Automated String Cheese Packaging System with Height-Adjusted Bucket

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Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional packaging systems for elongate food products face challenges such as difficulty in cleaning, limited functionality for efficient packaging, and inability to achieve high packing speeds, especially when handling raw food products, leading to issues like misalignment and food safety concerns.

Innovation Solution

An automated food packaging system that includes a feed ramp, a moving surface with dividers, and a bucket with sensors, which conveys and aligns individual product pieces for efficient and high-speed packaging, ensuring a high degree of alignment and safety by using non-porous food-safe materials and continuous monitoring of electrical components.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If conventional bulk packaging systems are used, then packaging speed can be increased, but alignment precision deteriorates and cleaning difficulty increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvepackaging speedVSAvoidalignment precision

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSManufacturing precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces manual/robotic mechanical placement with an automated conveyor system that uses controlled mechanics to deposit products. The conveyor belt with controlled speed and the bucket positioning mechanism work together to achieve both high-speed operation and precise alignment, eliminating the trade-off between speed and precision that exists in manual systems.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Solution Approach 2:

The system uses the product's own properties (elongate shape, size) to achieve alignment. The conveyor belt speed and bucket positioning are calibrated so that products naturally align in the desired orientation during deposition, without requiring complex external alignment mechanisms or manual adjustment.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

2Device complexity

If conventional packaging systems are used, then equipment complexity can be reduced, but cleaning accessibility deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesystem complexityVSAvoidcleaning accessibility

Core Design Contradiction:

Device complexityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The packaging system is divided into distinct modular components: conveyor belt, bucket mechanism, depositing system, and control system. Each module can be independently accessed and cleaned, with smooth surfaces and minimal crevices in food-contact areas. The segmentation allows for simplified cleaning protocols while maintaining overall system functionality.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

3Manufacturing precision

If manual or robot packaging is used, then alignment precision can be improved, but productivity deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvealignment precisionVSAvoidpackaging speed

Core Design Contradiction:

Manufacturing precisionVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

4Productivity

If packing speed is increased, then productivity is improved, but measurement precision deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvepackaging speedVSAvoidheight measurement accuracy

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The system incorporates sensors that continuously measure the height of deposited products in real-time. This feedback is immediately used to adjust the conveyor belt speed and bucket positioning, ensuring that alignment precision is maintained even at high packaging speeds. The closed-loop control system prevents measurement errors from accumulating.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

Data Source

PatentUS12151837B2Automated string cheese packaging system

Publication Date: 2024.11.26 LEPRINO FOODS CO

AI summary

The present technology is generally directed to methods and systems for automated food packaging. The method and system includes singulating a plurality of elongate food products into a plurality of individual product pieces, conveying the plurality of individual product pieces along a moving surface, depositing a portion of the individual product pieces into a bucket, where the products are deposited such that a length of greater than about 90% of the individual product pieces are generally aligned parallel with the first side or second side of the bucket. Methods and systems include measuring a height between a top surface of the deposited portion of produce pieces and a top side of the moving surface, vertically lowering the bucket if the measured height is less than a threshold amount, and depositing a second portion of individual product pieces into the vertically lowered bucket.