Multi-Lane Food Portion Tracking for Weight Accuracy
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing food processing systems face challenges in achieving accurate portion weights, leading to economic disadvantages due to either overweight or underweight portions, which affects profitability and compliance with legal frameworks, and there is a need to enhance throughput and productivity while optimizing portion weight accuracy.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that involve cutting food products into individual portions across multiple production lanes, tracking their position and weight, and shifting them to a reduced number of output lanes for final inspection, allowing for targeted adjustments in slicing thickness based on weight measurements to ensure accurate portioning and minimize deviations from target weights.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multiple slicers are used to slice food products in parallel to increase throughput, then productivity increases, but portion weight accuracy deteriorates because all slicers are controlled by a common signal
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the control system into separate lane-specific control units, where each slicer lane has its own independent control signal generation. This segmentation allows each lane to optimize portion weight independently while maintaining high throughput through parallel operation of multiple lanes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements local quality control by providing individual weight monitoring and control for each lane. Each lane can have different slice thickness settings and weight adjustments tailored to its specific performance characteristics, ensuring optimal portion weight accuracy across all lanes simultaneously.
2Manufacturing precision
If a single-track slicer is controlled by underweight signals and final checkweigher signals, then portion weight accuracy improves, but productivity is limited due to sequential processing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple parallel slicing lanes into a unified system with centralized control and common final checkweighing. This allows sequential weight verification to be performed on all lanes simultaneously while maintaining independent parallel slicing operations, thus preserving both high throughput and accurate weight control.
3Manufacturing precision
If portion weight is strictly controlled to avoid give-away, then profitability improves, but the system becomes more complex requiring multiple sensors and control mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs universal weight control mechanisms that function across all lanes through a common control architecture. The control system performs multiple functions including real-time weight monitoring, slice thickness adjustment, and portion verification using shared sensors and actuators, thereby reducing overall system complexity despite stringent weight control requirements.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a method for processing food products, comprising the steps of: multi-lane slicing of food products into individual food portions (16, 20) in several production lanes; capturing at least one feature of a food portion (16, 20, 23, 34) during and/or after slicing; multi-lane conveying of the food portions (16, 23, 34) on separate production lanes (6, 7, 8, 9); transferring the food portions (34) from several production lanes (6, 7, 8, 9) to a reduced number of output lanes (35) and/or between alternating lanes and/or grouping food portions. According to the invention, the position of the individual food portions (16, 23) is tracked by means of a control system, so that for each food portion (34) transferred to the output lane (35), it is known in which production lane (6, 7, 8, 9) it was produced.The invention further relates to a food processing system.