The stationary member may abut the conveyor when no articles are between the conveyor and the stationary member. Alternatively the stationary member may be spaced from the conveyor, even when no articles are between these members.

As a result of the reduced height between the stationary member and the conveyor the curl the products may be reduced or eliminated such that the products 60 exit the upper member 54 in a straightened condition. The products may not necessarily be aligned. The conveyor 52 then feeds the products on the conveyor 12 shown in Figure 1.

As shown in Figure 6 a deflector 72 is provided on one side wall 74 of the conveyor.

The deflector may be coextensive with the air jet or partially coextensive or downstream of the air jet. Air from the jet may be directed forwardly and upwardly and the deflector may cause the air from the jet to be directed also towards the other side wall 76. In this way some of the lobsters may be directed up the other side wall.

A ramp 78 projects upwardly from the side wall 76. The ramp may be a wall that may be curved. Some products may ride up the ramp which may assist in returning the products to the base 26 of the conveyor. The ramp may include a vertical extent along part of its length and a part of the ramp may be angled to face downwardly.

Attention is directed to all papers and documents which are filed concurrently with or previous to this specification in connection with this application and which are open to public inspection with this specification, and the contents of all such papers and documents are incorporated herein by reference.

All of the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), and/or all of the steps of any method or process so disclosed, may be combined in any combination, except combinations where at least some of such features and/or steps are mutually exclusive.

Each feature disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings) may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise. Thus, unless expressly stated otherwise, each feature disclosed is one example only of a generic series of equivalent or similar features.

The invention is not restricted to the details of the foregoing embodiment(s). The invention extends to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), or to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the steps of any method or process so disclosed.

