This invention relates to drag conveyors for particulate material to be processed, in which a portion of the processing is conducted while the material is still being transported within the drag conveyor trough. In one preferred form, it relates to a system in which the processing includes liquid treatment of a product, and in which the initial part of the processing comprises soaking of the material for a predetermined time period. The soaking is then followed by a rapid and essentially complete extraction of the soaking liquid while the material is still within the drag conveyor.
It is well known in the particulate food industry involving canning, that where some product pre-treatment is required, it can often be done during conveyance. One example is the dicing of tomatoes, belt-conveying the “diced” toward and through a tank of water and calcium chloride, raising the product out of the liquid by means of the belt, and delivering the treated tomatoes to another conveyor which takes them toward cooking and canning stations. The belt used in this instance includes integral upstanding pusher flights perhaps a few inches in height, and the tank is stationary. The belt dips into the tank, continues for a distance intended to provide a predetermined soak time to the diced and is then inclined upwardly out of the tank. One problem affecting the end quality of the canned product is that eddy currents formed by the travelling belt can cause tumbling movement of the product backward of and around the flights within the tank, altering the desired residence time of diced in the liquid. On occasion, if the diced is piled too high on the belt (above the liquid level) or if the liquid level is not maintained, the upper layer of diced on the belt may not receive any or only slight immersion. This is detrimental to desired preservation quality of the end product. Along with this, there may be about a 1% to 5% loss of product, juice and soak liquid from the tank and the belt during the conveying and transfer to take-away equipment. Ideally, treated diced is firm after conveyance, and is given a hardness test. If the intended soak time is not accomplished, or if the diced tends to be too soft as a result of tumbling while being conveyed, an inferior product may result. One canning plant in California utilizing a belt soak conveyor of the above type handles about 40,000 semi-trailer loads of tomatoes during a three month harvest period, simply for the preparation and canning of diced tomatoes. A loss of only one percent of that amount of product is huge, averaging out to four-and-one-half truckloads per day out of a total of four hundred fifty. Of the remainder that is successfully canned, the preservation and appearance quality, though generally acceptable for consumer purposes, can stand improvement.
Another type of conveyor used to a lesser extent for this particular application is an upwardly-inclined augur screw in which flights push the diced through a tube that is partially immersed in liquid. Product loss is avoided in this conveyor approach because the diced is contained within the tube. The augur must inherently slide against the diced product as it pushed it along, creating the potential for a less-firm end product, depending on the conveyor speed. Whatever the reason, these conveyors appear to have less acceptability in this industry than belt conveyors. Both types have throughput limitations, since any increase in speed will result in greater liquid churning, attendant product damage and reduced control of product residence time in liquid.
The question has remained until now as to whether other types of conveyors can be made to overcome the limitations of those that have been in use for some time for this type of application. For example, drag conveyors have been known for well over a hundred years for conveying dry particulate or granular materials such as food grain, pelletized dogfood, plastics, animal feeds, powders, flour, coffee beans, fertilizer and the like from one location to another in manufacturing processes such as bagging, mixing, blending, pelletizing, etc. Why they have not been considered previously for soaking cut vegetables or fruits can be discerned from examining the structures and internal moving parts inherent in the designs of these long-available drag conveyors.
The art relating to drag conveyors for the above uses has changed very little during the 1900's, the most innovative drag conveyor being one that is illustrated in U.S. Reissue Pat. No. RE37,472 E granted to Jon F. Baker on Dec. 18, 2001. Another well-known drag conveyor is that of U.S. Pat. No. 5,174,433 granted on Dec. 29, 1992 to Robert H. Moser. Both claim self-cleaning capabilities. The term “self-cleaning” as it relates to the drag conveyor art indicates that upon completion of conveying one product, the machine can be kept running for a short time period to remove all of the particulate from the trough. The troughs are designed so that gravity directs all product toward the very bottom of the trough, which is intended to be scraped clean. This avoids contamination between different products when at changeover.
To the best of our knowledge, drag conveyors have not been used previously for products that are “wet”, i.e., a product that is immersed in water or other liquid as contrasted to one that is slightly moist. For a good many years, they appear to have been used almost completely with the “dry” products noted above. Some of these machines are in excess of a hundred feet in length, rendering their cleaning at the end of a particular job a near impracticality if not self-cleaning. Many are used for a single product, avoiding contamination between products, while others are used in applications where contamination is of little or no concern. Thus, where the conveyors are used for handling different multiple products, and where avoidance of product contamination is essential, self-cleanability of the machine is an important desired feature. With the exception of the above Baker patent and a few machines similar to the Moser design noted earlier, most drag conveyors have numerous chain-supporting return idler sprockets within the trough and liquid-pervious shaft bearings for those sprockets along the trough. These sprockets can present obstacles to product flow, cause product damage, increase the potential for product contamination, and as now discovered, their bearings present a near impossibility of making the trough watertight for applications of the drag conveyors to “wet” conditions.
