FOOD PROCESSING FACILITY AND ASSOCIATED OPERATING PROCESS

Description

[0001] The invention relates to a food processing device for slicing food products (e.g., pieces of meat, salami sticks, pieces of cheese) into slices. The invention further relates to an associated operating method for such a food processing device.

[0002] Food processing equipment is known from the prior art that automatically slices food products (e.g., pieces of meat, salami sticks, pieces of cheese) using a cutting device ("slicer"). The slices then fall onto a conveyor, where they form stacks that are then transported away. In the known food processing equipment, this conveyor is designed as a conveyor belt. However, such conveyor belts are relatively complex and inflexible.

[0003] For the technical background of the invention, reference should also be made to DE 10 2014 116 232 A1, the product brochure "Flying Motion: XPlanar" of Beckhoff Automation GmbH & Co. KG, WO 2015 / 162182 A1, DE 10 2010 019 248 A1 and WO 2016 / 012171 A1.

[0004] Finally, WO 2016 / 071062 A1 discloses a food processing device according to the preamble of claim 1. However, this known food processing device does not allow for weighing the portions from the sliced ​​pieces.

[0005] The invention is therefore based on the objective of creating a correspondingly improved food processing device. Furthermore, the invention is based on the objective of specifying a corresponding operating method for such a food processing device.

[0006] This task is solved by a food processing plant according to the main claim or by a corresponding operating method according to the subsidiary claim.

[0007] The food processing device according to the invention initially comprises, in accordance with the prior art, a cutting device for cutting slices or at least a single slice from the food products (e.g., pieces of meat, salami sticks, pieces of cheese). Such cutting devices are known per se from the prior art and therefore do not need to be described in detail. It should merely be mentioned here that the cutting device has a cutting blade, which may, for example, be designed as a sickle blade and rotates about a fixed axis of rotation. Alternatively, however, it is also possible for the cutting blade to perform an orbital motion, such that the cutting blade rotates about the axis of rotation while the axis of rotation itself performs an orbital motion. Furthermore, it should be mentioned that the cutting device typically has a feed device that feeds the food products (e.g.,The invention moves food items (pieces of meat, salami sticks, pieces of cheese) in a feed direction into the cutting plane, where the food items are then sliced. The design of this feed device is not limited to specific constructions. For example, the feed device can have conveyor belts that grip the individual food items from above and / or below and convey them into the cutting plane. Alternatively or additionally, a gripper can be provided that grasps the rear end of the food items, thereby moving the food items into the cutting plane.

[0008] Furthermore, the food processing device according to the invention also has a conveyor in accordance with the prior art, which receives the cut slices after a cutting process, wherein the conveyor is preferably arranged in the fall line of the slices, so that the cut slices automatically fall from the cutting device onto the conveyor.

[0009] The invention is characterized by the fact that the conveyor is not designed as a conveyor belt, but as a discontinuous conveyor, which, unlike a conveyor belt, conveys the deposited discs discontinuously. The term "discontinuous conveyor" used in the context of the invention means, according to standard technical terminology, that the discontinuous conveyor cannot convey the material (e.g., stacks of discs) continuously, but only discontinuously. It should be noted, however, that the product placement on the discontinuous conveyor can occur continuously within a single batch.

[0010] According to the invention, the discontinuous conveyor has at least one conveying carrier that is freely movable within a conveying area in two dimensions without being bound to a fixed conveying path and that receives the cut-off slices. Such conveying carriers are already known from the prior art and are described, for example, in patent application DE 10 2020 105 678.8, so that the content of this earlier patent application is fully applicable to the present description with regard to the structural design of the conveying carrier. Furthermore, such conveying carriers are also available from the German company Beckhoff Automation GmbH & Co. KG under the product name "XPlanar".

[0011] Furthermore, the discontinuous conveyor according to the invention features a contactless drive system that moves the conveyed material carrier within the conveying surface along a freely programmable conveying path without any physical contact between the conveyed material carrier and the conveying surface. Such contactless drive systems operate, for example, using the known magnetic levitation technology; however, other drive technologies are also possible within the scope of the invention. For example, such contactless drive systems are available from the German company Beckhoff Automation GmbH & Co. KG under the product name "XPlanar".

