This invention relates to packaged food recovering apparatus for separating food from flexible packaging enclosing the food.

The invention has been developed primarily with a view to providing apparatus which is capable of operating automatically to receive a supply of food packages, to effect opening of the packages so that the food contents can be separated therefrom, and then to collect the separated food.

A typical type of food package with which the apparatus of the invention may be employed is a thin plastics package of the type used to contain potato crisps, salted nuts, Hula Hoops and similar savoury snack foods which are contained somewhat randomly within the package and which are free to move within the package to a certain extent .

In the mass production of packets of potato crisps, peanuts, cashew nuts and the like, it is essential that the weight of the contents should be kept very closely to the weight indicated on the packaging. The sale of underweight packets should be avoided for obvious reasons, but in view of the very considerable raw material cost of some of these types of food, such as nuts, and especially the more expensive nuts like cashew nuts, the supply of overweight packages also should be avoided since otherwise this would minimise or even wipe out the profit margin on the sale of the overweight packages.

With existing dispensing equipment, it is impossible to achieve regular and accurate filling of the packaging with crisps, nuts and the like, and after final weighing of the packages, inevitably a substantial proportion of the packages are usually found to be outside set limits, and therefore require re-processing.

At present, recovery of the food in faulty packaging

is carried out on an entirely manual basis, with the faulty packages being opened-up , the contents discharged into a suitable collecting vessel and then recycled to the packaging apparatus for repackaging. In addition, any packages which are faulty in any way e.g. not properly closed, must also undergo reprocessing.

The separation of the food from its packaging is therefore labour intensive, and is both time consuming and a significant on-cost, which is inappropriate in a mass production food processing and packaging installation.

The invention therefore seeks to provide a packaged food recovery apparatus which enables the recovery of food of this nature from its packaging to be carried out on an automated basis, with faulty packages being supplied to an inlet of the apparatus, and the packaging and their contents separated from each other and delivered to respective outlets.

According to the invention there is provided a packaged food recovery apparatus for separating food from flexible packaging enclosing the food, in which the apparatus comprises: an input station for receiving packages of food; means for conveying the packages from the input station to a cutting station at which the packaging material is slit, and for conveying the slit packages to a discharge station; and, a separating device arranged at the discharge station to receive the slit packages and operable to separate the food from each package.

Thus, apparatus according to the invention is able to automate the recovery of food from flexible packaging which is faulty in some way or another e.g. incorrect weight of the food contents.

Preferably, the cutting station comprises at least one rotary cutter which is operable to slit an exposed face of the packaging material of each package as it is conveyed

thereto, and may be a cutter disc which is mounted at a fixed location and which is rotatable about a substantially horizontal a is.

To facilitate the separation of food from each slit package, it is preferred that two rotary cutters are employed, one upstream of the other, and arranged so that two separate slits or incisions can be made in the exposed face of each package. Desirably, a guide is arranged along the conveying path between the two cutters, so as to effect partial rotation of each package e.g. through approximately 90°, so that transverse slits or incisions are formed by the tv/o cutters. When, as is preferably the case, each cutter disc has its plane extending substantially along the direction of the feedpath, a cross-shaped slit will be formed in the face of each package.

Conveniently, a respective guide is associated with the or each cutter, so as to guide the feeding of each package by the conveying means to the cutter. Further, to assist in the guidance of each package to the downstream cutter, following partial rotation by the guide, it is preferred that a spring loaded lateral guide wall is arranged alongside the feedpath, so as to assist in the guidance of the rotated package into the path of the guide associated with the downstream -cutter .

The conveying means may comprise an endless conveyor provided with a smooth, or a ribbed or other type of gripping surface appropriate to engage and to forward convey the packages, and an upper run of the conveyor may pass below the rotary cutter disc(s) .

To facilitate the slitting action, in one embodiment it is preferred that the upper run of the conveyor is supported by an adjustable table which can be adjusted up and down with respect to the cutter disk(s) so as to suit different thicknesses of packages. The table may also be spring mounted, so as to be capable of yielding to a limited extent as the cutter disc comes into engagement

with a package.

By the use of vertical rotary cutter discs in an embodiment of the invention, operating on loose packages of food, such as crisps. Hula Hoops, nuts and the like, it has been found surprisingly that virtually no damage is caused to the food even although it is frequently of a somewhat brittle nature.