A trough-type watertight drag conveyor for particulate material to be processed commences initial stages of the processing while the material is still within the trough. More specifically, in one significant application of the invention, treating liquid is utilized during the processing, this liquid serving further to assist in the conveyance and thereby minimize potential damage to certain materials. Paddles dragged along the trough essentially dam the material in relatively discrete batches. Despite being isolated in batches, the product flow is continuous, the batches being separated only by the thickness of the paddles. Conveyor speed is controlled to allow sufficient residence time of the material within the treating liquid in those instances where required. The paddles are restrained against lifting from the trough bottom to maintain a fairly intimate seal between the trough and paddles. The treating liquid is extracted from the material prior to discharge from the conveyor, and in its preferred form, the treating liquid is recirculated for reuse.
It is a principal object of the invention to commence treatment or processing of a particulate material while it is contained in a trough of a drag conveyor, particularly where the material is conveyed in a liquid and wherein the liquid is extracted from the material prior to completion of the conveyance.
A further object is to provide a type of conveyor for the purposes noted, where productivity can be greatly increased by lengthening a trough and increasing conveying speed while still achieving a required predetermined residence time of product in liquid.
Another object is to extract liquid from a material being dragged along a conveyor trough and recirculate the liquid for reintroduction into the trough for reuse.
A further object is to drag a particulate food material and liquid in continuous discrete batches between adjacent paddles of the drag conveyor, with the paddles damming and thus isolating one batch and its liquid from another and providing a predetermined residence time of the material in the liquid.
An ancillary object is to maintain the paddles in relatively intimate sealing and self-cleaning contact with the trough bottom and top surface of a drain screen by resisting any tendency of product to lift the paddles.
Another object is to provide for repetitive cleaning of the drain screen as each paddle passes thereover, thus maintaining the screen free of any tendency toward plugging.
A further object is to control the rate of speed of the paddles to provide a predetermined residence time of material in liquid.
Yet another object is to provide controlled discrete batches of liquid and product that are separated only by the thickness of the paddles, thereby providing high productivity while insuring an exacting and thorough residence time of all particulate material in its liquid.
Another object is to extract liquid from a product/liquid material at a location that is intermediate the inlet and outlet ends of the conveyor.
Still another object is to provide in a watertight drag conveyor a spraying system that, in conjunction with the self-cleaning aspects of the paddle design, achieve a complete and thorough automatic washdown of the trough by running the machine and spraying a wash liquid in an all-encompassing spherical pattern.
Other objects and advantages will become apparent for the following description in which reference is made to the accompanying drawings.
A continuous chain conveyor 30 is driven at what is commonly called the head end of the conveyor 10 by a motor 32 connected in common fashion to a drive sprocket 34. A chain 36 passes around the drive sprocket 34 and a driven sprocket 38 located adjacent the inlet end of the conveyor. A series of plastic paddles 40 extend radially outwardly from the chain 36 and extend laterally of the trough 12. As will be seen in
In the system illustrated in
When the discrete batches finish their travel from the inlet end to the liquid extraction section 26, the liquid is rapidly extracted, and in this particular application is recirculated through conduit 42 to the inlet end 22 either by gravity or pumped by a pump 44. In some instances for other applications, the liquid could be collected in liquid extraction section 26 and directed either to drain or to be collected elsewhere for salvage or reuse. Following extraction, the diced continue to be dragged over the drain screen and discharged at outlet end 24.
Once the desired capacity and residence time of the product in liquid is determined, known factors such as the length of the trough, the liquid flow rate, the speed of the paddles, chain and motor and the necessary controls are all designed into the machine.
