NL1019769C2 - Assembly comprising a cutting device and a packaging device. - Google Patents

Description

. Assembly comprising a cutting device and a packaging device.

The present invention relates to an assembly comprising, on the one hand, a cutting device for cutting slices of food, such as cheese or meat, and, on the other hand, a packaging apparatus for packing sliced slices of food.

Such a device is known from NL patent 1,006,324. The assembly known from this comprises a cutting device with a depositing table and a packaging device placed on one side next to the depositing table. On the opposite side of the delivery table, a foil feeding device extending in the horizontal plane is provided. A major drawback of this device is that it is less suitable for use at the counter of the butcher or meat product seller. This assembly of cutting device and packaging device takes up a lot of space. In addition, the foil feeding device also takes up a lot of space.

The present invention has for its object to provide an assembly of the type indicated at the outset, which assembly is compact and takes up little space.

The above object is achieved according to the invention in that the cutting device and packaging device are placed one above the other, in particular are placed on top of each other, and in that transfer means are provided for transferring cut slices from the cutting device to the packaging device.

It is noted that DE-3,427,116 discloses a cutting device which is arranged above a moving strand of deep-drawing packages which are still open at the top. The deep-drawing packages, however, form unsealed packages and certainly not a packaging device for packing cut slices of food into a closed package.

In contrast to the insight prevailing in the prior art, such an assembly of superimposed cutting device and packaging device appears to be able to function very well and time efficiently by providing transfer means to transfer the cut slices from the cutting device to the packaging device. It is then no longer necessary for an operator to present the sliced slices, whether or not lying on a tray, to the packaging apparatus.

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In order for the operator to have a good view of the cutting device, it is preferred according to the invention if the cutting device is placed above the packaging device. This has the further advantage, in particular when used in a store, that the customer can watch while cutting the food. Furthermore, the packaging apparatus, including optionally also the roll holder and tray holder from the still to be discussed claim 5 and further claims, can then be cooled or placed in a cooled room, such as cooled furniture space, so that the temperature of the cut foodstuff is more controllable.

Although the transfer means according to the invention can be designed in many different ways, for example pivot arms, it is preferred according to the invention if the transfer means comprise a vertical lift. Such a vertical lift has a support surface on which cut slabs can lie directly or with a so-called tray or foil sheet between them. This vertical lift then only needs to raise the cut food lying thereon if the packaging device is placed above the cutting device or to lower it down if the packaging device is placed below the cutting device. Viewed in the horizontal plane, this requires hardly more space than the outer dimensions of the tray or sliced foodstuff to be transferred.

In order to facilitate the placement of cut slices of food lying on a tray or not on the support surface of the vertical lift and to remove them again from the support surface, it is preferred according to the invention for the vertical lift to be moved vertically up and down, conveyor operating in horizontal direction, in particular an endless conveyor. The bearing surface then forms part of the movable part of the conveyor. The conveyor is preferably a so-called belt conveyor or an endless conveyor constructed from a plurality of endless, mutually parallel belts. However, the conveyor operating in the horizontal direction can also be a roller conveyor with one or more driven rollers (possibly all rollers can be driven).

In order to reduce the number of operations required by an operator as far as possible, a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention provides that the assembly further comprises: 1019769 - a tray holder for holding a vertical stack of trays, and - a film roll holder, and that foil sheet dispensing means are provided at the tray holder, in particular above the tray holder, arranged for unrolling and cutting off a foil web part.

By providing the film sheet dispensing means at the tray holder, it is possible to place a cut film sheet at the delivery location, where the tray holder offers trays for delivery.

According to a special embodiment, the tray holder and film roll holder are placed one above the other and the film sheet dispensing means are provided on the side of the tray holder remote from the film roll holder. The tray holder and film roll holder are herein placed space-saving above each other and can optionally be arranged directly next to the assembly of cutting device and packaging device placed above each other. The trays in particular will be taken from the stack at the location that is most accessible, and this is the end of the stack where the film roll holder is not provided.

After all, the film roll holder will obstruct the access to the adjacent end of the stack of trays somewhat. In use, the roll of film placed in the film roll holder will run along the stack of trays with the handle part to arrive at the film sheet dispensing means at the end of that stack remote from the film roll holder. It thus becomes possible to place a rolled and cut foil web part, which is to be used as a film between the cut food items, on the upper tray or, if necessary, to keep it flat above it. This offers the advantage that one set of manipulation means suffices for transferring an empty tray or cut piece of foil to the depositing location at the cutting device, as desired.

The film sheet dispensing means can be adapted to unroll and cut film web parts with an adjustable, in particular continuously adjustable, length. The length may possibly depend on the product to be cut and / or on the tray dimensions or dimensions of the package.

