FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a screw feeder adapted to be used in relation with a combination weigher.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Combination weighers such as the one shown inFIG. 1100are commonly used today in the food industry to generate portions of food products fulfilling a pre-defined weight targets. Such a combination weighers comprises a dispersion unit101configured to receive food items from an infeed unit typically positioned above, a plurality of conveyance102units that extend radially away from the dispersion units for receiving food items from the dispersion unit, and a plurality of weighing hoppers103associated to each of the conveyance units for receiving food products therefrom. The weighing hoppers are operated by a control unit by repeatedly monitoring the weight in each of the weighing hopper for finding an optimal weight combination in two or more weighing hoppers such that a target weight is obtained. Subsequently the food products are dropped from the selected two or more weighing hoppers into a common area, e.g. a bag, tray or the like.

Such a conveyance units consist of trenches and screw feeders arranged therein for advancing and separating food products received from the dispersion units and radially away and into the associated weighing hoppers, where both the trenches and the screw feeders are both made of steel or steel alloy materials.

FIG. 2a,bdepicts graphically a perspective view and a side view of a common arrangement of such conveyance units showing a trench201that has a U-shape like form and a screw feeder202arranged therein, where as illustrated inFIG. 2bthe screw feeder202has a diameter that is close to the diameter of the trench201. The problem with this arrangement is that while advancing food products they have a tendency to become temporarily clamped between the trench201and the screw feeder202, which may result in that the screw feeder becomes permanently askew. This has the following consequences that the friction between the trench and the screw feeder increases greatly and thus the wear of the screw feeders increases. This is illustrated graphically showing that instead of having circular cross sectional shape as shown in203the cross section looks something like204. The lacking volume of metal/steel, or the lacking metal dust, has obviously over a period of time been divided into the food objects over this period of time.

This problem is partly overcome with the arrangement shown inFIG. 3a,b, where two elongated members303are arranged between the trench301and the screw feeder302. However, the problem with this arrangement is that due to the space304between the elongated members303and the trench301, food parts such as skin or any other types of thin objects from the food products become accumulated there between which obviously is bad for the hygiene and which increases the risk of contamination and bacterial growth.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

On the above background it is an object of embodiments of the present invention to provide a screw feeder that eliminates said problems related to metal dust and that moreover reduces the risk of bacterial growth in combination weighers, in particular when working with fresh food products.

In general, the invention preferably seeks to mitigate, alleviate or eliminate one or more of the above mentioned disadvantages of the prior art singly or in any combination. In particular, it may be seen as an object of embodiments of the present invention to provide a screw feeder to be used with a combination weigher that solves the above mentioned problems, or other problems.

To better address one or more of these concerns, in a first aspect of the invention a screw feeder is provided adapted to be used in relation with a combination weigher, where the combination weigher comprises a dispersion unit, and a plurality of trenches surrounding the dispersion unit, where each of the plurality of trenches comprise an infeed end and a releasing end where each of the trenches have a circular sector like shaped bottom portion, where the dispersion unit is adapted to radially disperse food products into the trenches at their receiving ends, where at each trench the received food product is advanced by said screw feeder towards the releasing end, where said screw feeder is designed such that it has a polygon cross sectional shape having three or more edges.

In particular, the screw feeder may be made of a material being softer than the material of the trenches. Accordingly, due to the softer material, e.g. be any type of plastic material, more flexibility is provided in the screw feeder meaning that e.g. if a food object temporarily bends the screw feeder, e.g. a chicken leg is temporarily stucked between the screw feeder and the trench, it will automatically move back to its original shape. Also, due to the softer material, the radius of the screw feeder may be selected such that it may be essentially the same as the radius of the trench meaning that a scraping or shoveling effect is provided with lower noise, which prevents food products from being clamped between the screw feeders and the trenches meaning that the risk of bacterial growth is reduced or even eliminated. It should be noted the prior art screw feeders made of steel or metal cannot be designed such they have essentially the same radius as the radius of the trench because the noise would most likely be above allowable limits and because the wear from the screw feeder would most likely lead to unacceptable amount of metal dust in the food objects in the trays/bags. It would even be questionable if such prior art screw feeders could rotate at all due to the friction between the screw feeders and the trays.

More importantly, test results have shown that the wear from the screw feeder has been eliminated compared to the commonly used screw feeders that are made or steel or metal alloys, i.e. a material having similar properties as the material of the trenches, meaning that the contamination from such screw feeders in the food products is no longer present.

The term screw feeder may also be understood as an auger like structure comprising helical screw such that when placing e.g. a food product at one end of the screw feeder (the helical screw), the food product will be advanced towards the opposite end screw feeder (the helical screw).