[0012] Preferably, the conveying surface of the non-contact drive system is essentially horizontal, with minor angular deviations from the horizontal of less than ±10°, ±5° or ±2° being possible.

[0013] In the preferred embodiment, the contactless drive system consists of several modules, which preferably adjoin each other without gaps and form the continuous conveying surface, with the conveying path within the conveying surface being freely programmed. The individual modules can be rectangular so that the conveying surface can be assembled seamlessly from the modules. Such a technical implementation of the contactless drive system also corresponds to the "XPlanar" drive system briefly mentioned above.

[0014] Furthermore, the invention provides for the possibility that the food processing equipment includes a lifting device for raising or lowering the conveying carrier, particularly in a vertical direction. The lifting device can, for example, enable a stroke of the conveying carrier of at least 2 mm, 3 mm, 4 mm, 5 mm, 10 mm, 20 mm, 40 mm, or 80 mm.

[0015] For the technical implementation of such a lifting device, there are various possibilities within the scope of the invention, which are briefly described below.

[0016] In one embodiment of the invention, the conveying surface is essentially horizontal, with the lifting device raising or lowering the conveying carrier by means of the contactless drive system at a rate essentially perpendicular to the conveying surface below. The lifting device is thus integrated into the contactless drive system, which simply needs to be controlled accordingly to raise or lower the conveying carrier.

[0017] In another embodiment of the invention, the lifting device is independent of the contactless drive system, and the lifting device also raises or lowers the conveying carrier relative to the conveying surface below it. The difference between the two embodiments mentioned above is that in the first embodiment, the lifting device is integrated into the contactless drive system, whereas in the second embodiment described above, the lifting device is independent and separate from the contactless drive system.

[0018] In a third embodiment of the invention, the lifting device is also independent of the contactless drive system, wherein the lifting device raises or lowers the conveying material carrier together with the module of the drive system located below it.

[0019] As mentioned above, during a cutting process, the cut discs preferably fall automatically onto the conveyor. Therefore, the conveyor is preferably positioned in the path of the discs falling, so that the discs fall onto the conveyor under their own weight. This can then form a stack of discs on the conveyor, consisting of several discs stacked on top of each other, with the discs also being laterally offset to form a shingled stack.

[0020] The drop height of the discs from the cutting device to the top of the disc stack depends on the height of the disc stack. For example, if a high disc stack has already formed on the conveyor, the drop height is significantly lower than when placing a disc onto an empty conveyor. However, it is generally desirable for the drop height of the discs to remain constant during operation. Therefore, the aforementioned lifting device can be controlled during a cutting process so that the conveyor is slightly lowered after each disc is placed, thus maintaining a constant drop height. In this way, the drop height of the discs when forming a disc stack is independent of the height of the disc stack.

[0021] Furthermore, it should be mentioned that the cutting device can operate in multiple lanes, featuring several parallel conveyor lanes in which the food items (e.g., pieces of meat, salami sticks, cheese pieces) are moved at a specific feed rate into the cutting plane, where the adjacent food items are then sliced. In such a multi-lane cutting process, the discontinuous conveyor preferably also has several conveying carriers, each assigned to one of the individual conveyor lanes of the cutting device. The food processing equipment can thus slice the food items in multiple lanes and also convey them away in multiple lanes using conveying carriers. It is also possible for several conveying carriers to work together and be loaded with slices simultaneously.

[0022] In the multi-track disc storage system described above, which uses several conveyor carriers, it is also possible for each carrier to be moved forward by a predetermined offset in a specific direction after picking up a disc, so that the discs form a shingled portion on the carrier. The offset between the stacks of successive discs can be individually adjusted for each carrier, allowing for a desired portion shape to be set for each conveyor track. For example, a standard stack of discs, a shingled stack, or an oval shape of discs can be achieved, to name just a few possibilities.

[0023] According to the invention, the food processing device additionally includes a scale to measure the weight of the conveying carrier with the discs placed on it.

