Patent Description:
Today it is well known to use equipment for handling ice cream sticks in ice cream production. For instance, in extrusion lines it is known to have servo engine-equipped pusher units capable to insert sticks in extruded ice cream mass at high speeds. It is also known to have stick handling apparatuses for moulded ice cream products. By having different concepts for producing and also by having different types of stick handling apparatuses, a large variety of different types of ice cream products with sticks can be offered.

One way of distinguishing a stick provided ice cream product from other similar products is to have a differently shaped stick. For instance, having an hourglass shaped stick can make the product easier to hold by a consumer.

Another way of distinguishing is to have a print on the stick. In addition to make the product stand out from products with non-printed standard sticks, this print may be used for information purposes. For instance, unique information may be printed on the stick such that it becomes possible to conduct product quality tracing as well as production efficiency analysis. The collected information can then be used to control the ice cream production process more efficiently.

Several techniques for producing and marking by printing ice cream sticks are available today, and companies producing and printing ice cream sticks have automatized their production such that the ice cream sticks can be produced cost efficiently.

Technologies for inserting sticks in ice cream are described in patent documents <CIT> and <CIT>. Technologies for marking ice cream sticks are described in patent documents <CIT> and <CIT>.

Even though it is possible to produce a large variety of stick provided ice cream products, it is desired by ice cream producers to have even more possibilities to produce stick provided ice cream products that are efficiently traceable, making it possible to more accurately relate unique ice cream units to different steps of the production process.

It is an object of the invention to at least partly overcome one or more of the above-identified limitations of the prior art. In particular, it is an object to provide a stick handling apparatus that can facilitate improved product tracing and offer better possibilities to accurately analyze ice cream production.

According to a first aspect it is provided a stick handling apparatus for handling ice cream sticks, said apparatus comprising a magazine arranged to hold ice cream sticks, a conveyor band arranged to retrieve ice cream sticks from the magazine, a stacker unit arranged to retrieve ice cream sticks from the conveyor band and to stack the ice cream sticks one after the other, a stick placing unit arranged to receive the ice cream sticks from the stacker unit for positioning the ice cream sticks inside a piece of ice cream mass, and a printer unit configured to print information on the ice cream sticks while the ice cream sticks are conveyed by the conveyor band.

An advantage with having the printer unit included in the stick handling apparatus is that a more versatile apparatus in terms of printing is achieved. By having the sticks printed just before positioning the sticks in the ice cream mass, often less than a few minutes before, it is possible to control and trace much more accurately which stick is positioned inside which ice cream. Depending on what data is printed, it is also possible to trace products more accurately as well as to make more reliable and exact production analysis.

Still an advantage is that since the print is made after the sticks have been aligned and directed on the conveyor band, it is possible to have different prints on first ends that are inserted into the ice cream mass and second ends not inserted into the ice cream mass.

According to the first aspect, the stick handling apparatus comprises a sensor arranged to detect a speed by which the ice cream sticks are conveyed by the conveyor band, wherein the printer unit is configured to use said speed as input when printing information on the ice cream sticks.

An advantage with having the sensor for detecting the speed of the conveyor band is that the printing can be adapted accordingly. By knowing the speed, printing position can be adapted in a direction of movement of the conveyor band.

The conveyor band may comprise slots that are arranged to hold a respective ice cream stick, the apparatus may further comprise a sensor arranged to generate data indicative of absence of a stick in a slot, wherein the printer unit is configured to use said data as input when printing information on the ice cream sticks.

An advantage with the sensor for detecting void slots, i.e. that there are slots in which the sticks are absent, is that printing can be avoided in case of void slots, which has the positive effect that no printing is made on the conveyor band.

Each ice cream stick may comprise a first end and a second end, the printer unit may be configured to provide different prints on the two ends of each ice cream stick, and the conveyor band, the stacker unit and the stick placing unit may be arranged to convey, stack and place all ice cream sticks such that all first ends of the ice cream sticks face the same direction and are positioned inside a respective piece of ice cream mass. Here all first ends means all first ends of a set of sticks, such as a set of at least <NUM> sticks.