The polygonal cross sectional shape of the screw feeder, i.e. of the material forming the winding of the screw feeder may contribute to efficiently pushing food products in the forward direction and inwardly, i.e. towards a center axis of the screw feeder. The cross sectional shape may include at least two non-parallel sides. For example, the cross-sectional shape may include two parallel and two non-parallel sides. The cross section may e.g. be trapezoid. The provision of non-parallel sides may in particular contribute to efficiently pushing food products in the forward direction and inwardly, i.e. towards a center axis of the screw feeder.

In general, the screw feeder may be made from a non-metallic material, such as, e.g., plastics, notably food-grade plastic material, plastic composites, or rubber, including natural and synthetic rubber, such as a polymerized rubber. The plastics material may in one embodiment be a thermoplastic material. In another embodiment, it may be a thermosetting material.

The screw feeder may thus, for example, be made from nylon, acrylics, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), unplasticised polyvinyl chloride (uPVC), polyethylene (PE), including high-density polyethylene (HDPE) or low-density polyethylen (LDPE), polypropylene (PP), or polycarbonate. The screw feeder may be made from mixes of different plastics materials, such as mixes of plastics and rubber, or mixes of different plastics materials.

With a view to achieving flexibility and/or avoiding abrasion, or dust formation, caused by contact between the screw feeder and the trenches, the screw feeder may preferably be made from a material having a Young's modulus, defined as the relationship between stress (force per unit area) and strain (proportional deformation) in the material, of below 100 Gpa, such as below 75 GPa, such as below 50 GPa, such as below 40 GPa, such as below 30 GPa, such as below 20 GPa, such as below 10 GPa, such as below 5 GPa, such as in the range between 0.001 and 10 GPa, such as in the range between 0.001 and 5 GPa. The aforementioned values of Young's modulus are at room temperature, i.e. 20° C.

With a view to avoiding abrasion or dust formation caused by contact between the screw feeder and the trenches, the screw feeder may preferably have a shore A hardness of less than 95, such as less than 90, such as less than 80, or between 30 and 90, such as between 40 and 90, or between 30 and 90, or between 40 and 80.

In preferred embodiments of the invention, the screw feeder is made from a plastics material, most preferably a thermoplastic material, and has a Young's modulus in the range between 0.001 and 10 GPA, and a shore A hardness of between 30 and 80.

The screw feeder is preferably configured to be able to restore its original shape after deformation or temperature changes, notably such as to be able to return to its original axial orientation after deformation. For example, the screw feeder may be made from a shape-memory polymer.

In one embodiment, at least a part of the screw feeder has a diameter D1being essentially the same or slightly less than the diameter of the circular sector like shaped bottom portion, said at least part being the part which during use extends from the infeed end towards the releasing of the trenches. Preferably, the remaining part of said screw feeder between said infeed end and said releasing end has a different diameter D2being less than said diameter D1. It is thus ensured that at the releasing end when releasing the food products into a hopper that no food product, e.g. chicken skin, will be clamped between the screw feeder and the trench and thus it is ensured that the food products are released from the releasing end when they are expected to be released.

In one embodiment, the length of said screw feeder is selected such that a portion of the screw feeder exceeds said releasing end of the trench. A better release control is thus provided for releasing preferably single food products one at a time into the receiving area, which may e.g. be a hopper or a weighing hopper.

In one embodiment, the screw feeder comprises a cylindrical shaped mounting end having an opening therein for engaging with a drive unit for driving the screw feeder, wherein a cylindrical boundary portion having a larger diameter than said cylindrical shaped mounting end is provided between said cylindrical shaped mounting end and the remaining part of the screw feeder, and where said cylindrical boundary portion comprises at least one askew slit extending there through and oriented in essentially the same way as the screw feeder. Such an askew slit provides an exit for food products that may become stuck at the mounting end meaning that e.g. contamination is prevented, and these food products that accidentally enter the mounting end will immediately be advance therefrom via said slit.

More importantly, it facilitated the cleaning of the screw feeder greatly because the cylindrical shaped mounting end is exposed to the food products during use meaning that when cleaning the screw feeder with e.g. water an access is provided for the water from the mounting end and out to the open meaning that flushing out residual products is possible. The screw feeder does therefore not need to be removed completely during cleaning.

In one embodiment, the screw feeder comprises a cylindrical shaped mounting end having an opening therein for engaging with a drive unit via a bolt extending from an opposite end of the mounting end with a free engaging end facing the opening, wherein the opening comprises a first cavity extending from the opening followed by at least one second cavity, where the first and at least one second cavities are designed in relation to the drive unit so as to allow the drive unit to be received in the opening and where the at least one second cavity is configured to remain the drive unit in propped position while fastening or unfastening the screw feeder to the drive unit via said bolt. In that way, the step of mounting the screw feeder to the drive unit, or to remove it therefrom is greatly facilitated since now it is ensured that the drive unit does not rotate with the mounting/unmounting via said bolt. The bolt typically comprises a threaded neck designed to engage with the drive unit in male-female manner where the drive unit may comprise an inner thread portion at its free end.

