Thermal process control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10123557-B2
Application number	US-201615181329-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 13, 2016
Priority date	Dec 21, 2012
Publication date	Nov 13, 2018
Grant date	Nov 13, 2018

Abstract

A thermal processing and control system ( 10 ) includes a thermal processing station ( 12 ) for receiving food products ( 14 ) being carried on a conveyor system ( 16 ). A first scanning station ( 18 ) is located upstream from a similar processing station ( 12 ) for scanning the food products being carried by the conveyor ( 16 ). A second scanning station ( 20 ) is located downstream of the thermal processing station ( 12 ). A diverter conveyor ( 24 ) diverts selected food products ( 14 ) from the conveyor ( 16 ) to a transverse conveyor ( 26 ) which is capable of positioning the diverted food product onto a temperature measurement station ( 28 ), whereat the temperature of the food product is measured, either manually or automatically.

First claim

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A system for measuring the temperature of food products of variable sizes, shapes, thickness and types for processing at a thermal processing station operating under process parameters, comprising:
(a) a conveyance system for conveying the food products in a stream to, through and from the thermal processing station;
(b) an upstream scanner located upstream from the thermal processing station to scan the food products entering the thermal processing station, the upstream scanner connected in data transmission communication with a computing device to analyze the data from the upstream scanner and based on this data, if the analysis indicates a sufficient variation between the scanning results and predetermined parameters of the food product, undertaking a corrective action;
(c) a downstream scanner for scanning all or some of the thermally processed food products of the stream, with the scanning data generated from the scanning, usable to model the physical features of the scanned food products;
(d) a temperature measuring station located separate from the stream of food products;
(e) a diverter system to direct selected modeled food products from the conveyance system to the temperature measuring station separate from the stream of food products;
(f) the temperature measuring station comprising temperature measurement instrumentation for measuring the temperature of the food products at the temperature measuring station; and
(g) an information transmission system for transmitting the temperature measurement data from the temperature measuring station.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the diverter system comprises an auxiliary conveyor system to carry the selected food products from the conveyance system to the temperature measuring station, where the temperature measurement instrumentation is located.

3. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the food products are selected for diversion from the stream of food products by one of the following:
(a) random selection;
(b) sweeping across the stream of food products output from the thermal processing station; and
(c) selecting the workpieces based on one or more physical attributes.

4. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the downstream scanner is located either upstream or downstream from the diverter system.

5. The system according to claim 4 , wherein the downstream scanner dimensionally characterizes the removed selected food products, and the temperature measuring station measures the temperature of the selected food products at one or more locations expected to give a representative temperature of the food products based on the results of the scanner dimensionally characterizing the food products.

6. The system according to claim 1 , further comprising a computing device to receive scanning data from the scanner to analyze such data for selecting the food products for diversion from the stream of food products for temperature measurement.

7. The system according to claim 6 , wherein the computing device receiving data from the temperature measurement instrumentation and analyzing the data to determine if changes should be made to the process parameters of the thermal processing station.

8. The system according to claim 6 , wherein the computing device determines the degree of thermal treatment occurring in the selected food products.

9. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the computing device in determining the degree of thermal treatment occurring in the selected food products ascertains if the selected food products have reached a suitable level of thermal-treatment.

10. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the computing device analyzes the temperature measurements of the selected food products versus the time span between completion of the thermal processing of the selected food products and the measured temperature of the selected food products to determine the degree of thermal-treatment occurring in the selected food products.

11. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the temperature measurement instrumentation comprises one or more probes insertable into the selected food products.

12. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the diverter system directs the food products from the conveyance system by one of the following options selected from the group consisting of:
(a) one or more conveyors;
(b) gravity;
(c) a gap or an opening in the conveyance system;
(d) a pressured air jets;
(e) a multi-directional pick-and-place actuator; and
(f) a robotic arm.

13. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the food products are selected for diversion by the diverter system by:
(a) random selection;
(b) a sweeping mechanism which sweeps across the stream of food products operated by the thermal processing station;
(c) selecting the food products based on size; and
(d) selecting the food products based on one or more physical attributes.

14. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the corrective action comprises one or more of the following: (a) sending control signals to the thermal processing station to alter the process parameters used by the thermal processing station; (b) sending a communication to personnel regarding the variance in the parameters of the food products between the scanned parameters and the predetermined parameters; (c) altering the operation of the thermal processing station; and (d) diverting the food products from the thermal processing station.

15. A system for measuring the temperature of food products processed at a thermal processing station operating under process parameters, comprising:
(a) a conveyance system for conveying the food products in a stream that have been processed at the thermal processing station for further processing, storage, or packaging;
(b) a temperature measuring station located separate from the stream of food products;
(c) a diverter system to direct selected food products from the conveyance system to the temperature measuring station separate from the stream of food products;
(d) the temperature measuring station comprising temperature measurement instrumentation for measuring the temperature of the food products at the temperature measuring station;
(e) an information transmission system for transmitting the temperature measurement data from the temperature measuring station;
(f) a scanner for scanning a stream of food products approaching the thermal processing station to determine the physical attributes and/or condition, as well as the total mass flow rate of the food products approaching the thermal processing station, and making this data available for use by a controller of the thermal processing station;
(g) a monitoring system for monitoring process parameters of the thermal processing station;
(h) the temperature measuring instrumentation measuring the temperatures of the food products exiting the thermal processing station, and making such temperature information available for use by the controller; and
(i) a computing device for modeling the thermal processing station by considering one or more of the following dynamics:
(i) the manner in which changes in the mass flow rate of the food products entering the thermal processing station results in changes to the temperature of the heat transfer fluid utilized to thermally process the food products;
(ii) the manner in which changes in the geometry of the food products entering the thermal processing station causes changes to the rate of temperature change in the food produc

Assignees

• John Bean Technologies Corp

Inventors

• Hocker Jon A
• Strong John R
• Gunawardena Ramesh M

Classifications

• G01K2207/06

  for preparation purposes · CPC title

• A22C17/008

  for measuring quality, e.g. to determine further processing · CPC title

• B65G15/50

  Endless load-carriers consisting of a series of parallel ropes or belt strips · CPC title

• G05B19/042

  using digital processors (G05B19/05 takes precedence) · CPC title

• A23B4/005

  Preserving by heating · CPC title