Abstract: This invention is a stacker for a food loaf slicing machine of the kind in which a food loaf is advanced into a slicing station where slices of generally uniform thickness are cyclically sliced from the end of the loaf. The stacker includes first and second stack supports which are positionable to receive slices as they are cut off the loaf. When one stack support has received a complete stack that support is moved to a displaced discharge position and the other stack support immediately moves into an initial slice receiving position immediately adjacent the slicing station, where it can receive a first food loaf slice as cut with essentially no free fall. The stack support is then displaced downwardly approximately one additional slice thickness for each successive slice received, so that each food loaf slice is added to the stack with no free fall.

Abstract: A food patty molding machine of the kind in which a food pump pumps a moldable food product through a fill passage into the mold cavities of a cyclically operable mold plate, with a multi-orifice plate interposed in the outlet end of the fill passage to distribute the food product throughout substantially the entire surface area of each mold cavity during filling. The fill orifices are aligned in parallel rows with equal center-to-center spacing between orifices; a stripper plate is slidably mounted immediately adjacent the orifice plate and has a multiplicity of fill openings aligned one- for-one with the fill orifices as extensions of those orifices. A stripper plate drive, synchronized with the mold plate drive, slides the stripper plate through a distance equal to the center-to-center spacing of the orifices once in each mold plate cycle to sever and re-position food fibers caught on the upstream side of the stripper plate so that those fibers are fed into the mold cavity in the next machine cycle.

Abstract: A food patty molding method and apparatus, utilizing a cyclically driven mold plate containing one or more mold cavities, in which the fill passage connecting the food pump to the mold cavity has a cross sectional area, immediately adjacent the mold plate fill position, encompassing the entire mold cavity surface area; in one embodiment the fill passage comprises a multiplicity of orifices, and in another embodiment the fill passage is open and is matched to the mold cavity in size and configuration. In both embodiments the pressure on the food product is reduced to an intermediate level, a minor fraction of the fill pressure, during the transition interval when the mold cavity is moving away from the fill passage but still communicates therewith, following which the food product pressure is essentially relieved during the balance of the mold plate cycle until full fill pressure is required.

Abstract: A cryogenic food product freezing tunnel including an elongated housing having a food product entrance at one end, a food product exit at the other end, a food product conveyor extending through the tunnel, a cryogen input near the food product exit, an exhaust stack near the food product entrance with an exhaust blower atop the stack, a plurality of cryogen circulating fans spaced along the length of the tunnel, a variable speed directional blower intermediate the cryogen input and the food product entrance, a cryogen input control, and a temperature sensor positioned between the directional blower and the cryogen input.

Abstract: A machine for molding hamburger patties and other similar food patties, of the kind incorporating a vacuum-intake plunger-type food pump that pumps food product from a supply hopper into mold cavities in a reciprocating mold plate, is equipped with a hydraulic drive system that drives both the food pump and a pair of feed screws that impel the food product toward the pump intake. The feed screws axes are approximately parallel to the direction of travel of the plunger and the outlet end of the feed screws is enclosed to preclude reverse movement of food product from the food pump into the supply hopper at the beginning of the pumping stroke; rotation of the feed screws is timed to coincide with the intake stroke of the pump in an arrangement that can be made to compensate for variations in pumped volume of the food product. A single hydraulic pump provides both a low-pressure hydraulic supply for plunger advance and a high-pressure hydraulic supply for plunger retraction and feed screw rotation.

Abstract: Cryogenic freezing tunnel for comestibles supported on an open mesh conveyor belt in which frost is scrubbed from opposed surfaces of the conveyor by brushes of unique construction.

Abstract: A cryogenic food product freezing tunnel comprising a stationary structure including an entrance end housing section, a tunnel housing cover, and an exit end housing section, a conveyor to transport food products through the tunnel housing, a spray header to spray a liquid cryogen onto the food products near the exit end of the tunnel, and an exhaust plenum to exhaust cryogen gas from the entrance end. The base of the tunnel housing is a series of U-shaped modular units arranged end-to-end and suspended from the stationary structure by individual hydraulic elevators, movable between a lowered, open service position and a raised position sealed against the housing cover and the end housing sections. Each end base unit is lowered outwardly and downwardly to its service position and is raised along the same path; the base units are lowered in predetermined sequence, end units before center units, and are raised in the reverse sequence.

Abstract: A startup and shutdown control for a cryogenic freezing tunnel for freezing food products in which the rate of flow of cryogen into the tunnel is normally regulated by a thermal regulator, including an auxiliary flow regulator for maintaining a predetermined flow of cryogen to the tunnel independently of the thermal regulator, a first startup interval device, comprising a counter responsive to movement of the tunnel conveyor, for actuating the auxiliary flow regulator to provide a constant flow of cryogen to the tunnel after a first startup interval measured from the initiation of movement of a supply of food products to the tunnel, and a second startup interval device, comprising a timer, to cut off the flow of cryogen via the auxiliary flow regulator after a second startup inverval.

Abstract: A combination processing machine and stacker for papered food patties and like layered objects comprising an endless belt conveyor for transporting the previously assembled layered objects through a processing station; for hamburger patties the processing station may be a cuber, a garnish or seasoning applicator, or a cheese applicator. The discharge end of the conveyor belt is a stacking station at which the belt engages a nose sprocket and an idler sprocket both mounted on a shuttle reciprocably movable parallel to the conveyor path; when each layered object reaches an alignment stop at the end of the stacking station, the shuttle is shifted rapidly toward the input end of the conveyor, abruptly shortening the discharge end of the conveyor and dropping the object onto a stack accumulator below the shuttle with no change in orientation.

Abstract: A self-compensating constant-tension drive system for a belt conveyor used in a cryogenic freezing tunnel or other elongated thermal processing apparatus, comprising a hydraulic motor driving the drive pulley of the conveyor, a hydraulic pump driven by the tensioning pulley, and a pressure relief valve connected to the outlet of the pump to inhibit flow from the pump and thus inhibit rotation of the pump and tensioning pulley until a predetermined tension is established in the upper run of the belt; the belt is longer than the inter-pulley spacing to allow for substantial thermal expansion and contraction, and the excess belt length is stored in a catenary sag adjacent the drive pulley.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for molding food patties, utilizing a pump with a tall, narrow, elongated pump chamber, an outlet port extending along one edge of the chamber, and a wide access port at one side of the chamber. A supply of hamburger or other poor-flowing food product is maintained in a position completely blocking the pump access chamber and can be drawn into the chamber by rapidly withdrawing a plunger from the chamber past the access port. A hydraulic drive powers the plunger, in synchronism with a mold plate cyclically moving into and out of a fill position beneath the outlet port; the hydraulic drive causes the plunger to pump food out of the pump chamber and into mold cavities in the mold plate under a constant pressure, with the hydraulic pumps of the drive cut off immediately following filling of the molds.