The present invention relates to a system, apparatus and method for separating wares from waste in a warewasher and has particular, although not exclusive, relevance for use as a system for separating cutlery from other items such as food debris.

In large kitchens such as those found in hotels or hospitals there is a need to rapidly clean very large quantities of dining ware. In these high-volume environments, it is prohibitively time consuming to wash the objects (wares) by hand, and so the process is typically automated using a warewasher system.

Warewasher systems process large numbers of objects, such as crockery or glassware, to clean the objects of debris such as food waste. In order to increase the efficiency of the cleaning process, the objects that enter the machine are often separated into different types. For example, crockery may be separated from cutlery and other objects. In low-capacity warewasher systems, objects may be manually separated by the user when placing the objects into the machine. High capacity warewasher systems on the other hand are highly complex machines able to process hundreds to thousands of objects per hour, and may separate the objects automatically.

The items present on the surface of crockery that enters a warewasher typically include cutlery, food debris and other waste such as napkins, yoghurt pots or receipts. The currently available systems for removing items from the surface of crockery often utilise a multi-stage approach in which the largest items of debris are removed from the crockery first, before the removal of the cutlery and smaller items of debris. However, these types of separation systems often require large amounts of space in which to operate, which is a particularly undesirable characteristic when the warewasher is installed in a kitchen environment where the available space is limited.

A known method of separating cutlery from other items in a warewasher is the application of a magnetic field. For example, cutlery may be lifted directly from the surface of crockery using a magnetic field, for transport into a washing area. However, the currently available magnetic systems are prone to lifting significant amounts of debris, such as food waste, together with the cutlery. In particular, when the debris is on top of the cutlery, the debris may be lifted with the cutlery, potentially becoming trapped between the cutlery and the magnetic system. This undesirably increases the amount of food waste transported into the washing area and ingested into the drainage system, which may decrease the quality of the washing process, block filters and/or waste conduits, and increase the regularity with which the warewasher needs to be taken offline for maintenance purposes.

Whilst this issue can, in theory, be ameliorated by routing the cutlery repeatedly through a waste removal stage, such waste removal would impact negatively on warewasher throughput and would be relatively space inefficient. Removing large waste items such as such as napkins, yoghurt pots or receipts prior to separating the cutlery from other wares may help, albeit at the expense of compactness, although such systems can be unreliable and prone to erroneous removal of cutlery along with the waste items. Alternatively, a human operator could, in theory, be provided to manually remove debris from the wares, before the wares enter the magnetic separation stage. However, during peak times at which very large numbers of wares enter the warewasher system, a human operator may be prone to becoming overloaded by the quantity of wares to be processed, resulting in stoppages of the machine and decreasing the throughput of the system.

The present invention seeks to provide a ware separation apparatus for addressing or at least partially ameliorating one or more of the above issues.

In a first aspect the invention provides an apparatus for the separation of wares from waste in a warewasher system, the apparatus comprising: a conveyor for transporting wares and waste in the warewasher system; a first stage comprising means for displacing waste from wares being transported by said conveyor through said first stage; means for retaining the wares on the surface of the conveyor as the waste displacing means displaces said waste from the surface of wares located on said conveyer; and a second stage comprising means for transferring wares from said conveyor, after said wares have been transported through said first stage, for subsequent washing of said transferred wares.

The conveyor may be configured to transport residual waste, remaining after said wares have been transferred, to a waste receiving area.

The ware retaining means may comprise at least one magnet for securing said wares to said conveyor magnetically.

The waste displacing means may be configured to remove waste to a waste receiving area. The waste displacing means may comprise a brush. The brush may be a rotary brush. The brush may comprise at least one brush part arranged in a helical configuration.

The brush may be generally elongate with a longitudinal axis, and the longitudinal axis may be aligned generally parallel to a ware transporting surface of said conveyor, and at a non-zero angle with respect to a direction from which wares will approach in operation, whereby the non-zero angle may be set to cause waste with which the brush engages to move along the brush towards an edge of the ware transporting surface.