An advantage with having the sticks handled such that the first ends are all facing the same direction is that part of the print may be visible for product quality tracing before the ice cream is packaged. Having this possibility provides additional possibilities for ice cream producers.

Different prints should be construed as that a first print may be provided on the first end and that a second print may be provided on the second end, but also that print is only provided on the first end or only on the second end.

The printer unit may be configured to provide different prints on each ice cream stick of a set of ice cream sticks.

Having different prints on each ice cream stick provides for improved traceability. For instance, if quality issues is found in a late stage, even after the ice cream products are shipped from the production site, the print on the stick may be used for identifying where the ice cream product was produced, when it was produced and in which machine. With this information at hand, quality problems can be addressed quicker. Additionally, in case it is found that the ice cream products are not safe to consume, the print on the stick can be used for identification purposes, which provides for improved food safety.

The printer unit may be a laser printer.

The conveyor band may comprise slots that are arranged to hold a respective ice cream stick, each slot may comprise a first wall and a second wall that is opposite the first wall, wherein the second wall is, as seen in a direction of movement of the conveyor band, trailing the first wall, and is arranged to support a longitudinal side of an ice cream stick.

An advantage with having the second wall supporting the longitudinal side is that the stick is aligned. Having the stick adequately aligned comes with the positive effect that the print can be provided with higher precision in terms of position.

According to a second aspect it is provided an ice cream production system comprising an ice cream freezer arranged to produce ice cream mass, an ice cream forming apparatus arranged to shape the ice cream mass into individual pieces of ice cream mass, a freezing apparatus arranged to receive the individual pieces of ice cream mass and to reduce their temperature, a packaging machine arranged to wrap package material around each individual piece of ice cream mass, a stick handling apparatus according to the first aspect, arranged to position ice cream sticks inside each individual piece of ice cream mass.

According to a third aspect it is provided a method for producing ice cream with an ice cream production system according to the second aspect. The method comprises producing ice cream mass, shaping the ice cream mass into individual pieces of ice cream mass, positioning ice cream sticks inside each individual piece of ice cream mass using a stick handling apparatus, reducing the temperature of the individual pieces of ice cream mass, wrapping package material around each individual piece of ice cream mass. The method comprises, before positioning ice cream sticks inside each individual piece of ice cream mass, conveying the ice cream sticks in a stick handling apparatus, on a conveyor band from a magazine to a stacker unit for the ice cream sticks, and printing information on the ice cream sticks while the ice cream sticks are conveyed on the conveyor band.

The same features and advantages as presented for the first and second aspects may be implemented for the third aspect.

<FIG> illustrates a stick handling apparatus <NUM> by way of example. In this particular example ice cream sticks <NUM> are held in a magazine <NUM>. From the magazine <NUM>, the sticks <NUM> are picked up by a conveyor band <NUM>. While conveyed on the conveyor band <NUM>, the ice cream sticks <NUM> are printed by using a printer unit <NUM>. The sticks <NUM> are of a type commonly used for ice cream sticks and are typically made of wood.

As illustrated, the conveyor band <NUM> may be inclined such that the sticks <NUM> can be moved upwards after these picked up by the conveyor band <NUM>. An advantage with this is that the sticks <NUM> may be fed from the magazine <NUM> to the conveyor band <NUM> by using gravity. When the magazine <NUM> holds sticks <NUM> the conveyer band <NUM> passes the sticks <NUM> in close contact and picks them up one by one as the sticks <NUM> fall into a respective slot in the conveyer band <NUM>. The gravity can also provide for that the sticks <NUM> are aligned on the conveyor band <NUM>.

In the example illustrated in <FIG>, an inlet <NUM> can be provided in an upper end of the magazine <NUM>. By having the inlet <NUM> placed in this way, an operator can easily inspect that the sticks <NUM> are correctly placed in the magazine <NUM> such that a smooth transfer from the magazine <NUM> to the conveyor band <NUM> can be achieved. An outlet <NUM> of the magazine <NUM> can be provided in a lower end of the magazine <NUM> and the conveyor band <NUM> can be provided under the outlet <NUM> such that the sticks <NUM> reliably can fall onto the conveyor band <NUM>. The outlet <NUM> may be provided with a feeding device (not illustrated) providing for that the sticks <NUM> are fed out one by one.