The separating device may comprise a shaker onto which the packages are caused to fall after inversion (with the slits now facing downwardly) , so that gravity discharge of the food is readily achieved into a suitable receptacle. A suction hood may be arranged over the separating device so as to lift-off the packaging as the food is removed, and then to direct the packaging to a discharge point.

To provide a continuous supply of packaged food to the input station, a hopper may be arranged at the input station, and a rotary valve type arrangement conveys packages, preferably singly, from the hopper outlet to the conveyor .

If it is required to treat more than one package at a time, preferably a plurality of separate treatment runs are provided, each of which may be fed from the input station, and which may feed slit packages to a common separating device.

In a further embodiment of the invention, a hopper is provided at the input station, and a flighted endless elevator extends upwardly from the hopper to a discharge point at which individual packages of food fall onto the conveyor. The arrangement of the flights ensures that individual packages are elevated to the discharge point one by one. The endless elevator, including the flights, is preferably made of resilient material, to engage gently with the individual packages which may contain crushable foodstuffs, such as potato crisps or Hula Hoops.

Desirably, the linear speed of the conveyor is greater than that of the elevator e.g. runs at twice its speed, to

minimise the risk of "bunching" of packages taking place upstream of each cutter.

To promote smooth guidance of the packages to the cutters i.e. so as to minimise any crushing of the food content, preferably a guide arrangement is provided to cooperate with each cutter and engages yieldingly with the upper surface of each package as it is guided to receive a cutting action by the respective cutter. The guide arrangement may comprise a flap of resilient material held rigidly at an upstream end and extending downstream thereof in cantilever manner and in a downwardly inclined direction towards the conveyor surface. The flap may have preformed slots to allow the cutter to project through the flap and so as to make contact with the surface of the packaging. Alternatively, the guide arrangement may be formed by a comb or brush-like guide.

The separating device may comprise a passage to which the slit packages are fed in inverted form, and which passage has a perforated, grid or grating-like surface forming at least a lower surface of the passage, so that the food content of the packages can fall under gravity through the lower surface and onto a suitable conveyor surface or chute leading to a collecting receptacle, or to a conveyor for recycling the recovered food.

Preferably, a grid is arranged below the passage in order to separate-out food portions smaller than a predetermined minimum size, while allowing acceptable size portions to be conveyed over the surface of the grid to a discharge point.

A guide chute may be arranged at the discharge end of the conveyor to direct slit packages into the passage, and preferably the guide chute is hingedly mounted for movement between an operative position and an open position allowing access to the interior of the passage.

As indicated above, each cutter may have a guide arrangement associated therewith which engages yieldingly

with the upper surface of each package as it is guided to receiving a cutting action by the respective cutter. However, the use of respective guide arrangements is not essential, and the cutter arrangement may be provided comprising first and second sets of cutter discs arranged one after the other with respect to the direction of feeding of the packages, and with the discs being rotatable in such a direction that their instantaneous lower edges move in the direction of movement of the upper run of the conveyor.

A suction head is connected to the downstream end of the passage, and this applies a gentle suction action which draws the packaging material towards it. after discharge of the food contents from each package, and the packaging is then discharged to a suitable collector arrangement. Embodiments of packaged food recovery apparatus according to the invention will now be described in detail, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic side illustration of a first embodiment of packaged food recovery apparatus for separating food, such as potato crisps. Hula Hoops, nuts and the _like. from flexible packaging enclosing the food;

Figure 2 is a schematic plan view illustrating the treatment steps applied to packages of food by the apparatus;

Figure 3 is a schematic plan view of a conveying and slitting part of the apparatus;

Figure 4 is a side view of an alternative arrangement of separating device at the discharge end of the conveying apparatus;

Figure 5 is a detail end view of part of the separating device shown in Figure 4;

Figure 6 is a schematic side view of a second embodiment of apparatus according to the invention; and. Figure 7 is a schematic plan view of an endless

conveyor v/hich takes packaged food through two cutting stations which form incisions in the upper surfaces of the packaging material.

Referring first to Figures 1 to 3 of the drawings, there is shown schematically a packaged food recovery apparatus which is designated generally by reference 10, and which is capable of separating loosely packed and often brittle food material, such as potato crisps, Hula Hoops, nuts and other savoury snack products from flexible packaging material, usually of plastics, which encloses the food. The apparatus is intended for use in separating the food from the packaging, when the package is faulty in one sense or another, usually by reason of being of incorrect wei ght .

