Spherical Product Portioning with Transverse Abutment Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing apparatuses for producing spherical products from pasty materials, such as sausage meat or dough, often result in irregularly detached balls due to sticky materials, leading to disordered arrangements on conveyor belts or trays, complicating further processing and packaging.
Innovation Solution
The apparatus features a portioning device with closely spaced outlets for balls to be arranged in juxtaposed relationship, and a transport device with an abutment function that aligns the balls in a row transversely to the transport direction, ensuring they are discharged in a compact, accurately aligned manner, reducing the need for manual correction and enhancing packaging efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional portioning devices with larger outlet spacing are used, then balls can be easily detached from cutting plates, but the balls are arranged in a random disordered manner on the conveyor belt
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a transverse dimension to the ball arrangement by using abutment means that orient balls in a row substantially transversely to the transport direction. This dimensional change transforms the random two-dimensional distribution into an ordered one-dimensional transverse row, resolving the contradiction between easy detachment and ordered arrangement.
Solution Approach 2:
The abutment means acts as an intermediary element between the portioning device and the transport device. It receives balls from the portioning device and orients them in an ordered transverse row before transferring to the transport device, thereby mediating between the detachment process and the final arrangement.
2Productivity
If manual alignment of balls is performed to achieve ordered arrangement, then packaging efficiency improves, but hygiene risk increases and processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The abutment means enables the system to self-align the balls automatically without human intervention. The balls are passively oriented in transverse rows by the abutment geometry as they move through the system, eliminating the need for manual alignment and thereby reducing hygiene risks while maintaining packaging efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the manual mechanical alignment process with an automated mechanical abutment system. The abutment means uses geometric constraints and force vectors to automatically orient balls in ordered rows, substituting human labor with a mechanical self-aligning mechanism that reduces hygiene contamination risk.
3Manufacturing precision
If a multi-tray loader is used to transfer balls into packs, then ordered arrangement is achieved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the alignment function from the complex multi-tray loader system and implements it as a separate, simple abutment means integrated into the transport device. This extraction allows ordered ball arrangement to be achieved with minimal additional complexity, eliminating the need for expensive multi-tray loading mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The abutment means serves multiple functions: it orients balls in transverse rows, facilitates smooth transfer from the portioning device to the transport device, and maintains ball spacing. This multi-functionality replaces the need for separate complex alignment and transfer mechanisms, reducing overall device complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
Apparatus and process for producing and discharging spherically shaped products from a pasty material. The apparatus includes a feed device for moving the pasty material along a conveyor path, a portioning device connected downstream of the feed device for shaping the pasty material into balls, and a transport device for discharging the balls produced by means of the portioning device. The portioning device has an outlet opening having a plurality of outlets for the balls to be shaped, arranged in mutually juxtaposed relationship so that the delivered products touch each other or are arranged in closely mutually juxtaposed relationship, and the portioning device and the transport device are so arranged relative to each other that regions of the transport device in the transport direction provide an abutment function for the balls which are to be oriented in mutually juxtaposed relationship in a row substantially transversely relative to the transport direction.