Adjustable Plows for Breading Recirculation in Food Coating
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing coating apparatuses for food products face challenges in evenly applying breading materials, particularly for delicate items that may disintegrate in traditional rotating drums, and in efficiently managing excess breading material distribution and recirculation.
Innovation Solution
A coating apparatus utilizing a flexible drum with a conveyor-belt system that tumbles and evenly applies breading, accompanied by a counter-rotating spreading belt and an overhead conveyor-belt compressor to ensure uniform coating, and an excess breading recirculation system with adjustable plows for optimal material distribution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a traditional rotating drum is used for coating, then coating application is achieved, but delicate food products disintegrate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the traditional rigid rotating drum with a flexible belt system that can be adjusted or removed. This flexible belt gently conveys delicate products through the coating zone without the harsh tumbling action of a drum, preventing disintegration while still enabling coating application. The belt's flexibility allows it to accommodate fragile items that would be damaged by rigid drum mechanisms.
2Manufacturing precision
If excess breading material is removed from the coating zone, then coating quality improves, but breading material is wasted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates a recirculation system that captures excess breading material falling from the coating zone and returns it to the coating material reservoir. This prevents waste of valuable breading material while maintaining consistent coating quality. The system continuously recovers and reuses discarded material, eliminating the need to discard excess breading.
Solution Approach 2:
The recirculation system creates a feedback loop where excess breading material is monitored, collected, and returned to the coating zone. This feedback mechanism ensures that coating material is efficiently utilized and maintained at optimal levels, preventing both waste and inconsistent coating application.
3Productivity
If breading material is recirculated through the coating zone, then material utilization improves, but distribution uniformity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs adjustable plows that can be dynamically positioned to control the distribution of recirculated breading material. These plows can be adjusted to direct material flow to different zones of the conveyor belt, ensuring uniform distribution. The dynamic adjustability allows the system to adapt to varying coating requirements while maintaining consistent application quality.
4Manufacturing precision
If adjustable plows are added for material distribution, then coating uniformity improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The adjustable plows serve multiple functions: they distribute recirculated breading material uniformly across the conveyor belt, control material flow rates, and can be adjusted for different product types and coating requirements. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate devices for each task, thereby limiting the increase in overall system complexity while achieving improved coating uniformity.
Data Source
AI summary
Apparatus for coating food products with breading material has an excess breading-material circulation/re-circulation system, which itself has a main, central product-intake conveyor scraping across an up-sloping bottom panel flanked by left and right elevators that course through up-sloping gutters astride the central conveyor's bottom panel. The central conveyor is relatively broad but shallow for only carrying a relatively light load that becomes a bottom bed of breading material for conveyance of food product thereon. In contrast, the elevators are relatively deep but thin in order to carry relatively-substantial streams of breading material, and disproportionate to their thin width, which are ultimately elevated to a topcoat-applicator and becomes a top-coating of breading material. One or more plows are arranged in the overhead space above the central conveyor to divert a main stream of excess breading material into one or more diverted streams aimed at the flanking elevators.