The apparatus 10 comprises an input station 11 for receiving the packages of food from a hopper 12 which contains a batch of packages 13, the packages 13 being delivered one by one to the input station 11 by means of a rotary feed valve shown schematically by reference 14.

Means is provided for conveying the packages 13 from the input station 11 to a cutting station, which is designated generally by reference 15, at which the packaging material is slit, and the conveying means then conveys the slit packages to a discharge station 16. The conveying means takes the form of an endless conveyor 17 which comprises twin endless conveyor belts 18, shown in Figure 3, and v/hich are provided with ribbed or other types of gripping surface 19 appropriate to engage and to forward convey the packages.

A separating device, designated generally by reference 20, is arranged at the discharge station 16 so as to receive the slit packages issuing from the cutting station 15, and is operable to separate the food from each slit package.

The cutting station 15 comprises at least one rotary cutter, and in the illustrated embodiment comprises an

upstream rotary cutter disc 21 and a dov/nstream cutter disc 22, each of which is mounted at a fixed location and which is rotatable about a substantially horizontal axis. It will be noted from Figure 3 that the discs 21 and 22 are laterally separated from each other, with respect to the direction of the feedpath of the packages from the input station 11 to the discharge station 16. In addition, a guide 23 is arranged between the cutters 21 and 22, and projects into the feedpath from the disc 21 to the disc 22, so as to effect partial rotation of each package, after slitting by the disc 21, and which will usually effect rotation of the slit package through approximately 90°. Upon subsequent presentation of the slit package to the disc 22, a further slit or incision is formed, at approximately 90° to the first slit, so that a cross-shaped incision is made. The double slit package then issues from beneath the cutter disc 22 to the discharge station 16. and means is then provided to effect inversion of the double slit package so as to fall on laterally spaced shaker bars 24 of an oscillating shaker 25 so that, with the slit side of package 13 facing downwardly, the food content can readily fall under gravity through the bars 24 to be caught in an underlying receptacle 26. At the same time, a suction hood 27, arranged above the shaker 25, lifts the packaging material after or during separation of the food product, and the packaging, shown by reference 29, then passes away to a suitable discharge point via a suction passage 28.

The endless conveyor 17 has an upper run 30 which conveys the packages 13 from the input station 11 and below each of the rotary cutter discs 21 and 22, and to facilitate the guidance of the packages, each disc 21 and 22 has an associated guide plate 31 and 32 respectively, having an upwardly turned mouth, and which, in combination with the movement of the upper run 30 of the conveyor 17, guides the feeding of the packages so as to pass below the

cutter discs.

The upper run 30 of the conveyor 17 passes over an adjustable table 33 which can be adjusted up and down with respect to the cutter discs 21 and 22, so as to suit different thicknesses of packages. The table 33 is also spring mounted, by springs shown schematically by reference 34. so as to be capable of resiliently yielding to a limited extent as the cutter discs 21 and 22 come into engagement with the exposed upper face of each package.

The vertical cutter discs 21 and 22. operating on loose packages of food in flexible packaging, such as packets of crisps, Hula Hoops, nuts and the like, is such as to be able to create substantially no damage to the food content, even although the food content is frequently of a somewhat brittle nature. It is believed that this surprising advantage is achieved, at least in part, by reason of the loose and random location of the food contents within the flexible packaging, so that if any food does become engaged by a cutter disc, it can be displaced laterally and out of damaging contact.

Figure 1 is a schematic illustration only, and normally the cutter discs 21 and 22. and indeed the entire upper run of the conveyor will be shrouded by a suitable protective housing, and preferably this may include a laterally movable guide plate 35 (see Figure 3) which is arranged opposed to the guide 23. and which can ease the movement of a rotated package into the path of the guide 32 associated with the downstream cutter disc 22.

Figure 2 illustrates schematically the successive treatment stages applied to packages 13 as they move from the hopper 12 singly to input station 16. then to receive first cut or incision by disc 21, to undergo 90° rotation by guide 23, to receive a second cut or incision by means of disc 22, to undergo inversion so that the slit face is facing downv/ards at the discharge station 16, and then to undergo shaking and food separation in the separating

device 20, where the food passes to one outlet, and the separated packaging material passes to a further discharge point .