The brush may be a reciprocating brush. The waste displacing means may comprise a plurality of brushes.

The waste displacing means may comprise at least one aperture for fluid flow, and, in operation, the flow of fluid may displace waste from the surface of the wares.

The waste displacing means may be configured to displace said waste by means of suction. The displacing means may comprise a vacuum source coupled to an aperture for applying said suction. The aperture may be configured to span at least a major portion of the width of the conveyor.

The aperture may be coupled to a reciprocating arm, and the reciprocating arm may be configured to move the aperture across the surface of the conveyor to displace said waste.

The ware retaining means may comprise a longitudinal barrier orientated parallel to the direction of transport of the transported wares.

The means for transferring wares may be configured for transferring wares by lifting the wares from the surface of the conveyor. The means for transferring wares may be configured for transferring wares by magnetically lifting the wares from the surface of the conveyor.

The means for transferring wares may be configured for transferring the wares to a surface of a second conveyor for transporting the wares to another part of the warewasher system.

The conveyor may be provided with at least one transverse element extending laterally across a surface of the conveyor that moves with the conveyor in operation, wherein the transverse element may be configured for engaging with a ware retained by the retaining means to release the ware from retention by the retaining means as the surface of the conveyor moves.

The waste displacing means may have: an idle configuration in which, during operation, the waste displacing means allows wares to pass the waste displacing means without, or with reduced, waste displacement from those wares, and a waste engaging configuration in which the waste displacing means is operable to displace waste from the surface of wares that are engaged with the transverse element; wherein the waste displacing means may be configured to move to the waste engaging configuration in dependence on the position of the transverse element relative to the retaining means.

The waste displacing means may be operable to displace waste from the surface of the wares without, or with reduced, displacement of the wares relative to the surface of the conveyor.

The waste displacing means may comprise a brush having at least one brush part, and the waste displacing means may be operable to displace waste from the surface of the wares without, or with reduced, displacement of the wares relative to the surface of the conveyor, by virtue of the softness of the at least one brush part, or by virtue of the height of the brush relative to surface of the conveyor.

The means for transferring wares may be configured to engage with an upper surface of a ware, for transferring the wares from said conveyor; and the waste displacing means may be configured to displace waste from the upper surface of the ware.

Each feature disclosed in this specification (which term includes the claims) and/or shown in the drawings may be incorporated in the invention independently (or in combination with) any other disclosed and/or illustrated features. In particular but without limitation the features of any of the claims dependent from a particular independent claim may be introduced into that independent claim in any combination or individually.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the attached figures in which: Figure 1 a shows a simplified schematic diagram of an exemplary ware separation system;

Figure 1 b shows a simplified schematic diagram of an apparatus for separating items in a warewasher system;

Figure 2a shows a simplified diagram of a waste removal mechanism;

Figure 2b shows a simplified diagram of an alternative configuration of the waste removal mechanism of Figure 2a; and

Figure 3 shows an alternative configuration of the ware separation system.

Overview

Figure 1 a shows, for illustrative purposes, a simplified schematic diagram of an exemplary ware separation system generally at 100. The system 100 comprises a transfer stage 1 , a waste separation stage 10, and a cutlery separation stage 20.

The transfer stage comprises a mechanism for transferring items, such as cutlery 4 and debris 3, from the surface of a ware 2 (in the illustrated example an item of crockery), to a transportation lane. In the example shown in Figure 1 a, the transportation lane comprises a first conveyor 5 arranged to transport the transferred items, in the direction indicated by arrow B, through the automated waste separation stage 10 and to the automated cutlery separation stage 20.

Figure 1 b shows the waste separation stage 10 and the cutlery separation stage 20 in more detail. As seen in Figure 1 b, the waste separation stage 10 comprises a waste removal mechanism 1 1 , a securing mechanism 13 for holding wares such as cutlery 4 in place as they pass through the waste separation stage 10, and a first waste disposal area 14 for receiving waste removed by the waste removal mechanism 1 1.