According to the invention, it is preferred if the tray holder is placed above the film roll holder. This as both the operator and a possible customer 30 can watch when preparing the tray or foil piece to be used for the foodstuff. Furthermore, this arrangement saves space and improves accessibility for the user.

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According to a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention, viewed in the horizontal direction, the vertical lift is arranged between, on the one hand, the cutting device and packaging apparatus placed one above the other and, on the other hand, the tray holder and film roll holder placed above each other. A compact system can thus be obtained. It is to be noted that it is possibly also conceivable to provide the film roll holder under the first vertical lift instead of under the tray holder and, incidentally, to provide the first vertical lift, viewed in the horizontal direction, between the tray holder on the one hand and the packaging apparatus placed one above the other and cutting device.

It will be clear that in accordance with the present invention many different types of cutting device and packaging apparatus can be used, the point being that they can be placed one above the other, whether or not after some modification. With regard to the packaging device, for example, a packaging device according to the European patent application 01202971.6 of applicant filed on August 2, 2001, which has not yet been published at the time of filing the present application, can be used.

The present invention will be explained in more detail below with reference to an exemplary embodiment which is shown very diagrammatically in the drawing. Herein: Figure 1 shows a highly schematic, perspective view of an assembly according to the invention in accordance with a particularly preferred configuration;

Figures 2, 3 and 4 highly schematic side views of the assembly according to Figure 1 in different operating states; Figure 1 shows a conventional cutting device 1 placed on top of a packaging device 2, which can also be conventional but is advantageously in accordance with the European patent application 01202971.6 of applicant. For the description of this advantageous packaging device, reference is therefore made to the aforementioned European patent application, which will already have been published upon publication of the present application.

The cutting device 1 is made up of a frame that carries a blade 3 which can be moved back and forth in accordance with arrow 30, with a stop 4 thereon for the food to be cut. By moving the blade 3 back and forth in accordance with double arrow 30, a piece to be cut, not shown in Figure 1, is fed food along the knife in a conventional manner in itself. Arranged on the rear of the knife 5 is a depositing device 6, which may be, for example, a so-called chain frame known from the prior art, which places the cut food on the depositing place 37, which, as will be discussed, an endless conveyor 36 can, the upper part of which functions as a depositing location 32.

In order to be able to transfer cut food from the cutting device 1 to the packaging apparatus 2 placed thereunder, transfer means 15 are provided which are designed in a very advantageous manner as a vertical lift that can be moved up and down in the direction of double arrow 31. This vertical lift preferably consists essentially of an endless conveyor with a lower part 16 and an upper part 17 guided over two return rollers, at least one of which will be drivable.

Figure 1 further shows a film roll holder 9 consisting of two rotatably arranged roller members on which a film roll 10 lies. Above the foil roll 10 is a holder 25 for a stack 12 of trays 18. This holder 25, called tray holder, comprises a tray blade which can be moved up and down in the vertical direction according to double arrow 32 (figure 2). This so that when a tray is removed from the top of the stack 12, the stack can be pushed up slightly so that the top of the stack maintains a substantially constant level. Along the stack 12 of trays 18 extends from a film web part 19 which ends at the top of the stack 12 at film sheet dispensing means 11. These film sheet dispensing means 11 comprise two rollers, at least one of which is drivable for being able to feed the film web 19 through it. The film sheet dispensing means 11 furthermore comprise a cutting device arranged on the downstream side of the rollers for cutting off a piece of film web, called a film sheet. This sheet of film will then be placed on top of the stack of trays 18.

Figure 1 furthermore shows removal means 13. The removal means 13 comprise an arm 27 pivotable about pivot 26 that carries one or more suction cups 14. By means of the suction cups 14 it is possible to grasp and transfer what lies on top of the stack of trays 12, by pivoting the arm 13, over the upper part 17 of the vertical vertical lift 15, to the depositing place 37 of the 1019769 6 cutting device 1. That which is on top of the stack 12 can be both a tray 18 and a foil sheet 19. This is required as required.

The operation of the assembly shown in Figs. 1 to 4 is as follows: the upper tray 18 of the stack 12 is laid by means of the removal means 13 at the depositing place 37. The food to be sliced, in this case a sausage 20, lies. ready on the sheet 3. This condition is schematically indicated in figure 2.