In one embodiment, said first cavity is a cylindrical shaped cavity having a first cross sectional shape, and where said at least one second cavity has a different cross sectional shape than said first cross sectional shape and has a second cross sectional areal which is less than the areal of said first cross sectional shape.

In a second aspect of the invention, the present invention relates to a combination weigher comprising the above mentioned screw feeder.

The combination weigher of the second aspect of the invention may in one example comprise:

a dispersion unit adapted to radially disperse food products dropped in from above and onto the dispersion unit,

a plurality of V-shaped like guide structures extending radially away from a center of the dispersion unit and arranged such that a narrower end of the V-shaped like guide structures face a center point of the dispersion unit, and where the V-shaped like guide structures are designed such that for every second V-shaped like guide structure the distance R1from the narrower end of the V-shaped like guide structure to the center point of the dispersion unit is smaller than the distance R2from the narrower end of the remaining V-shaped like guide structures to the center of the dispersion unit, and where the sides of adjacent V-shaped like guide structures define side walls of trenches, where the trenches comprise circular sector shape bottom portions, where the trenches comprise receiving ends where the radially disperse food products are received from the dispersion unit and outfeed ends where the food products are released from the trenches,

a plurality of hoppers associated to each of the trenches arranged below the outfeed ends of the trenches,

a control unit, and

screw feeders arranged in each of the trenches operated by the control unit, where the operation includes operate a rotational movement of the screw feeders and thus the conveying of the food products from the receiving ends of the trenches towards the outfeed ends of the trenches where they are released into the plurality of hoppers,

wherein the space between adjacent V-shaped like guide structures at a distance R1defines a buffer zone for radially dispersed food products from the dispersion unit, and where the screw feeders in the adjacent trenches thereof have opposite orientation and rotate in opposite directions such that upper part of the screw feeders are rotating away from each other.

The buffer zone faciliates access of larger food products to the trenches because it acts as a bigger “door” for the food products from the dispersion unit, but these larger food products are food products that might otherwise not be able to be delivered to the trenches from the dispersion unit due to their size/shape and would simply block the access of other smaller food products to the trenches. This could as an example occur for food products such as chicken fillets or poultry meat on bones, e.g. chicken thighs, which would be considered to be too large for entering the trenches. However, the fact that such food products will be accumulated in the buffer zones will greatly facility the deliver of the food items into the trenches, and more importantly, the overall size of the apparatus may thus be kept minimal, since otherwise larger trenches would result in a larger combination weigher.

Also, the buffer zone acts as a buffer for accumulated food products meaning that in case of a temporal shortage of food products at the dispersion unit, e.g. due to temporal shortage from an infeed unit that may be positioned above the dispersion unit, these accumulated food products will ensure that the temporal shortage will not affect the throughput of the combination weigher.

Moreover, the fact that the screw feeders in the adjacent trenches have opposite orientation and rotate in opposite directions such that upper part of the screw feeders are rotating away from each other will prevent the food products from being clamped between the screw feeders and the trenches. Also, a shoveling of the food products is provided that will rearrange the orientation of the food products and facilitate the feeding of the food products from the receiving ends of the trenches towards the outfeed ends of the trenches.

In one embodiment, the distances R1are identical and constant, and where the distances R2are identical and constant.

In one embodiment, the buffer zone comprises an upwardly extending hill-like structure comprising a ridge having a height being less than the height of the adjacent V-shaped like guide structures. In an embodiment, the upwardly extending hill-like structure extends from the distance R2radially towards the center point of the center cone up to at least the radial distance R1, where preferably the ridge is highest at the distance R2and does not exceed the diameter of the screw feeders (or is less), and where the height preferably gradually decreases towards the center point of the center cone. Accordingly, it is prevented that a kind of a “dead zone” is formed at the center of the buffer zone in said area between the inlet end of the adjacent V-shaped like guide structures. Moreover, due to the hill-like structure, and in particularly the incline shape of it, it is ensured via the opposite rotational direction, that food products at the buffer zone will be shoveled over it and be partly re-orientated which will facilitate the optimal physical interaction between the screw feeders and the food products. This means that relative large food products, e.g. an oblonge food item such as chicken thigh, will be optimally re-orientated such that the advancing through the throughts and into the associated hopper will be possible.

In one embodiment, the dispersion unit comprises a center cone operated by a driving unit configured to move the center cone along a vertical rotational axis. This driving may be adapted to the type of food products, and may e.g. include back and forth rotation.

