Patent ID: 8801427

Claim:
A food product forming machine, comprising: a food supply; a rotary food pump connected to the food supply; a molding mechanism having a molding plate, the mold plate being reciprocated by a mold plate drive between a cavity fill position and a cavity discharge position; a knockout drive for reciprocating a knockout plunger to discharge molded food products from a cavity in the mold plate; a manifold connected to an outlet of the rotary food pump and having an outlet passageway connected to an inlet of the molding mechanism for filling the cavity of the mold plate; and at least one plunger which extends into the manifold to increase pressure of a food mass in the manifold and is moveable between an extended position and a retracted position; wherein the at least one plunger has a tip and wherein the retracted position is a position wherein the tip is above the manifold.