In operation, as the first conveyor 5 transports cutlery 4 and other items present on the surface of the first conveyor 5 through the waste separation stage 10, the cutlery 4 is thus secured to the surface of the first conveyor 5 using the securing mechanism 13. The waste removal mechanism 1 1 transfers debris 3 such as food waste from the first conveyor 5 to the first waste disposal area 14. In effect, therefore, the waste removal mechanism 1 1 selectively filters out waste items 3 such as food waste from the other items (in this example cutlery) being transported by the first conveyor 5 and transfers those filtered waste items to a first waste disposal area 14. The items of cutlery 4 are held in place by the securing mechanism 13 and are thus inhibited from being removed from the surface of the first conveyor 5 by the waste removal mechanism 1 1.

The cutlery separation stage 20 comprises a second conveyor 22 and a cutlery separation mechanism 21 for transferring and securing the cutlery 4 to the second conveyor 22. The cutlery separation stage 20 also comprises a second waste disposal area 23, and a cutlery area 24. The cutlery separation mechanism 21 , in this example, comprises a magnetic field source arranged to lift the cutlery 4 from the first conveyor 5 and secure it to the second conveyor 22 by means of the corresponding magnetic force.

In operation, the first conveyor 5 transports items, such as the cutlery 4 and any residual debris not filtered out by the waste removal mechanism 1 1 , to the cutlery separation stage 20. Items of cutlery 4 are transferred from the first conveyor 5 and secured to the surface of the second conveyor 22 using the cutlery separation mechanism 21 . Items that are not transferred from the first conveyor 5 are transported by the first conveyor 5 to, and received by, the second waste disposal area 23. The second conveyor 5 transports the secured cutlery 4 over the cutlery area 24 and the cutlery is released into and received by the cutlery area 24.

As described in more detail later, the waste separation stage 10 has a particularly beneficial configuration in which the securing mechanism 13 provides a magnetic field. The magnetic field is beneficially able to secure magnetic items, such as cutlery 4, to the surface of the conveyor. This enables the waste separation stage 10 to remove debris from the first conveyor 5, whilst reducing the risk of transferring cutlery 4 from the first conveyor 5 to the first waste disposal area 14.

Beneficially, the selective filtering of at least some of the debris 3 from the first conveyor 5 before the cutlery 4 enters the cutlery separation stage 20 reduces that amount of debris 3 that becomes trapped between the cutlery 4 and the second conveyor 22, when the cutlery 4 is lifted to become attached to the second conveyor 22. Therefore, the separation of the cutlery 4 and debris 3 is improved, and the amount of debris 3 ingested by a washing system that the separated cutlery may be transported into is reduced.

Beneficially, the transfer of all items present on the surface of crockery 2 to a single transportation lane, such as a single conveyor 5, without requiring an initial process of first removing the largest items of debris 3 from the surface of the crockery 2, reduces the amount of space that the system requires. It will be appreciated that this is a particularly beneficial characteristic when the system is installed in a kitchen environment, where the available space is often limited.

In summary, therefore, a system and apparatus for separating items in a warewasher is provided, that beneficially provides a relatively compact system for transferring items from the surface of crockery 2 to a single transportation lane 5, and for selectively filtering items from the transportation lane 5. Items of cutlery 4 are magnetically secured to the surface of a conveyor 5 during the separation process, reducing the risk of the cutlery 4 being inadvertently filtered from the transportation lane 5. The selective filtering of items from the transportation lane 5 beneficially reduces the amount of debris 3 that becomes trapped between the cutlery 4 and a second conveyor 22, when the cutlery 4 is magnetically lifted to the surface of the second conveyor 22.

Illustrative Examples

The waste separation system 100 will now be described in more detail, by way of example only, with reference to Figures 1 a to 2b.