The printer unit <NUM> can comprise a printer head <NUM> that is placed above the conveyor band <NUM> such that the sticks <NUM>, transferred by the conveyor band <NUM>, can be printed. The printer head <NUM> can print on sticks provided in a printer beam work zone <NUM>. This zone may be restricted to only one stick, or only a section of a stick, or it may cover an area comprising the stick <NUM> as well as a preceding area and a subsequent area of the conveyor band <NUM>. The zone <NUM> may also cover several sticks such that more than one can be printed at the same time. In the example illustrated in <FIG>, the printer unit <NUM> is a laser printer. Thus, in addition to the printer head <NUM>, a laser unit <NUM> can be provided. The laser unit <NUM> may be any commercially available laser unit suitable for printing on ice cream sticks made of wood.

<FIG> illustrates the same stick handling apparatus <NUM> as is illustrated in <FIG>, but with the magazine <NUM> removed for illustrative purposes. With the magazine <NUM> removed, the conveyor band <NUM> as well as the sticks <NUM> placed on the conveyor band <NUM> can easily be seen.

Since the printing with the printer head <NUM> is made during movement of the conveyor band <NUM>, a speed S of the conveyor band <NUM> is provided as input to the printer unit <NUM> such that it can adapt printer settings in accordance with the speed S. Such adaptions may comprise e.g. adjusting the printing position in the direction of movement DoM of the sticks <NUM>. The speed S can be measured in different ways, for instance by using a sensor <NUM> connected to a drive wheel of the conveyor band <NUM>.

To hold the sticks <NUM> in place, the conveyor band <NUM> can be provided with slots <NUM>. On the conveyor band <NUM>, there may be void slots <NUM>, that is, slots without sticks. There may be different reasons for the void slots <NUM>. For instance, the magazine <NUM> may have run empty with the effect that sticks <NUM> have not been properly fed out from the magazine <NUM> into the conveyor band <NUM>. Another reason for void slots <NUM> can be that no stick fell into the slot in the conveyer band <NUM> when the slot in question passed the magazine <NUM>.

To assure that the printing is aligned with sticks that are present in the slots in the conveyer belt <NUM> a sensor <NUM> for detecting slots <NUM> without sticks <NUM> may be used. This sensor <NUM> may generate data D indicative of whether the slots <NUM> are provided with sticks <NUM>. With this data D at hand, the printer unit <NUM> can adapt the printing such that no printing is done when an empty slot <NUM> passes the printer head <NUM>. By having this functionality, a versatile piece of equipment is provided and it can be avoided that printing is made on the conveyor band <NUM>. The sensor <NUM> for detecting slots <NUM> can be an individual sensor, or can be the built-in print-trigger sensor that is available in many commercial laser printers.

<FIG> illustrates three examples of sticks <NUM>. <FIG> illustrates the examples seen from above and <FIG> illustrates the examples in a perspective view. The sticks <NUM> are provided with first ends 202a-c and second ends 204a-c. The first ends 202a-c can be placed inside ice cream mass, while the second ends 204a-c can be placed outside the ice cream mass, and as an effect of being outside the ice cream mass it can function as a grip for the consumer.

As illustrated, the first and second ends may differ in size. For different ice cream products more or less of the stick may be inserted into the ice cream mass. Since how much of the stick that is inserted into the ice cream mass can be controlled, it may be decided what print information to have inside the ice cream mass and what print to have outside the ice cream mass. First print 206a-c, that is, print on the first ends 202a-c, may thus comprise information that is to be made visible to the consumer after the ice cream mass has been consumed, and second print 208a-c may comprise information that is visible to the consumer as soon as the ice cream product is unwrapped. The first and second prints 206a-c, 208a-c combined are herein referred to as information <NUM>.

