Patent ID: 7677880

Claim:
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.