Claims

Claims 1. Apparatus arranged, in use, to reorientate the direction of wrongly orientated articles comprising a conveyor arranged to, in use, pass articles over a jet such that the jet is arranged to cause wrongly orientated articles to be impacted by the jet to cause the wrongly orientated articles to flip over such that they are correctly orientated.
2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, comprising means to periodically operate the jet.
3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or 2 in which the jet comprises an air jet.
4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 in which the air jet is an air knife.
5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 4 in which the air knife is longer in the direction of travel of articles on the conveyor than in a direction transverse to that direction.
6. An apparatus as claimed in claims 4 or 5 which air at different pressure and or different volumes is arranged to be emitted at different locations of the air knife.
7. Apparatus according to any preceding claim in which the jet is applied through a plurality of openings in the conveyor.
8. Apparatus as claimed in claim 7, in which the diameter of at least some of the jets in between 0.2 mm and 4 mm, and are preferably 1 mm.
9. Apparatus as claimed in claim 7 or 8 in which there are between 20 and 120 openings and preferably there are 70 openings.
10. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim in which at least some of the air jet is directed upwardly and forwardly with respect to the direction of travel of the articles.
11. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim including a plurality of air jets spaced from each other each of which is arranged to impact the articles.
12. Apparatus as claimed in claim 11 in which both air jets are arranged to act simultaneously on an article.
13. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim in which the conveyer is inclined downwardly in the direction of intended travel of the articles.
14. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim in which the conveyer included a channel along which articles, in use, are arranged to pass.
15. Apparatus as claimed in claim 14 in which the channel includes a constriction in the region that the articles are caused to flip over.
16. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim including vibration means arranged in use, to vibrate the conveyer.
17. Apparatus as claimed in claim 16, in which the vibration means are arranged to cause all of the articles to lye on the conveyer with the same part of the article facing downwards.
18. Apparatus as claimed in claim 16 or 17 in which the vibration means are arranged to at least partially assist in moving the articles along the conveyer.
19. Apparatus as claimed in any of claims 16 to 18, in which the vibration is arranged to occur periodically.
20. Apparatus as claimed in claim 19 when dependent on claim 2 or any claim when dependent on claim 2 in which the periodic vibration of the vibration means is arranged to occur at the same time as the periodic operation of the jet.
21. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim including a turner located on the conveyor, the turner being arranged to be engaged by articles on the conveyor whereby in the, any articles on their side are arranged to be turned such that then they do not lie on their side.
22. Apparatus as claimed in claim 21 in that the turner comprises a projection extending upwardly from the base of the conveyor.
23. Apparatus as claimed in claim 22 in which the projections extend upwardly from the base and forwardly with respect to the direction in which articles are conveyed.
24. Apparatus as claimed in claim 23 which the projection is inclined to one side of the conveyor.
25. Apparatus as claimed in any of claims 21-24 in which the turner is located down stream of the jet.
26. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim including a guide arranged, in use, to turn products not already correctly orientated to be guided onto a correctly orientated surface.
27. Apparatus as claimed in claim 26 when dependent on any of claims 16 to 20 or any claim when dependent on any of claims 16 to 20 in which the guide is connected to a part that does not vibrate.
28. Apparatus as claimed in claim 27 in which the guide is also connected to the conveyor.
29. Apparatus as claimed in any of claims 21-28 in which the guide comprises a wire.
30. Apparatus as claimed in any of claims 25 to 28 in which projections on the product are arranged, in use to engage with the guide to effect the reorientation.
31. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim including an air deflector arranged, in use, to cause the jet to be at least partially directed from one side wall of the conveyor towards the opposite side.
32. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim including a ramp on one side wall arranged, in use, to assist in retaining at least some articles on the conveyor after they have been impacted by the jet.
33. Apparatus as claimed in claim 32 in which the ramp extends above the remainder of the side wall.
34. Apparatus as claimed in claim 32 or 33 in which the ramp includes a vertical extent.
35. Apparatus as claimed in any of claims 32 to 34 in which the ramp includes a portion that particularly faces downwardly towards the conveyor.
36. Apparatus as described in any of claims I to 34 comprising Nephrops norvegicus orientation apparatus.
37. A method of reorientating wrongly orientated articles to a correct orientation comprising conveying the articles over a jet with the jet causing the wrongly orientated articles to flip over to such that they are correctly orientated.
38. A method as claimed in claim 34 comprising conveying the articles along a downwardly inclined conveyor and applying the jet to all of the articles with the articles being irregular in form whereby wrongly orientated articles are caused to flip over with correctly orientated articles not flipping over.
39. A method as claimed in claim 37 or 38 in which the cross-section area of the one end region of wrongly orientated articles is greater than the cross-sectional area of at least some of the remainder of the articles such that the force exerted by the jet is greater on the end region whereby the force exerted by the jet assists in causing the wrongly facing articles to flip over.
40. A method as claimed in claim 38 or 39 in which the weight of the wrongly orientated articles is greater towards a leading region of the article than it is towards a trailing region to assist in causing the jet to flip over the wrongly facing articles.
41. A method as claimed in any of claims 36 to 40 in which the force exerted by the jet on correctly orientated articles is not sufficient to flip the articles over.
42. A method as claimed in any of claims 36 to 41 comprising vibrating the conveyor to cause the articles either to remain lying on a first side on the conveyer or to turn the articles over to lye on a first side on the conveyor.
43. A method as claimed in any of claims 36 to 42 comprising conveying the articles along a channel with the width of the channel being less than the length of the articles.
44. A method as claimed in any of claims 36 to 43 comprising reorientating wrongly orientated Nephros norvegicus.
45. A method as claimed in any of claims 36 to 44 when using apparatus as claimed in any of claims ito 30.
46. Straightening apparatus arranged, in use, to straighten curled articles comprising a conveyor arranged, in use to transport articles in a first direction which articles may be curled and a straightening member located above the upper surface of the conveyor whereby the engagement of the articles with the conveyor and the stationary member is arranged to at least partially straighten the curled articles.
47. Apparatus as claimed in claim 46 in which the stationary member is spaced from the conveyor.
48. Apparatus as claimed in claim 46 in that the stationary member contacts the conveyor when there is no product between the conveyor and the stationary member.
49. Apparatus as claimed in any of the claims 46 to 48 in which the stationary member is arranged to flex when the product is conveyed beneath the stationary member.
50. Apparatus as claimed in any of claims 46 to 49 in which the stationary member comprises a profiled stationary member.
51. Apparatus and claimed in claim 50 in which the profile comprises corrugations.
52. Apparatus as claimed in claim 51 in which the corrugations extend transversely to the direction of travel of the conveyor.
53. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claim 46-52 in which the articles comprise Nephrops Norvegicus
54. Straightening apparatus a claimed in any of claims 41 to 48 in which the conveyor comprises a second conveyor arranged, in use, supply product toapparatus as claimed in any of claims 1 to 34 in which the conveyor and in which the conveyor in claims 1 to 34 comprises a first conveyor.
55. A method of at least partially straightening articles comprising passing the curled articles between an upper stationary member on a lower conveyor whereby engagement of the curled articles with the stationary member and the conveyor at least partially straightens the curled articles.
56. A method as claimed in claim 55 when using straightening apparatus as claimed in any of claims 46 to 54.