Patent GB-1136609-A (GB)
Title: Hydrostatic cooker-end feed type
Inventor: REIMERS JAMES LOUIS
IPC: A23L3/04
Filed: 1966-03-10
Abstract: 1,136,609. Endless conveyers. FMC CORP. 10 March, 1966, No. 10520/66. Heading B8A. [Also in Division A2] An apparatus for processing a product in sealed containers comprises a continuously movable conveyer 56, a plurality of mutuallyspaced container carriers 59 secured to the conveyer 56, a container-supporting beam 152 disposed adjacent to and parallel with said carriers 59, a conveyer 142 for supporting a row of said containers, means for moving the row of containers between said beam 152 and a said carrier 59, means for reciprocating said container-supporting beam 152 so that during a portion of its travel the beam is moving at the same speed and in the same directon as the continuously moving conveyer 56, and means for transferring said row of containers between said beam 152 and said carrier 59 while the beam is locked to the said carrier. Can processing.-Prismoid shaped cans of meat are loaded at a station A into the carriers 59 on the conveyer 56, which is travelling in the direction shown by the arrows. The cans pass down into an inlet hot-water leg 41 that varies in temperature from about 205‹ to 245‹ F. from top to bottom, round a loop 126 into a hotwater compartment 127 separated from the inlet leg 41 by a baffle 39 and from a cooling-water trough 36 by walls 128, 129, emerge from the hot water at the level 119 into a sterilizing chamber 42 maintained at about 250‹ F. and at a pressure of 15À3 p.s.i.g., and then following the path shown enter the cooling water in the trough 36. Further cooling takes place in a cooling chamber 44, maintained at a pressure of about 20 p.s.i.g. by compressed air, within which the cans are sprayed with water, and in an outlet cooling- water leg 47 from which the cans pass to a discharge station B. Processing conveyer.-The conveyer 56 comprises two spaced chains 57, 58 which run in a pair of tracks 72 (only one shown in Fig. 6). The carriers 59 are mounted in pairs to the chains 57, 58 and comprise a pair of generally channel shaped supports 76, 77. Continuous can guides 93 fixed to the tracks 72 close the ends of the carriers 59 throughout the whole length of the conveyer 56 except in the viscinity of the loading and discharge stations A, B where gaps are provided in the guides 93. Feed mechanism. Fig. 7.-A single line of cans is fed by a continuously driven endless belt conveyer 181 between side guide rails 203 on to a dead plate 208 on which they are pushed by preceding cans against a stop which includes an actuating lever (218) for a pneumatic valve (222). Actuation of the valve (222) operates a pneumatic reciprocating can-divider 144 that ejects the sixth and the leading cans through openings 204, 206 in the rails 203 on to two feed conveyers 142, 143 respectively, stop plates (261) preventing movement of the other cans during this operation. When at least twentytwo cans are present on each of these conveyers 142, 143 and are properly positioned in line against a stop, as sensed by actuating fingers (304, 306, Fig. 13) that detect the position between the twenty-second and twenty-third cans and the top of the twenty-second can respectively, and after a nylon abutment block (288) has engaged and stopped the twenty-sixth can, the first twenty-one cans on each conveyer 142, 143 are pushed transversely by pneumatic power units (308, 308a) on to charging beams 152, 153. The beams 152, 153 include pneumatic lip mechanisms (154, 156) that engage and lock on to a pair of the carriers 59 while the beams 152, 153 are pneumatically raised at the same speed as the processing conveyer 56 and the cans are loaded into the carriers 59 by pneumatic pushers 157, (158). Discharge mechanism.-At the discharge station B, discharge beams 162, 163 lock on to the carriers 59 and are raised while two rows of twenty-one cans are discharged from the carriers 59 on to the beams 162, 163 and thence on to V- belt conveyers 169, 171 that are reciprocated at their entry end in synchronism with the beams 162, 163. Automatic control.-The operation of the apparatus is controlled by a timing drum in conjunction with electrical and pneumatic circuitry which are described in detail.