Adaptive Food Processing Needles with Profile Scanning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing food product refining devices lack the ability to adaptively control working tools based on the thickness and profile of food products, leading to inefficient operation and potential losses in processes like curing, where brine distribution can be uneven and wasteful.
Innovation Solution
A device with a scanning system to profile food products across the conveyor, allowing the control device to adjust the operation and depth of penetration of working tools, such as needles, in real-time, ensuring precise control and minimizing idle strokes and brine loss by only injecting brine when the needles are fully inside the product.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If the stroke of needles is fixed for all food products, then the device structure is simple, but the brine distribution becomes uneven and wasteful
Solution Approach 1:
The needle stroke is made dynamically adjustable for each needle based on real-time profile detection. The control device receives thickness information from the detection device and individually adjusts the stroke of each needle or group of needles, transforming the fixed stroke system into a dynamic, adaptive system that resolves the contradiction between uniformity and complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
A feedback loop is established where the detection device continuously monitors food product thickness, and the control device uses this information to adjust needle stroke in real-time. This closed-loop control system enables precise brine distribution while managing complexity through automated feedback-based adjustment.
2Loss of substance
If needles operate continuously across the conveyor, then productivity is high, but brine loss increases due to idle strokes outside food products
Solution Approach 1:
The needle operation is localized to match the actual presence and thickness of food products at each position. Needles are activated or deactivated individually or in groups based on local detection data, ensuring brine injection occurs only where food products are present. This localizes the useful action to eliminate waste while maintaining overall productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of continuous operation of all needles, only the necessary portion of needles are activated based on detected food product locations. This partial action approach prevents excessive brine injection into empty spaces while ensuring complete coverage of actual products, resolving the contradiction between reducing loss and maintaining productivity.
3Reliability
If the needle stroke is increased to ensure full penetration, then penetration reliability is high, but unnecessary long strokes cause energy waste and reduced efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The needle stroke parameter is dynamically changed based on detected food product thickness. Each needle or group of needles receives a customized stroke length that precisely matches the local product thickness, ensuring reliable penetration without excessive movement. This parameter adaptation resolves the contradiction between penetration reliability and energy efficiency.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution enables more homogeneous brine distribution, reduces waste, and optimizes the refining process by adapting tool operation to the local thickness of food products, improving efficiency and product quality.
Implementation Method 1
The scanning device can be a mechanical or optical (laser) scanning device or an ultrasonic scanning device
Implementation Method 2
a valve control 20 accommodated in the needle carrier 16 serves to control the supply of brine to the individual needles 18
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3~4
AI summary
Apparatus for the processing of food products (10), comprises: a conveyor (12) for feeding food products; several working tools (18), which are located right across the conveyor and are designed to penetrate into the food products, and a control device (20) for the working tools, where on the conveyor, a scanning device (24) is arranged upstream of the working tools and is set to scan the profile of the food products, and the control device is adapted to control the working tools depending on the sampled profile.