Patent ID: 7815747

Claim:
A system for washing a stream of eggs comprising: a feeding section comprising a transport device having rollers defining m feed-rows of nests, each nest being configured to accommodate a single egg, the rows of nests extending in the transport direction of the transport device; a washing device in the feeding section through which the transport device passes and that is configured to wash eggs accommodated in the nests; a dirt detection device in the feeding section along which the transport device extends and that is arranged downstream of the washing device, and is configured to test the washed eggs for residues of dirt and to assign to each egg a dirt grade while the washed eggs are transported by the transport device along the detection device; a discharge device immediately downstream from the dirt detection device, absent any egg processing device between the detection device, the discharge device being configured to discharge eggs whose dirt grade has exceeded a predetermined limit; a follow-on conveyor downstream of the discharge device, the follow-on conveyor having n follow-on rows of nests that extend in the transport direction, each nest being configured to accommodate a single egg and m being larger than n wherein, upstream of the follow-on conveyor, proximate a downstream of the discharge device, the transport device has m rows reduced to n rows; the discharge device being configured to transfer eggs of which the dirt grade is below the predetermined limit to the feeding section of the transport device; a return row which receives eggs discharged by the discharge device and returns them in an upstream direction relative to the feed rows, a replacing device for replacing discharged eggs from said return row to a position immediately upstream of the washing device, absent any egg processing device between the replacing device and the washing device; an inserting device arranged at a junction between the discharge device and the follow-on conveyor and configured to fill empty nests on the transport device between the discharge device and the follow-on conveyor; and a controller that is configured to perform a procedure in which all empty nests on the upstream part of the follow-on conveyor are detected and registered in a zone immediately downstream of the discharge device, and configured to determine a dataset of fill-in positions and to generate corresponding fill-in position signals for controlling the inserting device so that in response to said fill-in position signals, eggs positioned in nests from at least a single follow on row of the upstream part are inserted as insert eggs on pre-selected positions of the downstream part, which pre-selected positions are associated with the dataset of fill-in positions.