[0024] According to the invention, the scale is integrated into the contactless drive system. In practice, the contactless drive system holds the individual conveying carrier in a suspended state above the conveying surface below, with a gap between the conveying surface and the conveying carrier. The size of this gap depends, firstly, on the total weight of the conveying carrier, including the conveyed goods, and secondly, on the drive power of the drive system used to keep the conveying carrier suspended. In this embodiment of the invention, the food processing equipment includes a measuring device that measures the distance between the conveying carrier and the conveying surface, i.e., the size of the gap between the conveying carrier and the conveying surface. Furthermore, a control device is provided to determine the weight of the conveying carrier with the conveyed goods on it.There are basically two possibilities for this, which are briefly described below.

[0025] One possibility is that the control unit regulates the contactless drive system in such a way that the gap between the conveying carrier and the conveying surface below remains constant, regardless of the weight of the conveyed material. For this purpose, the drive power used to control the contactless drive system is adjusted to keep the conveying carrier suspended. The required drive power is then used as a measure of the total weight of the conveying carrier.

[0026] Another possibility, however, is that the drive power of the contactless drive system is kept constant, so that the distance between the conveyed material carrier and the conveying surface below it then varies depending on the total weight of the conveyed material carrier and can thus serve as a measure of the weight of the conveyed material carrier.

[0027] The aforementioned measuring device for determining the distance between the conveying carrier and the conveying surface below it can, for example, include a distance sensor or a camera, to name just a few examples.

[0028] Furthermore, the food processing device according to the invention can also include a conventional conveyor belt that conveys the food products, particularly parallel to the conveying surface of the contactless drive system. A hybrid system can therefore be provided for conveying the food products, comprising both conveyor belts and discontinuous conveyors. The discontinuous conveyor then preferably moves the conveying material carriers to the conveyor belt, where the conveyed material (e.g., stacks of discs) is then transferred to the conventional conveyor belt.

[0029] Furthermore, it should be mentioned that the invention does not only claim protection for the food processing equipment described above. Rather, the invention also claims protection for a corresponding operating method. The individual process steps of the operating method according to the invention are already evident from the preceding description of the food processing equipment according to the invention, so that a separate description of the operating method can be omitted.

[0030] Other advantageous embodiments of the invention are characterized in the dependent claims or are explained in more detail below together with the description of the preferred embodiments of the invention with reference to the figures. Figure 1 shows a schematic side view of a food processing device according to the invention. Figure 2shows a schematic overview of the food processing plant Figure 1 . Figure 3 shows a side view of a single conveying carrier from the food processing plant. Figures 1 and 2 . Figure 4 shows a supervision of the conveyed material carrier according to Figure 3 . Figure 5 shows a schematic side view of a receiving conveyor for removing food items from the conveying carrier. Figure 6 Figure 1 shows a schematic side view of a non-inventive embodiment of the food processing device with a vertical orientation of the conveying surface. Figure 7 shows a front view of the cutting device Figure 6 . Figures 8A-8C The figures show examples of different portion shapes that can be produced with the food processing equipment according to the invention. Figure 9 shows a variation of Figure 3with an integrated piezoelectric element for weight measurement.

[0031] The following is an exemplary embodiment according to the Figures 1-5 described.

[0032] Firstly, in this embodiment, the food processing device has a cutting device 1, which can be largely conventional in design and cuts food items 2, 3 into slices 6 in two parallel conveyor tracks 4, 5.

[0033] For this purpose, the cutting device 1 has a cutting blade 7 which rotates in a cutting plane 8 during operation and is driven by an electric motor (not shown).

[0034] Furthermore, the cutting device 1 has a feed device that moves the food items 2, 3 into the cutting plane 8 at a specific feed rate vf1, vf2. For this purpose, the feed device can have a conveyor belt 9 that grips the food items 2 or 3 at their top and conveys them into the cutting plane 8. Alternatively, the feed device can also have a gripper 10 that grips the food items 2, 3 at their rear and pushes them into the cutting plane 8. (See side view in...) Figure 1Only the conveyor belt 9 and the gripper 10 for food item 2 are shown. On the opposite side, however, there is also a conveyor belt for the other food item 3, which is not shown, and a corresponding gripper for food item 3. Food items 2 and 3 are conveyed onto an inclined product support 11 into the cutting plane 8, as is known from the prior art. The feed device design described above is only an example, however, since other feed device designs are also possible within the scope of the invention.

