Apparatus for forming hand-formed style patty using a patty-forming machine

1. A system for forming patties having a hand-formed appearance, comprising,

a high speed patty forming machine having a reciprocating mold plate with mold cavities, said mold plate reciprocating between a patty fill position wherein food product under pressure fills said cavities and a discharge position where a plurality of knockout cups displace said patties from said cavities downward onto an output conveyor portion; and

a patty presser comprising an upper conveyor having an upper endless belt and a lower conveyor comprising a lower endless belt,

said lower conveyor receiving patties from said output conveyor portion, said upper conveyor located above said lower conveyor,

facing belt surfaces of said upper and lower endless belts defining a path between said upper and lower conveyors,

said upper and lower endless belts circulating in opposite directions,

said upper conveyor having an inlet length of said facing belt surface of said upper endless belt being tilted such that a first clearance at an input to said path is equal to or greater than a thickness of said patties and a second clearance at an outlet of said inlet length is less than a thickness of said patties at said input of said path,

the upper conveyor comprises an upstream roller and a downstream roller, the upper conveyor belt extending around at least a portion of the upstream and downstream rollers, the outlet of the inlet length is located downstream of the upstream roller; and

said upper conveyor comprises a horizontal section from an end of said inlet length to the end of said path.

2. The system according to claim 1 , further comprising a shuttle conveyor arranged at said output of said path and an indexing packaging machine that at a filling station presents open packages to be filled and once filled, indexes said packages away from said filling station to and delivers new open packages to said filling station, said shuttle conveyor delivering patties to said filling station.

3. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the horizontal section is a parallel section, where the upper conveyor is parallel to the lower conveyor along the horizontal section.

4. The system according to claim 1 , wherein said upper conveyor comprises a backing plate above said inlet length of said facing surface of said upper endless belt; the backing plate defining maximum vertical positions of said upper endless belt along at least a portion of the inlet length and configured to support the upper endless belt against the compression force of patties being moved through the patty presser.

5. The system according to claim 1 , comprising a first elevator mechanism, wherein said inlet length of said upper endless belt is adjustable in tilt by action of said first elevator.

6. The system according to claim 5 , comprising a second elevator mechanism, wherein said clearance between said facing belt surfaces at an end of said path is adjustable by action of said second elevator mechanism.

7. The system according to claim 1 , wherein said output conveyor portion and said lower conveyor are formed by a single endless belt.

8. A patty presser, comprising:

an upper conveyor having an upper endless belt and a lower conveyor comprising a lower endless belt, said lower conveyor receiving patties, said upper conveyor located above said lower conveyor, facing belt surfaces of said upper and lower endless belts defining a path between said upper and lower conveyors, said upper and lower endless belts circulating in opposite directions, said upper conveyor having an inlet length of said facing belt surface of said upper endless belt being tilted such that a first clearance at an input to said path is equal to or greater than a thickness of said patties and a second clearance at an outlet of said inlet length is less than a thickness of said patties at said input of said path;

the upper conveyor comprises an upstream roller and a downstream roller, the upper conveyor belt extending around at least a portion of the upstream and downstream rollers, the outlet of the inlet length is located downstream of the upstream roller;

said upper conveyor comprises a parallel section from an end of said inlet length to the end of said path, where the upper conveyor is parallel to the lower conveyor along the parallel section.

9. The presser according to claim 8 , wherein the parallel section of the upper conveyor is a horizontal section.

10. The presser according to claim 8 , wherein said upper conveyor comprises a backing plate above said inlet length of said facing surface of said upper endless belt, the backing plate defining maximum vertical positions of said upper endless belt along the inlet length and configured to support the upper endless belt against the compression force of patties being moved through the patty presser.

11. The system according to claim 1 , wherein upper conveyor comprises a backing plate above said inlet length of said facing surface of said upper endless belt; the backing plate defines a declined linear portion of the inlet length when the upper belt is positioned against the backing plate.

12. The system of according to claim 1 , wherein the upstream roller has a clearance location, the clearance location is the position on the roller where the roller surface is closest to the lower conveyor; the outlet of said inlet length is positioned downstream of the clearance location.

13. The system according to claim 8 , wherein upper conveyor comprises a backing plate above said inlet length of said facing surface of said upper endless belt; the backing plate defines a declined linear portion of the inlet length when the upper belt is positioned against the backing plate.

14. The system of according to claim 8 , wherein the upstream roller has a clearance location, the clearance location is the position on the roller where the roller surface is closest to the lower conveyor; the outlet of said inlet length is positioned downstream of the clearance location.