A surprising aspect of the invention resides in the several failed attempts, and wasted time and dollars before the desired end goals were achieved. It was initially thought that the liquid level in the entire trough had to be uniformly maintained to achieve effective soaking. To accommodate this, the paddles were provided with perforations therethrough so that water could migrate between batches as it sought its own level. This proved to be ineffective, since the dice would plug the perforations. Also, the first attempted design included what is referred to in the drag conveyor field as a “bend section” at the end of the horizontal section of the trough, and to place the drain screen in the upwardly inclined portion of the bend section. For reference, and also incorporated herein is the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 6,142,291 issued to Sandra M. Schulze on Nov. 7, 2000. In
After rethinking the program, especially after noting that the paddle drain holes were plugging with product, the liquid extraction section was relocated to the horizontal trough, with the top surface of the drain screen 28 being made coplanar with the trough bottom wall 14. It was also learned that by coordinating the liquid flow into the trough with the chain speed, the desired liquid level was achieved. We still expected liquid to feed gravitationally around and under the paddles toward the drain, but to a lesser extent because the paddles with the perforations had been replaced. To our pleasant surprise, the liquid did not run out through the diced to drain as we expected, but was kept dammed up between adjacent paddles until a portion of it got directly over the liquid extraction section 26. By the time a batch passes completely over section 26, about 99% of the liquid has been removed. While there is still very slight seepage of water potential around the paddle edges, the liquid and diced remains at full depth and relatively quiescent, intact and in dammed condition between paddles. The containment of dammed water between paddles is sufficiently thorough to permit liquid to be fed by itself if desired for any reason. In fact, that is precisely how the machine has been demonstrated at trade shows, i.e., merely dragging and recirculating batches of water without particulate material. While a small amount of “leak-by” around the paddles can occur, by running the conveyor at a speed greater than the leak-by rate, the leak-by is insignificant. The machine involved is as described in the aforementioned Baker patent, i.e., it is self-cleaning as noted in the Background. It is entirely possible that there is more to what makes the system work as effectively as it does with a product such as diced tomatoes than might appear to an observer. It might possibly involve capillary action and adhesion between a product that has a high liquid content and the liquid itself. We also think an important reason for the feasibility of achieving the discrete batches and desired residence time of product in liquid is that the paddles are “captive”, i.e., they are maintained down toward the bottom of the trough. It is known in the drag conveyor industry that the higher the moisture content of a product, the greater is the tendency of the paddles to lift up from the bottom wall of the trough. The Baker patent describes the configuration of the trough of
The paddles 40, as noted in the aforementioned Baker patent, are preferably made of ultra-high molecular weight nylon, polyurethane or similar material. The trough 12, chains 36 and bolts are made of #304 stainless, and joints 50 are made watertight with a silicone sealing material. The chain and paddle speed is between 10 and 20 FPM, depending on the required “residence time”. This can be compared to speeds of from 50 to 150 FPM for standard drag conveyors. The 10-20 FPM slow speed was also a cause for concern about liquid going direct to drain if it were to be extracted in a horizontal part of the trough. It will be noted that for simplicity of illustration in
Referring back to
Referring now to cleanup, a pressurized water line 58 extends crosswise through the trough 12 at approximately mid-point in its height. The line internally of the trough is fixed in place and has one spray ball directly over each chain 36. The spray ball is manufactured by Spray Systems Co. of Wheaton, Ill. and is referred to in their catalog as Fluid-Driven Tank Washing Nozzles w/360 degree pattern. It comprises a downwardly-depending tubular body about which a wash ring rotates when the tube is under pressure to its outer tubular surface. The ring has numerous angled jets that direct water under force is a near-spherical pattern to cause jets to contact the inner surfaces of the trough 12 from all angles. The effect is similar to that of the wash arm in a conventional home dishwasher. At the same time, the jets impinge on the chain and sprockets, also cleaning them while running. Any particulate material that remains in the trough 12 at cleanup time is eventually scraped and flushed either into the liquid extraction opening if the screens are removed, or the discharge end 24. If need be, the covers 20 may be removed in sections if any particular area of the trough must be accessed for hand cleaning.
While I have described the process and machine in connection with one application of treating diced tomatoes with calcium chloride in water, it is also used for residence time treating of baby carrots with plain water. As sold in sealed plastic bags, such carrots must have been treated with a predetermined residence time in water in order to have the proper moisture content for a long shelf life. With inadequate water soak time, carrots can tend to turn slightly white at their outer surface. While this does not affect their quality, it has consumer resistance. This reduces shelf life and may force retailer to sell the product at a discounted price. Unlike diced tomatoes, carrot firmness enables liquid extraction to take place on an incline. To accommodate backward potential of tumbling while rising, the paddles can be made higher than when used in a horizontal environment. This is shown by the portion of the paddles of
Additionally, other still unexplored uses of the system and process are potentially available, and to the extent that the claims are of a breadth encompassing other apparent uses, we contemplate this to be within the scope of our invention. For example, the apparatus of
In some instances, the disclosed and claimed apparatus may be used primarily as a transporter, without product treatment. One example is where a large volume of water is used to carry whole tomatoes in the trough from one location to another, extracting the transporting water at the end and recirculating it as a conservation measure.
Various other changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of our invention.