[0035] Furthermore, in this embodiment, the food processing equipment has several conveying carriers 12, 13 that can be moved parallel to a horizontal conveying surface 14 by a contactless drive system AS. The contactless drive system AS is composed of several rectangular modules 15-18, which are seamlessly joined and form the continuous conveying surface 14. For simplicity, only the four modules 15-18 are shown here. In practice, however, the conveying surface 14 is composed of a larger number of modules. The contactless drive system AS operates here according to magnetic levitation technology, as known from the commercially available "XPlanar" system mentioned at the beginning. Thus, the figure shows Figure 1The conveying carrier 13 is suspended above the conveying surface 14, creating a gap 19 between the carrier 13 and the conveying surface 14. The height h of the gap 19 is detected by a camera 20 and transmitted to a control unit 21, which uses this information to determine the total mass m of the conveying carrier 13 and the conveyed material. One way to achieve this is to regulate the drive power of the contactless drive system AS such that the height h of the gap 19 remains constant regardless of the total weight m of the conveying carrier 13. The drive power required for this constant height h then serves as a measure of the total mass m of the conveying carrier 13.

[0036] During a cutting process, the conveying carriers 12, 13 are arranged below the cutting device in the fall line of the discs 6, so that the discs 6 fall onto the conveying carrier 13 or 14 and form disc stacks 22, 23 there.

[0037] Out of Figure 2 It is evident that the disc stacks 22, 23 are shingled. This means that the stacked discs have a specific offset Δx1 or Δx2 to each other. To achieve these shingled disc stacks 22, 23, the conveying carriers 12, 13 are moved by the corresponding offset Δx1 or Δx2 after each disc 6 has been deposited, so that the desired disc offset is established.

[0038] However, the invention also allows for the production of other portion shapes, such as those found, for example, in the Figures 8A-8CThe illustrations will be described in detail below. It should be noted that the different portion sizes can be achieved solely through software modifications, without any hardware adjustments. This distinguishes the food processing device according to the invention from conventional food processing devices, where changing the portion size is only possible with mechanical modifications.

[0039] The following section describes the conveying carrier 13 in more detail, with particular attention to the Figures 3 and 4 Reference is made to the earlier patent application DE 10 2020 105 678.8. The design and function of the conveying carrier are fundamentally known from this earlier patent application, DE 10 2020 105 678.8, so that the content of this patent application is fully applicable to the present description regarding the design of the conveying carrier 13. It should also be noted that the other conveying carriers can be constructed in the same way.

[0040] On the upper side of the conveying carrier 13 are numerous pins 24, each with a cylindrical cross-section and projecting vertically upwards. The pins 24 are arranged in a matrix-like pattern in rows and columns, with two columns of pins 24 enclosing a recess 25, and two rows of pins 24 enclosing a recess 26.

[0041] In Figure 4 The illustration shows that the conveying carrier 13 can be moved along a curved conveying path 27, whereby the depicted course of the conveying path 27 is only exemplary.

[0042] The recesses 25, 26 serve to remove the stack of discs 23 from the conveying carrier 13, as shown in Figure 5As can be seen, a pivotable discharge conveyor 28 is provided for this purpose, which can be pivoted about a pivot axis 29 in the direction of the double arrow. The discharge conveyor 28 consists of several parallel narrow knife conveyor belts (finger conveyor belts) that can each be inserted into the recesses 25 or 26 between the pins 24 of the conveying carrier 13 in order to then convey the stack of discs 23 away. The design and operation of the discharge conveyor 28 are also described in the earlier patent application DE 10 2020 105 678.8, so that the content of this earlier patent application is fully applicable to the present description with regard to the design and operation of the discharge conveyor 28.

[0043] The following describes a non-inventive embodiment of a food processing device, which is described in the Figure 6 and 7 is shown schematically.

[0044] The cutting device 1 in this embodiment largely corresponds to the embodiment described above, so that, to avoid repetition, reference is made to the preceding description, using the same reference numerals for corresponding details.

[0045] A special feature of this embodiment is that the conveying surface of the contactless drive system AS is oriented vertically, i.e., parallel to the plane of the drawing. The conveying carrier 12 can therefore be moved vertically and horizontally parallel to the conveying surface, which is composed entirely of the modules 15-18 shown here only schematically. The conveying path within the conveying surface is freely programmable.