<FIG> illustrates the stick handling apparatus <NUM> illustrated in <FIG> together with a stacker unit <NUM> made to retrieve the sticks <NUM> from the conveyor band <NUM> and to stack these one after the other. The stacked sticks <NUM> are received by a stick placing unit <NUM> that is arranged to position the sticks <NUM> in ice cream mass <NUM>. As illustrated in <FIG>, the positioning may be made by pushing the sticks <NUM> into the ice cream mass <NUM>, which may be extruded ice cream mass that is later cut in pieces and further processed into ice cream products.

As described above, the stick placing unit <NUM> may be configured such that the first ends 202a-c of the sticks <NUM> are placed inside the ice cream mass <NUM>.

The sticks <NUM> may be transported from the stacker unit <NUM> to the stick placing unit <NUM> via a stick stack holder <NUM>. As illustrated, the stick stack holder <NUM> may be a number of arc-shaped rods that guides the stack of sticks from the stacker unit <NUM> to the stick placing unit <NUM>. To provide versatility, the stack holder <NUM> may be a so-called a flexible arc, that is, the stack holder <NUM> is not fixed such that e.g. installation and adjustment can be facilitated. To assure that the first ends 202a-c are inserted into the ice cream mass <NUM>, the sticks <NUM> may be handled throughout the stick handling apparatus <NUM> with the first ends 202a-c facing in the same direction.

<FIG> also illustrates the stick handling apparatus <NUM> illustrated in <FIG>, but unlike <FIG>, the stick placing unit <NUM> is an extrusion wheel and not a pusher unit as illustrated in <FIG>. As illustrated, the same stick stack holder <NUM> as in <FIG>, i.e. the so-called flexible arc, can be used also when having the stick placing unit <NUM> embodied as the extrusion wheel.

<FIG> illustrates yet another example of the stick handling apparatus <NUM>. In line with the example illustrated in <FIG>, the stick placing unit <NUM> is the pusher unit, i.e. the stick placing unit <NUM> is made to push the sticks <NUM> into the ice cream mass <NUM>. Unlike the examples illustrated in <FIG> and <FIG>, the stick stack holder <NUM> is in this example a fixed stick stack holder.

Thus, the stick placing units <NUM> receive the ice cream sticks <NUM> from the stacker unit <NUM> for positioning the ice cream sticks <NUM> inside a piece of ice cream mass <NUM>. This positioning may include pushing the stick into the ice cream (<FIG> and <FIG>) or moulding the ice cream around the sticks (<FIG>). The stick stacker <NUM> and the different stick placing units <NUM> are per se commercially available units.

In addition to the examples illustrated in <FIG>, <FIG> and <FIG>, the stick handling apparatus <NUM> may be also be used in multi-lane systems even though no such examples are illustrated.

<FIG> illustrates a part of the conveyor band <NUM> in further detail. As illustrated in <FIG>, the slots <NUM> may hold the sticks <NUM>, but there may also be slots <NUM> without sticks, also referred to as void slots.

To provide a print that is aligned with the geometry of the stick <NUM>, the conveyor band <NUM> can be arranged such that alignment of the sticks <NUM> is made possible. As illustrated in <FIG>, the conveyor band <NUM> can be inclined, which provides for that the gravity can be used for achieving the alignment. As illustrated in <FIG>, this may be made by having each slot <NUM> provided with a first wall <NUM> and a second wall <NUM>, wherein the second wall <NUM> is, as seen in a direction of movement DoM of the conveyor band <NUM>, trailing the first wall <NUM>. A longitudinal side <NUM> of the stick <NUM> can fall down onto the second wall <NUM>, as an effect of the gravity, such that it is supported by the second wall <NUM>. As an effect of the support, the stick <NUM> is also aligned, which has the advantage that position of the print on the stick <NUM> can be made with improved precision.