Referring to Figure 1 a, a transfer stage 1 is provided for transferring items, such as cutlery 4 and debris 3, from the surface of a ware, to the surface of a first conveyor 5. Although in the example shown in Figure 1 a the transfer stage 1 is illustrated as transferring items from an item of crockery 2, it will be appreciated that items may be transferred from any other suitable type of ware, such as a dining tray. In the example shown in Figure 1 a, the transfer stage 1 is illustrated as comprising a mechanism for holding the item of crockery 2 and tilting the item of crockery 2 through an angle between a carrying position and a dispensing position. When held at the carrying position a surface of the item of crockery 2 is in a generally horizontal position for carrying other items such as cutlery and waste, whilst when tilted to the dispensing position the surface of the item of crockery 2 is at an angle at which the other items slide off the surface of the item of crockery onto the first conveyor 5. However, it will be appreciated that any other suitable method of transferring items from the surface of the crockery 2 to the first conveyor 5 may be used, such as a mechanism for pushing the items off the item of crockery 2 by mechanical means and/or using jets of air or water, or the like. The items transferred from the surface of the crockery 2 to the first conveyor 5 may include cutlery 4, food debris, napkins, receipts, and packaging such as yoghurt pots, or the like.

The first conveyor 5 transports the transferred items to the waste separation stage 10, in the direction indicate by arrow B. As shown in Figure 1 b, in this example the waste separation stage 10 comprises a waste removal mechanism 1 1 , a securing mechanism 13 and a first waste disposal area 14. The securing mechanism 13 may comprise, for example, a source of a magnetic field such as an electromagnet or permanent magnet. The securing mechanism 13 magnetically holds items of cutlery on the surface of the first conveyor 5 while the waste removal mechanism 1 1 operates to remove at least some of the other, non-magnetic, items present on the surface of the first conveyor 5 to the first waste disposal area 14. Due to the magnetic securing of the cutlery to the surface of the first conveyor, the items of cutlery are thus not transferred from the surface of the first conveyor 5 to the first waste disposal area 14.

The first waste disposal area 14 may be, for example, a storage area for storing the items removed from the first conveyor 5. Alternatively, the first waste disposal area 14 may comprise a conveyor or other transport means for transporting the removed waste to another area.

Figure 2a shows a simplified diagram of the waste removal mechanism 1 1 . In this example, the waste removal mechanism 1 1 comprises a helical brush comprising at least one brush part 1 12 arranged on a cylindrical rod 1 13 in a helical manner. In operation, the helical brush rotates around the longitudinal axis of the rod 1 13 in the direction indicated by arrow A. The helical brush is arranged, as it rotates about the longitudinal axis of the rod 1 13, to transport items such as food debris in a direction, indicated by arrow D, generally perpendicular to the direction of travel of the first conveyor 5. Hence, the items such as food debris are transferred from the first conveyor 5 to the first waste disposal area 14.

It will be appreciated that it may be possible for a waste removal mechanism 1 1 to be configured to remove a limited amount debris 3 when the cutlery 4 is not magnetically secured to the first conveyor 5. For example, increasing the distance between the helical brush and the surface of the conveyor 5 may allow larger items of debris 3 to be removed without the magnetic securing of the cutlery 4. Moreover, the removal mechanism may be configured (e.g. by virtue of the softness of the brush) such that items as heavy as cutlery 4 will not be moved significantly whilst lighter items of waste are removed. Nevertheless, the use of a magnet to hold cutlery in place is particularly useful as it beneficially allows the efficiency of the separation process to be increased, and reduces the risk of cutlery 4 being inadvertently transported to the first waste disposal area 14. For example, when the waste removal mechanism 1 1 is a helical brush and the cutlery is magnetically secured to the conveyor 5, the brush part 1 12 may comprise stiffer bristles, the helical brush may rotate at a greater speed, or the distance between the helical brush and the surface of the conveyor 5 may be decreased, such that a larger fraction of the debris 3 is transferred to the first waste disposal area 14.

The first conveyor 5 transports the items, including cutlery 4, that remain after the selective filtering performed at the waste separation stage 10, to the cutlery separation stage 20. The cutlery separation stage 20 comprises a cutlery separation mechanism 21 , a second conveyor 22, a second waste disposal area 23 and a cutlery area 24. The cutlery separation mechanism 21 may, for example, comprise an electromagnet.