In one embodiment, the plurality of hoppers comprise weighing hopper and where the control unit is configured to repeatedly monitoring the weight in each of the weighing hopper for finding an optimal weight combination in two or more weighing hoppers such that a minimal overweight is obtained, and subsequently dropping the food products in the selected two or more weighing hoppers into a common area. Such weighing hoppers which are well known to a person skilled in the art may e.g. comprise one or more upper buffer compartments for accumulating food products, preferably one at a time, and where said controlling may further comprise a controlled releasing of the food products from the at least one buffer compartment and into the “weighing compartment” of the weighing hopper where the weight is registered and used to find an optimal weight combination such that the overweight will be minimized.

In one embodiment, the screw feeders extend partly out from the outfeed ends of the trenches. This may e.g. correspond to a length close to an average size of the food products and facilitates the releasing of certain amount of food products from the trenches and into the associated hoppers and minimizes the risk that additional products slide from the trenches and into the associated hoppers.

In one embodiment, the screw feeders are made of a material being softer than the material of the trences, where the radius of the sector shape bottom portions is essentially the same or larger as the outer radius of the screw feeders, and where the cross-sectional shape of the screw feeders is a polygon having three or more edges. As an example, if the trenches are made of steel or steel alloy, a preferred material of the screw feeders might be plastic material. Moreover, by have such a cross sectional shape of the screw feeders, e.g. a rectangular cross section, a scraping effect is provided between the screw feeders and the material, which will fully avoid that the food products become clamped between the screw feeders and the trenches. In one embodiment, the cross sectional shape of the material forming the winding of the screw feeder may include at least two non-parallel sides. For example, the cross-sectional shape may include two parallel and two non-parallel sides. The cross section may e.g. be trapezoid. The provision of non-parallel sides may contribute to efficiently pushing food products in the forward direction and inwardly, i.e. towards a center axis of the screw feeder.

In general, the screw feeders may be made from a non-metallic material, such as, e.g., plastics, notably food-grade plastic material, plastic composites, or rubber, including natural and synthetic rubber, such as a polymerized rubber. The plastics material may in one embodiment be a thermoplastic material. In another embodiment, it may be a thermosetting material.

The screw feeders may thus, for example, be made from nylon, acrylics, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), unplasticised polyvinyl chloride (uPVC), polyethylene (PE), including high-density polyethylene (HDPE) or low-density polyethylen (LDPE), polypropylene (PP), or polycarbonate. Not all screw feeders need to be made from the same material; different materials may be used for different screw feeders in one embodiment of the invention. The screw feeders may be made from mixes of different plastics materials, such as mixes of plastics and rubber, or mixes of different plastics materials.

With a view to achieving flexibility and/or avoiding abrasion, or dust formation, caused by contact between the screw feeders and the trenches, the screw feeders may preferably be made from a material having a Young's modulus, defined as the relationship between stress (force per unit area) and strain (proportional deformation) in the material, of below 100 Gpa, such as below 75 GPa, such as below 50 GPa, such as below 40 GPa, such as below 30 GPa, such as below 20 GPa, such as below 10 GPa, such as below 5 GPa, such as in the range between 0.001 and 10 GPa, such as in the range between 0.001 and 5 GPa.

The screw feeders are preferably configured to be able to restore their original shape after deformation or temperature changes, notably such as to be able to return to their original axial orientation after deformation. For example, the screw feeders may be made from a shape-memory polymer.

A method for generating portions of food products using a combination weigher may comprise:

a dispersion unit adapted to radially disperse food products dropped in from above and onto the dispersion unit,

a plurality of V-shaped like guide structures extending radially away from a center of the dispersion unit and arranged such that a narrower end of the V-shaped like guide structures face a center point of the dispersion unit, and where the V-shaped like guide structures are designed such that for every second V-shaped like guide structure the distance R1from the narrower end of the V-shaped like guide structure to the center point of the dispersion unit is smaller than the distance R2from the narrower end of the remaining V-shaped like guide structures to the center of the dispersion unit, and where the sides of adjacent V-shaped like guide structures define side walls of trenches, where the trenches comprise circular sector shape bottom portions where the trenches comprise receiving ends where the radially disperse food products are received from the dispersion unit and outfeed ends where the food products are released from the trenches,

a plurality of hoppers associated to each of the trenches arranged below the outfeed ends of the trenches,

a control unit, and

screw feeders arranged in each of the trenches operated by the control unit, where the operation includes operate a rotational movement of the screw feeders and thus the conveying of the food products from the receiving ends of the trenches towards the outfeed ends of the trenches where they are released into the plurality of hoppers,

wherein the space between adjacent V-shaped like guide structures at a distance R1defines a buffer zone for radially dispersed food products from the dispersion unit, and where the screw feeders in the adjacent trenches thereof have opposite orientation and rotate in opposite directions such that upper part of the screw feeders are rotating away from each other.