<FIG> generally illustrates an ice cream production system <NUM>. In short, based on cream, sugar and other ingredients, ice cream mass <NUM> is produced by using an ice cream freezer <NUM>. The ice cream mass <NUM> is thereafter be formed in an ice cream forming apparatus <NUM> into individual pieces <NUM> of ice cream mass. As illustrated above, this may be made in different ways, e.g. by using extrusion or moulding, which means placing the sticks in a mould and thereafter fill up the mould with ice cream mass. The individual pieces <NUM> are provided by sticks <NUM> by using the stick handling apparatus <NUM> according to the first aspect. As discussed above, the stick handling apparatus <NUM> may place the sticks in the individual pieces <NUM> in a number of different ways, and it may also, e.g. when using extrusion, be made before the ice cream mass <NUM> is divided into the individual pieces <NUM>. In addition to placing the sticks <NUM> in the individual pieces <NUM>, the sticks <NUM> are printed.

After being provided with sticks <NUM>, the individual pieces <NUM> are placed in a freezing apparatus <NUM>, e.g. a freezing tunnel. Lastly, in a packaging machine <NUM>, the individual pieces <NUM> are wrapped in package material <NUM> such that ice cream products ready to be shipped are formed.

To be able to trace the different ice cream products, which may be beneficial from food safety perspective as well as quality perspective, the printer unit <NUM> can be configured to provide different prints on each ice cream stick <NUM> of a set of ice cream sticks <NUM>. For instance, a unique code may be provided on each stick. The set of ice cream sticks <NUM> may be a batch produced for a specific purpose, but it may also include the ice cream products produced at different sites provided that information is shared between the different sites.

<FIG> is a flowchart illustrating a method <NUM> for producing ice cream with an ice cream production system <NUM> according to the third aspect. In a first step <NUM>, the ice cream mass <NUM> is produced. In a second step <NUM>, the ice cream mass <NUM> is shaped into the individual pieces of ice cream mass <NUM>. In a third step <NUM>, the ice cream sticks <NUM> are positioned inside each individual piece of ice cream mass <NUM> using the stick handling apparatus <NUM>. In a fourth step <NUM>, the temperature of the individual pieces of ice cream mass <NUM> is reduced. In a fifth step <NUM>, each individual piece of ice cream mass <NUM> is wrapped in the package material <NUM>.

The third step <NUM> may comprise a first sub-step <NUM> in which the ice cream sticks <NUM> are conveyed in the stick handling apparatus <NUM> on the conveyor band <NUM> from the magazine <NUM> to the stacker unit <NUM>, and a second sub-step <NUM> in which the information <NUM> is printed on the ice cream sticks <NUM> while the ice cream sticks <NUM> are conveyed by the conveyor band <NUM>.

As described above, ice cream products can be produced in various ways and even though described in a particular order, the different steps may also be performed in other orders within the scope of the subject-matter defined in the claims. For instance, in case of using extrusion, the third step <NUM> may be performed before the second step <NUM>, that is, the sticks <NUM> may be placed in the ice cream mass <NUM> before this is made into individual pieces of ice cream mass <NUM>. However, the fourth and fifth step <NUM>, <NUM> are most often made after the third step <NUM>.

Claim 1:
A stick handling apparatus (<NUM>) for handling ice cream sticks (<NUM>), said apparatus (<NUM>) comprising
a magazine (<NUM>) arranged to hold ice cream sticks (<NUM>),
a conveyor band (<NUM>) arranged to retrieve ice cream sticks (<NUM>) from the magazine (<NUM>),
a stacker unit (<NUM>) arranged to retrieve ice cream sticks (<NUM>) from the conveyor band (<NUM>) and to stack the ice cream sticks (<NUM>) one after the other,
a stick placing unit (<NUM>) arranged to receive the ice cream sticks (<NUM>) from the stacker unit (<NUM>) for positioning the ice cream sticks (<NUM>) inside a piece of ice cream mass (<NUM>), characterized by
a printer unit (<NUM>) configured to print information (<NUM>) on the ice cream sticks (<NUM>) while the ice cream sticks (<NUM>) are conveyed by the conveyor band (<NUM>), and
a sensor (<NUM>) arranged to detect a speed (S) by which the ice cream sticks (<NUM>) are conveyed by the conveyor band (<NUM>), wherein the printer unit (<NUM>) is configured to use said speed (S) as input when printing information (<NUM>) on the ice cream sticks (<NUM>).