[0046] A loading platform 30 is attached to the conveying carrier 12. This loading platform is oriented perpendicular to the conveying surface of the contactless drive system AS and serves to receive the discs 6. The loading platform can be designed as described in German patent application DE 10 2020 105 678.8. The content of this patent application is therefore fully incorporated into the present description.

[0047] For disc placement from the cutting device 1, the conveying carrier 12 is then positioned by the non-contact drive system AS so that the loading surface 30 is in the fall line of the discs 6, so that the discs cut by the cutting device 1 fall onto the loading surface 30.

[0048] After the stack of discs 22 is placed on the loading platform 30 of the conveying carrier 12, the conveying carrier 12 is then moved in the direction of the block arrows to a conveyor belt 31, which takes over the stack of discs 22 from the conveying carrier 12. The removal of the stack of discs 22 from the loading platform 30 of the conveying carrier 12 is carried out by a removal conveyor with several parallel knife conveyors that are set into elongated recesses (see figure). Fig. 7 ) immerse in the loading platform 30 and thereby engage the stack of discs 21 underneath. The details of the product removal from the loading platform 30 of the conveying carrier 12 are described in German patent application DE 10 2020 105 678.8. The removal conveyor is not shown here for the sake of simplicity.

[0049] The conveyor carrier 12 is then moved again in the direction of the block arrows to the cutting station 1 to pick up a new stack of discs.

[0050] During the movement of the loaded conveyor carrier 12, it can be tilted about a pivot axis perpendicular to the plane of the drawing to prevent the stack of discs 22 from sliding off the loading surface 30 due to the inertial forces occurring during the movement. For this purpose, the conveyor carrier 12 is tilted forward during acceleration in the direction of movement.

[0051] Figure 7 shows a schematic front view of the embodiment described above according to Figure 6 . This illustration shows that the food processing equipment can be built in a mirror image with two opposing conveying surfaces that are aligned parallel to each other.

[0052] The Figures 8A-8C show various portion shapes that can be realized with the food processing device according to the invention.

[0053] This shows Figure 8Aa shingled stack of discs. To achieve these portion shapes, the respective conveying carrier must be moved a certain distance in a linear direction after each disc has been placed.

[0054] Figure 8B In contrast, another portion shape is shown, in which the individual discs are stacked on top of each other in a circular, shingled pattern. To achieve this portion shape, the corresponding conveying carrier must be rotated around its vertical axis when the discs are placed, so that the discs then fall onto the conveying carrier one after the other in a shingled, circular pattern.

[0055] Furthermore, it shows Figure 8C a folded arrangement of the individual discs, which can also be achieved by a corresponding movement of the associated conveying material carrier during disc placement.

[0056] Finally, it shows Figure 9 a variation of Figure 3, so that, to avoid repetition, we refer to the above description. Figure 3 Reference is made, with the same reference marks being used for corresponding details.

[0057] A special feature of this embodiment is that a piezoelectric element 32 is integrated into the conveying carrier 13, which serves for weight measurement. Depending on the weight of the conveyed item, the piezoelectric element 32 is compressed to a greater or lesser degree and outputs a corresponding weight signal to a transmitter 33, which then wirelessly transmits the weight signal to an evaluation unit. For example, the transmitter 33 can be configured as a Bluetooth transmitter, an RFID transmitter, or an NFC transmitter, to name just a few. Reference symbol list

[0058] 1 Cutting device 2, 3 Food items 4, 5 Conveyor tracks of the cutting device 6 Discs 7 Cutting blades 8 Cutting plane 9 Conveyor belt of the feed device of the cutting device 10 Gripper of the feed device of the cutting device 11 Product support 12, 13 Conveyor carrier 14 Conveyor surface 15-18 Modules of the drive system 19 Gap between conveyor surface and conveyor carrier 20 Camera 21 Control unit 22, 23 Shingled disc stack 24 Pins on the top of the conveyor carrier 25, 26 Recesses between the pins 27 Conveyor path 28 Discharge conveyor for removing the food items from the conveyor carrier 29 Swivel axis of the discharge conveyor 30 Loading surface on the conveyor carrier 31 Conveyor belt 32 Piezoelectric element for weight measurement 33 Transmitter for transmitting the weight signal AS Non-contact drive system h Height of the gap between conveying surface and conveyed material carrier m Mass of the conveyed material carrier vf1, vf2 Feed rate in the conveying tracks of the cutting device vx1,vx2 Feed rate on the conveying surface Δx1, Δx2 Offset during disc placement,

