Patent Application
20100047610
This invention concerns moulding compositions and articles when moulded from the compositions inter alia for the food industry and a method of removing physical contamination from food.
The invention will be described in its application to the food industry, but those skilled in the art will appreciate its applicability to other fields such as pharmaceuticals and mining. The food industry already screens its processes for physical contamination. Metallic parts such as nuts or rivets are easy to remove because metal detectors signal their presence. Plastic parts such as mixer blades, or rubber parts such as O-rings sometimes fail and these may produce fragments of different sizes. This problem is dealt with in U.S. Pat. No. 6,113,482 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,177,113. Incorporation of stainless steel particles in the machinery components which are susceptible to breakage ensures that the fragments elect a signal from a metal detector in the conveyor on which all products must pass. The detectors which routinely screen the product are tuned to find specific sizes and are calibrated with 1 mm diameter test balls. It is unrealistic to rely on these to detect smaller metal contaminants.
In confectionery making by factory processes, a special problem arises. It is known in to cast jelly confections in cavities pressed into powders such as starch. The starch is laid as a bed in shallow trays which pass through a low temperature oven. After the trays of jelly confections have passed through the oven they are inverted over a sieve for reuse. The inversion and other tray handling operations are performed mechanically, and inevitably a percentage of trays break and fragments contaminate the food. The trays are commonly made of plywood, which dries out with repeated passages through the oven, and if the tray shatters the contamination may affect more than one tray of food. Such failures are a problem and much wholesome food must be discarded to ensure that the result of the failure has been eliminated from the food line and the starch line. The starch in the starch line is recycled continuously and it is imperative to ensure that contaminants are not recycled at the same time. The aim is therefore to remove contaminants before they become embedded in food because then they become more difficult to remove.
A change to thermoset plastic trays which are stronger than plywood has not removed the danger but has exchanged one type of contamination for another. Such thermosetting resins are referred to as sheet moulding compositions (SMC).
A method aspect of the invention provides a method of detection and removal of contamination due to the failure in use of trays used in the manufacturing process of material intended for human consumption.
The trays upon failure break into fragments releasing chips or particles that contaminate the confections and the starch. The contamination can then be removed by a suitable magnetic field (permanent or electromagnet) and where this is not practicable the contamination can be detected (by a metal detector) and physically removed.
The composition aspect of the invention provides a moulding mix for the trays described above comprising a moulding polymer which includes a filler that renders the item susceptible to a magnetic field.
Preferably the filler is present in a quantity sufficient to make possible the capture or detection of the fragments of the item in the event of breakage.
Thermosets which are already in use are suitable except to say that the prior art mixes do not contain the magnetic ingredient. The mix may also contain one or more fillers, for example mineral fillers having no magnetisable property. These would also be present in somewhat less proportions than is found in commercial mixers because the magnetic component acts as a filler also. The magnetic component may be selected from a group of magnetisable metals, their alloys and their oxides. These are described in the literature. The composition content may comprise magnetic filler 5-30%, resin 15-35%, chopped strand fibreglass 15-35%, and other fillers and additives.
Thus enabling the removal of moulding polymer fragments down to very fine dust that is not otherwise possible with metal detection equipment.
In addition, by loading the moulding polymer with up to 50% by wt of magnetic filler in the event that by some means a chip of the moulding polymer mixed with magnetic filler is embedded in a solid piece of food, or packaged into a bag prior to sale, significantly smaller pieces can be detected than would otherwise be possible.
In the invention, magnetic oxides or ferrites have a mean particle size of 20-50μ or finer. The method can include passing the food over tube magnets and plate magnets to enable magnetic separation of the fragments from the food. The fragments that break can be from a conveyor bucket, roller or guide and equipment housings.
The apparatus aspect of the invention provides a tray or carrier for ingredients used inter alia in the food industry made from a moulding mix as described above.
In
Starch trays for confectionery making are moulded from compositions made to the following formulation:
Both types of filler are mixed with the resin. The jute fibres are laid up as a mat 6 mm thick and immersed in the resin/filler mix. Excess is drained and die soaked mat is laid in the die cavity with the edges of the mat brought to the die edges. The die is closed and cured for 5 minutes at 150EC. The resulting tray weighs 3.5 kg and measures 800×400 mm.
In a variant, the shedding of fibres as a result of breakage is suppressed by placing on top of the wet mat a layer of woven fabric which has also been soaked in the same polymer/filler mix.
If thermoplastic trays are required, injection moulding is used instead with no reinforcement, only fillers are incorporated into the injected material.
Trays moulded from this composition are much less brittle than trays made from thermosetting resin and tend not to chip. Accordingly, the fragments are larger and are completely collected by an electromagnet.
While strength is improved, shrinkage and distortion are reduced by the addition of a small quantity of glass fibre.
Magnetite is mined, ground and dried similar to talc, calcium carbonate and other minerals used in the plastics industry as fillers. It is available as a very fine powder with a mean particle size of 20 microns or finer and has a specific gravity range of about 5.0. Other particles may be used which also have a strong attraction to magnets, these include magnetisable metals, their alloys, their oxides and ferrites. The type of magnetic filler used is dependant on the application, consideration of cost and processing considerations.
Referring now to
Referring now to
The jelly items transferred along conveyor 15 are advanced towards gate 18. This has a horizontal slot 20 which allows the jelly items to pass, but if the tray shatters, the fragments are directed to bin 22. Any chips of tray material which pass along the conveyor with the product reach the magnetic separator 24 which removes more of the tray. Any additional chips of tray that may be adhered to the jellies can be detected by a magnetic field (metal detector) 26 and the jelly and contamination physically separated by rejecting the packet containing the offending jelly.
The dumped starch travels to the reuse area via conveyor 28. Contaminating chips are removed by magnet 30.
I have found the advantages of the above embodiment to be:
It is to be understood that the word “comprising” as used throughout the specification is to be interpreted in its inclusive form, ie. use of the word “comprising” does not exclude the addition of other elements.
It is to be understood that various modifications of and/or additions to the invention can be made without departing from the basic nature of the invention. These modifications and/or additions are therefore considered to fall within the scope of the invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PR 9206 | Nov 2001 | AU | national |
| 951871/01 | Oct 2002 | AU | national |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 10497301 | Jun 2004 | US |
| Child | 12608642 | US |