The illustrated embodiment is, as mentioned above, shown schematically only, and preferably operates by the feeding of packages singly to the input station 11, to pass one by one through the various treatment stages. However, evidently if a greater rate of treatment is required, then the illustrated embodiment can be duplicated laterally so as to provide more than one treatment run, each with its own cutter discs, though there can be a common input station 11 and they could all feed to a common discharge station 16 having a single separating device 20.

The embodiment of Figures 1 to 3 is shown schematically and by way of example only , and many modifications can be made thereto, and within the scope of this invention. Thus, for certain types of packatged food, such as package of "Hula Hoops", it has been found that improved separation of the food content can be achieved by having a first single bag slitter blade 21, but a second tandem blade arrangement in place of single blade 22. Thus, a first incision can be made in the upper face of the packaging, followed by a perpendicular double incision. Then, following inversion of the package at the discharge end of the conveyor, improved discharge of the food content can be achieved.

Also, to improve the forward conveyance of the packages through the two package incision stations, it is advantageous to provide an endless conveyor belt having a textured rubbery type surface.

An alternative separating device Is shown in Figures 4 and 5, which is arranged at the downstream or discharge end of the endless conveyor 35. The separating device is designated generally -by reference 36, and comprises a curbed guide plate 37 arranged adjacent to downstream conveyor pulley 38 so as to define a guide path 39 along

which a slit package 40 can pass from the upper run of the conveyor 35 so as to fall under gravity in an inverted manner onto the shaker bars 41 of food separator 42.

The package 40 will then have its incised surface facing downv/ardly, so that the food content 43 eg nuts or "Hula Hoops", can readily fall under gravity from the packaging into the bottom of the separator 42 and then be discharged to a suitable collector (or to an auger or other conveyor for returning the separated food to the main packaging plant) , by way of discharge outlet 44.

The shaker bars 41 are caused to oscillate up and down by a lift arm 45 driven recti 1 inearly upwardly by a rotary actuator 46 v/hich rotates with pulley 38. The actuator 46 has ci rcumferential ly spaced actuator rods 47 which engage intermitten ly with an actuator arm 48 coupled with lift arm 45 so as to raise the latter. Upon disengagement of each actuator rod 47 with arm 48, the shaker bars 41 will fall under gravity and draw the arms 45 and 48 downwardly, ready for engagement of the next succeeding actuator rod 47 with arm 48.

To promote the separation of the packaging 40a from the food contents 43 of each package 40, a suction hood 49 is arranged in an end plate 50 of separator 42, and the ^• mouth of the hood is arranged above the level of the shaker bars 41 and creates a suction force v/hich draws the packaging 40a towards the hood 49. The packaging 40a remains generally in its inverted form (with the incisions facing downwardly) , and the last of the food content falls under gravity under the action of the shaker bars 41 as the packaging moves towards the mouth of the suction hood 49. The packaging 40a can then be drawn along a discharge pipe 51 to a suitable collection point (not shown) .

To ensure as far as possible that each package 40 will fall in an inverted manner onto the shaker bars 41, it may be advantageous to provide the curved guide plate 37 with a guide passage 52 at its downstream end, by means of an

internal guide plate 53 (shown in dashed outline).

The embodiments of the invention are illustrated schematically only in the accompanying drawings, and suitable shields or guards will be provided (not shown) to shield operatives from any risk of personal injury from the moving parts of the apparatus, including particularly the cutting blades for cutting the packaging material. Conveniently, a transparent hood or cover will be arranged over the upper run of the conveyor, so that the passage of the packages being treated can be observed and, any remedial action taken if any jamming should occur.

Also, although not shown, suitable interlock or other types of safety arrangements will be provided, by way of microswitches or the like, v/hich will cause automatic interruption in the operation of the apparatus, if any hood, cover or guard should be removed while the apparatus is in operation.

Referring now to Figures 6 and 7 of the drawings, there is shown a further embodiment of v/aste food recovery apparatus according to the invention which is designated generally by reference 60. This embodiment operates generally similarly to the apparatus already described, in that it separates food from flexible packaging enclosing the food, and comprises an input station for receiving packages of food, means for conveying the packages from the input station to a cutting station at which the packaging material is slit, and for conveying the slit packages to a discharge station, and a separating device arranged at the discharge station to receive the slit packages and to separate the food from each package.