Claims

1. Food-processing device for cutting food products (2, 3) into slices (6), comprising a) a cutting device (1) for cutting the slices (6) from the food products (2, 3), and b) a conveyor (AS, 12-18) for receiving the cut slices (6) after a cutting operation, wherein b1) the conveyor (AS, 12-18) is a discontinuous conveyor, which conveys the deposited slices (6) discontinuously in contrast to a conveyor belt, b2) the discontinuous conveyor (AS, 12-18) comprises at least one conveyed-products carrier (12, 13) which can be moved freely in two dimensions (x, y) within a conveying surface (14) without being tied to a fixed conveying path (27) and receives the cut slices (6), and b3) the discontinuous conveyor (AS, 12-18) comprises a contactless drive system (AS) which moves the conveyed-products carrier (12, 13) within the conveying surface (14) along a freely programmable conveying path (27) without contact between the conveyed-products carrier (12, 13) on the one hand and the conveying surface (14) on the other hand, characterized in, c) that the food-processing device comprises a scale for measuring the weight of the conveyed-products carrier with the slices (6) deposited thereon, d) that the scale is integrated into the contactless drive system (AS), e) that the contactless drive system (AS) suspends the conveyed-products carrier (12, 13) with a predetermined drive power, f) that a distance occurs between the conveyed-products carrier (12, 13) and the conveying surface (14) as a function of the weight of the conveyed-products carrier with the slices (6) deposited thereon and the drive power of the drive system (AS), g) that the food-processing device comprises a measuring device (20) which measures the distance between the conveyed-products carrier (12, 13) and the conveying surface (14), h) that a control device is provided which h1) keeps the distance between the conveyed-products carrier (12, 13) and the conveying surface (14) constant by adjusting the drive power and outputs the drive power required for this as a measure of the weight, or h2) keeps the drive power constant and outputs the weight-dependent distance between the conveyed-products carrier (12, 13) and the conveying surface (14) as a measure of the weight.

2. Food-processing device according to claim 1, characterized in a) that the contactless drive system (AS) comprises a plurality of modules (15-18) which preferably adjoin one another without gaps and form the continuous conveying surface (14), the conveying path (27) within the conveying surface (14) being freely programmable, b) that the individual modules (15-18) are optionally rectangular in order to be able to assemble the conveying surface (14) from the modules (15-18) without gaps.

3. Food-processing device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in, a) that the food-processing device has a lifting device for raising or lowering the conveyed-products carrier (12, 13) in a direction, and b) that the lifting device preferably allows a vertical stroke of the conveyed-products carrier of at least 2 mm, 3 mm, 4 mm, 5 mm, 10 mm, 20 mm, 40 mm or 80 mm.

4. Food-processing device according to claim 3, characterized in, a) that the conveying surface (14) extends substantially horizontally and the lifting device raises or lowers the conveyed-products carrier (12, 13) by means of the contactless drive system (AS) with respect to the module of the conveying surface (14) located below it, substantially at right angles to the conveying surface (14), or b) that the conveying surface (14) runs essentially horizontally and the lifting device raises or lowers the conveyed-products carrier (12, 13) in a vertical direction with respect to the module of the conveying surface (14) located underneath it, independently of the contactless drive system (AS), or c) that the conveying surface (14) runs essentially horizontally and the lifting device raises or lowers the conveyed-products carrier (12, 13) together with the module of the drive system (AS) located underneath it.

5. Food-processing device according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in a) that the food-processing device comprises a control device (21) which controls the lifting device and determines the height position (h) of the conveyed-products carrier, and b) that the control device (21) controls the lifting device during a cutting operation in such a way that the conveyed-products carrier (12, 13) is lowered in each case after a slice (6) has been cut off, in particular by one slice thickness in each case, so that the height of fall of the slices (6) from the cutting device (1) onto the top side of a portion comprising several slices remains constant irrespective of the height of the portion.

