Food-processing system
A food-processing system for processing food products (e.g. pieces of meat, pieces of cheese) includes a cutting device for cutting the food products into slices and a conveyor for conveying the food product portions away from the cutting device along a main conveyor path. The conveyor fulfills several functions in the food-processing system, such as buffering, aligning, orienting and product formatting of the food product portions, by a discontinuous conveyor. The discontinuous conveyor includes at least one conveyed-products carrier movable along the main conveying path. The main conveying path is freely programmable within a conveying area.
1 . A food-processing system for processing food products comprising:
a cutting device configured to cut the food products into one or more slices to form food product portions, and
a discontinuous conveyor configured to convey the food product portions away from the cutting device, the discontinuous conveyor defining a conveying surface and having at least one conveyed-products carrier movable along a main conveying path which is freely programmable within the conveying surface; and
a belt conveyor defining a conveying direction arranged above the conveying surface, and
wherein the discontinuous conveyor performs the following functions in the food-processing system:
buffering the food product portions delivered from the cutting device in a buffer zone on the discontinuous conveyor prior to further transport of the food product portions along the main conveyor path,
aligning of the food product portions in a lateral direction transversely to the main conveying path by a displacement of the food product portions in the lateral direction transversely to the main conveying path,
orientation of the food product portions relative to the main conveying path by rotating the food product portions relative to the main conveying path, and
product formatting from an incoming product format with a predetermined number of parallel conveyor tracks into an outgoing product format with a predetermined number of parallel conveyor tracks, wherein the number of incoming conveyor tracks is different from the number of outgoing conveyor tracks, and
wherein:
the discontinuous conveyor delivers a first one of the conveyed-products carriers with a first one of the food product portions which is taken over by the belt conveyor,
the discontinuous conveyor delivers a second one of the conveyed-products carriers with a second one of the food product portions and positions the second conveyed-products carrier on the conveying surface under the belt conveyor, and
the discontinuous conveyor moves the second conveyed-products carrier out from under the belt conveyor in the conveying direction of the belt conveyor, whereby the belt conveyor deposits the first food product with at least partial overlap on the second food product lying on the second conveyed-products carrier.
2 . The food-processing system according to claim 1 , further comprising
a checking station configured to check the food product portions conveyed by the discontinuous conveyor for compliance with predetermined product specifications and for detecting faulty portions among the food product portions that do not meet the predetermined product specifications, and
an ejection station configured to eject the faulty portions from the main conveying path.
3 . The food-processing system according to claim 2 , wherein:
wherein the checking station weighs the food product portions and compares the weight of the food product portions with a predetermined target weight to determine the faulty portions, and/or
the checking station optically checks the food product portions in order to detect defects, and classifies the checked food product portions as faulty portions as a function of the defects determined.
4 . The food-processing system according to claim 2 , wherein
the ejection station discharges the faulty portions into a correction zone in which the faulty portions can be corrected manually or automatically, and
the ejection station reintroduces the corrected faulty portions from the correction zone into the main conveying path.
5 . The food-processing system according to claim 1 , wherein:
an initial piece and an end piece is produced during a cutting operation of one of the food products, and
the conveying system takes over the initial piece and/or the end piece on one of the conveyed-products carriers from the cutting device, and
the discontinuous conveyor further comprises a discharge station for removing a non-usable initial piece and/or a non-usable end piece from the conveyed-products carrier.
6 . The food-processing system according to claim 5 , wherein the discharge station comprises:
a gripper configured to grip the initial piece and/or the end piece on the conveyed-products carrier, or
a suction device configured to suck the initial piece and/or the end piece onto the conveyor support, or
a movably guided pusher configured to push the initial piece and/or the end piece down from the conveyed-products carrier, or
a tilting device configured to tilt the conveyed-products carrier with the initial piece and/or end piece located thereon and configured to tilt the initial piece and/or end piece down from the conveyed-products carrier, or
a blowing device configured to blow down the initial piece and/or the end piece from the conveyed-products carrier, or
a device configured to jerkily accelerate and/or brake the conveyed-products carrier so that the non-usable end pieces slide off the conveyed-products carrier, or
a finger conveyor belt.
7 . The food-processing system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the discontinuous conveyor further comprises a rotating device configured to rotate the at least one conveyed-products carrier about an axis of rotation at right angles to the conveying surface in order to set a predetermined orientation of the food product portion on the conveyed-products carrier.
8 . The food-processing system according to claim 1 , further comprising
a control device configured to control the discontinuous conveyor and the belt conveyor.
9 . The food-processing system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the discontinuous conveyor further comprises a transfer device configured to transfer slices of the food product portions between different conveyed-products carriers configured to assemble complete food product portions from several incomplete food product portions.
10 . The food-processing system according to claim 1 , further comprising
at least one cutting device which supplies at least one conveying stream of the food product portions; and
at least one packaging machine which receives a delivery stream of the food product portions and packaging the food product portions delivered in the delivery stream into packages.
11 . The food-processing system according to claim 10 ,
wherein the number of the cutting devices is different from the number of the packaging machines, and
wherein the discontinuous conveyor
divides the conveying streams arriving on an input side from the at least one cutting device into a plurality of conveying streams on an output side configured to feed individual ones of the packaging machines, or
combines the multiple conveying streams incoming on the input side from multiple ones of the cutting devices into at least one conveying stream configured to feed the at least one packaging machine.
12 . The food-processing system according to claim 9 , wherein the discontinuous conveyor transfers loaded conveyed-products carriers between the different conveyor streams.
13 . The food-processing system according to claim 8 ,
wherein the control device includes a control computer and a program memory in which a control program is stored, the control program, when executed, causing the control computer to control the food-processing system.
14 . The food-processing system according to claim 2 , wherein the checking station is arranged between the cutting device and the discontinuous conveyor.
15 . The food-processing system according to claim 3 , wherein the sensor is a camera.
16 . The food-processing system according to claim 7 , wherein the rotating device is provided by the discontinuous conveyor.
17 . The food-processing system according to claim 16 , wherein the discontinuous conveyor comprises a camera configured to detect the orientation of the food product portions on the conveyed-products carriers.
18 . The food-processing system according to claim 17 , further comprising a control device connected on an input side to the camera and on an output side to the rotating device and which controls the rotating device as a function of the determined orientation of the food product portion.
19 . The food-processing system according to claim 7 , wherein the rotating device is arranged directly on the cutting device so that the slices off by the cutting device are deposited on the conveyed food product portion carrier which is rotated by the rotating device into a desired orientation.
20 . The food-processing system according to claim 9 , wherein the transfer device is a belt conveyor.