The remaining items include cutlery 4 and debris not removed from the first conveyor 5 by the waste removal mechanism 1 1. The cutlery separation mechanism 21 is configured to provide a magnetic field such that items of cutlery are lifted from the first conveyor 5 to the second conveyor 22, and secured to the surface of the second conveyor 22. Items that are not lifted by the cutlery separation mechanism 21 are transported by the first conveyor 5 to a second waste disposal area 23. The second waste disposal area 23 may be, for example, a storage area for storing the removed waste. Alternatively, the second waste disposal area 23 may comprise a conveyor or other transport means for transporting the removed waste to another area.

It will be appreciated that due to the selective filtering of items by the waste separation stage 10, the amount of debris that becomes trapped between the cutlery 4 and the second conveyor 22 when the cutlery 4 is lifted to the second conveyor 22 is beneficially reduced.

The second conveyor 22 transports the secured cutlery 4 to a cutlery area 24. In the example shown in Figure 1 b, the second conveyor 22 transports the cutlery 4 to a position above the cutlery area 24, where the magnetic field strength of the cutlery separation mechanism 21 is not strong enough to secure the cutlery 4 to the surface of the second conveyor 22, and the cutlery 4 falls to the cutlery area 24. The cutlery area 24 may be, for example, a storage area for storing the cutlery 4. Alternatively, the cutlery area 24 may comprise a conveyor or other transport means for transporting the cutlery 4 to another area of the warewasher or through a cutlery washing part of the warewasher system.

In summary, the items present on the surface an item of crockery 2 are transferred to a single transportation lane 5 comprising a first conveyor 5. Items of cutlery are magnetically secured to the surface of the conveyor 5 using a first securing apparatus 15. A waste separation stage 10 transfers at least a fraction of the items from the first conveyor 5 to a first waste disposal area 14. Beneficially, the magnetic securing of the cutlery 4 to the first conveyor 5 reduces the risk of the cutlery 4 being transferred to the first waste disposal area 14. In other words, the waste separation stage 10 selectively filters out at least some of the waste items from the surface of the first conveyor 5. Beneficially, the selective filtering of items from the first conveyor 5 reduces the amount of debris 3 that becomes trapped between the cutlery 4 and the second conveyor 22, when the cutlery 4 is magnetically lifted to the surface of the second conveyor 22. By providing a single transportation lane and not requiring an initial removal of the largest items of debris 3 from the surface of the crockery 2, the amount of space required by the system is beneficially reduced.

Modifications and alternatives

An exemplary system and apparatus for separating items in a warewasher has been described above in detail. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, a number of modifications and alternatives can be applied in the above examples and variations whilst still benefiting from the inventions embodied therein.

Figure 2b, for example, shows an alternative configuration of the waste removal mechanism 1 1 in which fluid is used to transfer items from the surface of the first conveyor 5 to the first waste disposal area 14. In this example, the waste removal apparatus comprises a conduit for fluid flow 1 15. The conduit 1 15 comprises at least one aperture 1 14 through which fluid such as air or water may flow. Beneficially, the fluid may flow from the apertures 1 14 at a non-zero angle with respect to an axis perpendicular to the surface of the first conveyor 5. For example, the fluid may flow from the apertures 1 14 at an angle of 30 degrees to the axis perpendicular to the surface of the first conveyor 5.

Although in the example shown in Figure 2a the waste removal mechanism 1 1 has been described as comprising a helical brush, it will be appreciated that any other suitable type of brush may be used. For example, a reciprocating brush configured to oscillate in a direction generally perpendicular to the direction of travel of the first conveyor 5 may be provided.

In the above examples the waste removal mechanism 1 1 has been described as comprising a single helical brush. However, as illustrated in the example shown in Figure 3, the waste removal mechanism 1 1 may comprise a plurality of brushes of different size, bristle stiffness, height from the conveyor, helical pitch, and/or the like.