The embodiment 60 is provided with a hopper 61 at the input station, and a flighted endless elevator 62 which extends upwardly from within the hopper to a discharge point 63 at which individual packages 64 of food fall onto endless conveyor 65. The arrangement of the flights 66 on the elevator 62 ensure that individual packages are

elevated one by one to the discharge point 63. The endless elevator 62 and the flights 66 are made of resilient material, to engage gently v/ith the individual packages v/hich will usually contain crushable foodstuffs, such as potato crisps or Hula Hoops.

The linear speed of the conveyor 65 is greater than that of the elevator 62, and is preferably twice the linear speed of the elevator, so as to minimise the risk of "bunching" of packages taking place upstream of first and second cutting stations 67 and 68 respectively.

A cutting station 67 comprises an arrangement of twin vertical cutter discs 69, and packages 64 are guided to the discs 69 by means of a first guide 70 v/hich is angularly adjustable to control the feed of the individual packages one by one to the cutting station 67.

To promote smooth guidance of the packages to the cutter discs 69 and thereby minimise any crushing of the food content, a guide arrangement 71 is provided v/hich cooperates with the cutter discs 69 and engages yieldingly with the upper surface of each package 64 as it is guided to receive a cutting action by the cutter discs 69. The guide arrangement comprises a flap of resilient material in the illustrated embodiment, which is held rigidly at upstream end 72. and it extends in cantilever manner from end 72 downstream thereof and in a gently downwardly inclined direction towards the surface of the conveyor 65. The flap has preformed slots to allow the cutter discs 69 to project through the flap and to make contact with the upper surface of the packaging of each package 64. Alternatively, the guide arrangement may comprise a comb or brush like guide. A second guide 73 is arranged downstream of the first cutting station 67 and serves to rotate each package (which now has two slits in its upper packaging surface) through approximately 90° and towards the entry end to the second cutting station 68. The cutting station 68 comprises a single vertical cutter disc 74 which

cooperates with a guide flap arrangement 75 which is generally similar to the guide arrangement 71 cooperating with cutter discs 69.

Following the formation of crossed slits in the upper surface of the packaging of each package 64, the packages then fall under gravity into the path of a guide chute 76 which guides the slit packages in inverted form to a passage 77 along which the packages pass while having the food content thereof separated from each package. The passage 77 is formed by a frusto-conical mesh and which therefore allows the food content of the packages, which falls under gravity through the now lower slitted packaging surface, to pass downwardly through the lower surface of the passage 77 and onto a conveyor surface or chute 78 leading to a collecting receptacle 79, or to a conveyor for recycling the recovered food.

A suction head 80 is connected to the downstream end of the passage 77, and this applies a gentle suction action which draws the packaging material towards it, after discharge of the food content of each package, and this packaging is then discharged to a suitable collector arrangement via discharge outlet 81.

A number of modifications may be made to the embodiment 60 shown in Figures 6 and 7, to further improve the handling and cutting-open of the flexible wrapping of each package 64, and subsequent discharge of the content of each package.

Thus, the guide 70 (shown only schematically in Figure 7) preferably takes the form of an angled guide chute which feeds the packages forwardly and laterally towards one (82) of a pair of longitudinally extending side walls 83 and 83 (shown schematically by dot-dash lines in Figure 7) between which the upper run of the conveyor 65 moves. The packages 64 are then conveyed forwardly by the conveyor 65 towards the twin cutter discs 69 at the first cutting station 67, and it has been found that a satisfactory guidance and

cutting action can be achieved without the need for the guide arrangement 71 which can be omitted, provided that the discs 69 are rotated so that the instantaneous lower edges move in the direction of movement of the conveyor 65 i.e. anti-clockwise rotation of the discs 69 as seen in Figure 6.

Similarly, the guide flap arrangement 75 can be omitted, provided that the single disc 74 also is rotated anti-clockwise. However, the guide 73 is retained in order to rotate each package, (after double incisions in its upper surface by discs 69) , through approximately 90° ready to receive the single transverse slit formed by disc 74.

In order to separate-out any small portions of the contents of each package (which may be present initially) , the chute 78 may be replaced by a grid (not shown) having longitudinally extending grid bars spaced apart by a distance sufficient to allow portions less than a predetermined minimum size to fall through the grid, whereas acceptable size portions pass over the surface of the grid to be collected in receptacle 79.

To facilitate cleaning or routine maintenance, guide chute assembly 76 may be mounted on a vertical hinge which allows the assembly to swing open and allow access to the interior of passage 77.