A slice of sausage is then cut off by starting from the condition shown in Figure 2 by moving the blade 3 with the sausage 20 on it to the left and meanwhile cutting a slice with the knife 5. At the rear of the knife 5 the cut slice is then held on the chain frame 6 to pivot the chain frame around a horizontal axis in accordance with arrow 33 (Fig. 1) after the entire slice has been cut, in order to place the cut slice of sausage on the tray 18 standing at the depositing place 37 or located there foil sheet. By moving the blade 3 with the sausage 20 on it back to the right again to the position shown in Figure 2 and then repeating this, several slices can be cut off.

Each time after cutting of one or more slices, it is possible, if desired, to pick up a foil sheet 21 which has already been laid ready on the upper tray 18 of the stack 12 by means of the removing means 13 around this foil sheet with the removing means on top of the location at the depositing location. freshly cut slices.

Subsequently, even more slices can be cut to lay a sheet of film on it again. As soon as there are enough cut slices on the depositing location 37, the whole is pushed onto the lift 15, or at least transferred to it. This last state transferred to the elevator is shown in Figure 3.

Transferring the finished amount of sliced slices from the depositing location 37 to the elevator 35 can for instance take place by means of pushing means (not shown) which push the (whether or not on a tray) pushed (or possibly pulled) from the delivery location 37 onto the elevator 15 sliders. This transfer will preferably take place by means of an endless conveyor indicated schematically by 36, the upper part of which determines the delivery location 37. In addition, the endless conveyor 36 can be used during cutting to move the tray small distances in order to place the slices on the tray in a certain pattern.

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When the finished amount, whether or not located on a tray, is on the elevator 15, 16, 17, as shown in Figure 3, the elevator 15, 16, 17 can be lowered from the high position to the low position shown in Figure 4. . Having arrived in the low position, the endless conveyor 16,17 can be actuated to transfer the tray with slices lying thereon to arrow 7 of the packaging apparatus 2. The conveyor 7 will then be arranged entirely according to arrow 35. further, enter the packaging apparatus where the entire package can be air-tightly packed in a foil or otherwise.

It will be clear to a person skilled in the art that the assembly according to the invention has many variants that fall within the scope of the claims. For example, one can refrain from using trays. A film sheet or something else can then be used as the bottom layer. Optionally, the bottom layer can be completely omitted and only use intermediate layers of film sheets. The tray holder can then be completely absent.

Preferably, however, the tray holder will be present because the assembly can then be used multifunctionally with and without trays; * refrain from using foil sheets. The film roll holder may then be absent, but will be present for multifunctional applicability; refrain from using both trays and foil sheets. In connection with the multifunctional applicability, the tray holder and foil sheet holder will preferably still be present; and / or; expand the assembly with a weighing and / or labeling device.

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Claims (10)

An assembly comprising, on the one hand, a cutting device (1) for cutting slices of food, such as cheese or meat, and, on the other hand, a packaging device (2) for packing sliced slices of food, characterized. that the cutting device (1) and packaging device (2) are placed one above the other, in particular placed on top of each other, and that transfer means (15) are provided for transferring cut slices from the cutting device (1) to the packaging device (2) bring. An assembly according to claim 1, characterized in that the cutting device (1) is placed above the packaging device (2). An assembly according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the transfer means (15) comprise a vertical lift. 4. Assembly as claimed in claim 3, characterized in that the vertical lift (15) comprises a conveyor (16, 17) that is vertically movable up and down, in particular an endless conveyor. Assembly as claimed in any of the foregoing claims, characterized in that the assembly further comprises: - a tray holder (25) for holding a vertical stack of trays (12), and - a foil roll holder (9), which at the tray holder (25), in particular at the top thereof, film sheet dispensing means (11) are provided adapted to unroll and cut a film web part (21). An assembly according to claim 5, characterized in that the tray holder (25) and film roll holder (9) are placed one above the other, and in that the film sheet dispensing means (11) are provided on the side of the tray holder remote from the film roll holder (9). (25). An assembly according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that the film sheet dispensing means (11) are adapted to unroll and cut a film web part (21). An assembly according to any one of claims 5-7, characterized in that the tray holder (25) is placed above the film roll holder (9). An assembly according to claim 6 in combination with one or more of claims 3, 4, 5,7 or 8, characterized in that, viewed in horizontal direction, the vertical lift 1019769 (15) is arranged between the superimposed ones cutting device (1) and packaging device (2) and on the other hand the tray holder (25) and foil roll holder (9) placed one above the other. An assembly according to any one of claims 5-9, characterized in that removal means (13) are provided on the side of the tray holder (25) remote from the film roll holder (9) for removing a tray (18) from a stack (12) of trays contained in the tray holder (25), which removal means (13) are further adapted to take off a cut foil web part (21) which is located below or above a stack of trays (12) contained in the tray holder (25) . 10 1019769