6. Food-processing device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in, a) that the cutting device (1) comprises a cutting plane (8) in which the food products (2, 3) are cut into the slices (6), b) that the food-processing device comprises a feeding device (9, 10) for conveying the food products (2, 3) into the cutting plane (8) for cutting, c) that the feeding device (9, 10) comprises a plurality of parallel feed tracks (4, 5) for feeding a plurality of food products (2, 3) side by side into the cutting plane (8), and d) that the slices (6) of the food products (2, 3) cut open next to one another fall onto at least one respective conveyed-products carrier (12, 13), so that at least one respective conveyed-products carrier (12, 13) is provided for each of the conveying tracks (4, 5).

7. Food-processing device according to claim 6, characterized in a) that the conveyed-products carriers (12, 13) are each moved forward by a predetermined offset (Δx1, Δx2) in a conveying direction (x) after a slice (6) has been deposited, so that the slices (6) on the conveyed-products carrier (12, 13) each form a shingled portion, and b) that the offset (Δx1, Δx2) is individually adjustable for the individual conveyed-products carriers (12, 13), so that the shingled portions on the individual conveyed-products carriers have an individually adjustable degree of overlap of the slices (6).

8. Food-processing device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the measuring device comprises: a) a distance sensor, b) a camera (20).

9. Food-processing device according to claim 8, characterized in a) that the food-processing device comprises a conveyor belt conveying the food products (2, 3), in particular parallel to the conveying surface (14) of the contactless drive system (AS), and b) that the contactless drive system (AS) moves the conveyed products (12, 13) to the conveyor belt in order to transfer the food products (2, 3) from the conveyed products (12, 13) to the conveyor belt.

10. Operating method for a food-processing device, comprising the following steps: a) cutting a food product (2, 3) into slices (6) by means of a cutting device (1), and b) depositing the cut slices (6) on the conveyor (AS, 12-18), c) wherein the conveyor (AS, 12-18) is a discontinuous conveyor, which conveys the deposited slices (6) discontinuously in contrast to a conveyor belt, characterized by the following step: d) weighing the conveyed-products carrier (12, 13) with slices (6) deposited thereon.

11. Operating method according to claim 9, characterized in that the discontinuous conveyor comprises at least one conveyed-products carrier (12, 13) which is freely movable in two dimensions within a substantially horizontal or substantially vertical conveying surface (14) and receives the cut-off slices (6).

12. Operating method according to claim 11, characterized in, a) that the conveyed-products carrier (12, 13) can be raised and lowered in the vertical direction, b) that the conveyed-products carrier (12, 13) is lowered in each case after a slice (6) has been cut off, in particular by one slice thickness in each case, so that the height of fall of the slices (6) from the cutting device (1) onto the top of a portion comprising several slices remains constant irrespective of the height of the portion.

13. Operating method according to any one of claims 10 to 12, characterized in a) that the cutting device (1) comprises a cutting plane (8) in which the food products (2, 3) are cut into the slices (6), b) that the food-processing device has a feeding device (9, 10) for conveying the food products (2, 3) into the cutting plane (8) for cutting, c) that the feeding device (9, 10) has a plurality of parallel feed tracks (4, 5) for feeding a plurality of food products (2, 3) next to one another into the cutting plane (8), and d) that the slices (6) from the food products (2, 3) cut open next to one another fall onto a respective conveyed-products carrier (12, 13), so that a respective conveyed-products carrier (12, 13) is provided for each of the conveying tracks (4, 5).

14. Operating method according to claim 13, characterized in, a) that the conveyed-products carriers (12, 13) are each moved by a predetermined offset after a slice (6) has been deposited, so that the slices (6) on the conveyed-products carrier (12, 13) each form a shingled portion, and b) that the offset is determined individually for the individual conveyed-products carriers (12, 13), so that the shingled portions on the individual conveyed-products carriers have an individually adjustable degree of overlap of the slices (6).

15. Operating method according to any one of claims 10 to 14, characterized in a) that the slices (6) are deposited in a certain portion shape on the conveyed-products carrier (12, 13), and b) that the conveyed-products carrier (12, 13) is moved to produce the desired portion shape during the deposition of the slices (6) on the conveyed-products carrier (12, 13), in particular with a rotation about a vertical axis of rotation and / or a displacement in a horizontal direction.