Although in the above examples the waste removal mechanism 1 1 has been described as comprising a brush or fluid jet, the waste removal mechanism 1 1 may comprise any other suitable waste removal means. For example, the waste removal mechanism 1 1 may comprise a vacuum system, such as a vacuum pump connected to a nozzle, for ingesting waste from the conveyor. In one possible example, the nozzle may span a major portion of the width of the conveyor. Alternatively, a relatively small nozzle may be provided attached to a reciprocating arm such that, in operation, the nozzle oscillates above the surface of the conveyor in a direction generally perpendicular to the direction of travel of the conveyor.

Whilst in the above examples the waste removal mechanism 1 1 has been described as comprising apparatus for removing waste to the waste disposal area 14, alternatively the waste removal mechanism 1 1 may displace waste from the surface of wares in the waste separation stage, without necessarily removing the waste to the waste disposal area. For example, the waste removal mechanism 1 1 may comprise a brush configured to displace waste from the upper surface of the cutlery 4. The brush may comprise relatively soft bristles, or the brush may be arranged at a height at which the brush engages primarily with waste on the upper surface of the cutlery 4 such that, beneficially, the brush does not remove the cutlery 4 from the conveyor 5 even if the cutlery 4 is not magnetically secured to the conveyor 5. Barriers may also be provided on one or both sides of the conveyor 5 in the waste separation stage 10, to prevent cutlery 4 from moving off the conveyor 5 when the cutlery 4 is not magnetically secured to the conveyor 5. Beneficially, the displacement of waste 3 from the upper surface of the cutlery 4 reduces the amount of waste 3 that becomes trapped between the cutlery 4 and the surface of the second conveyor 22 when the cutlery 4 is lifted to the surface of the second conveyor 22, whilst reducing the need for the cutlery 4 to be secured to the conveyor 5 in the waste separation stage 10. Whilst in the above examples the system has been described as comprising a cutlery separation stage 20 including a second conveyor 22 and a cutlery separation mechanism 21 , the skilled person will appreciate that the cutlery separation stage 20 need not necessarily be provided. For example, if only a small amount of debris remains present on the surface of the first conveyor 5 after the selective filtering is performed by the waste separation stage 10, then the cutlery 4 may be transported directly into a washing system using the first conveyor 5.

The conveyor 5 may comprise a plurality of transverse barriers on the upper surface of the conveyor 5, arranged generally perpendicular to the direction of travel of the conveyor 5. In operation, when the cutlery 4 is magnetically secured to the conveyor the cutlery may slip along the surface of the conveyor 5 due to the force exerted on the cutlery 4 by the magnetic field. Beneficially, when the cutlery 4 slips along the surface of the conveyor 5 to the position of one of the transverse barriers, the barrier prevents the cutlery 4 from slipping further along the conveyor 5. As the cutlery 4 slips along the surface of the conveyor 5 to the position of one of the transverse barriers, waste 3 on the surface of the cutlery 4 may become less firmly attached to the surface of the cutlery 4. A brush may be provided above the surface of the conveyor 5 in the waste removal stage 10, that is configured to descend to a waste engaging position when a transverse barrier passes below the brush. In operation, the brush may displace waste from the surface of the cutlery 4 in a direction generally parallel to the direction of travel of the conveyor 5, to the other side of one of the transverse barriers. Since, in this example, the waste is displaced in a direction generally parallel to the direction of travel of the conveyor 5, and is not necessarily removed from the surface of the conveyor, the first waste disposal area 14 at the side of the conveyor 5 need not necessarily be provided.

Whilst the in the above examples the first conveyor 5 has been illustrated as having a smooth, uniform surface, the surface of the first conveyor 5 may comprise a grating or mesh configured to allow small particles of debris 3 to pass through the surface of the first conveyor 5, whilst preventing items of cutlery 4 from doing so, beneficially improving the selective removal of the debris 3.

Various other modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art and will not be described in further detail here.