Fish-supplying device and method therefor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10588323-B2
Application number	US-201616096090-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 26, 2016
Priority date	Apr 26, 2016
Publication date	Mar 17, 2020
Grant date	Mar 17, 2020

Abstract

The present invention concerns a fish feed-in device ( 10 ) which is designed to supply fish ( 13 ) to a plurality of fish-processing devices and comprises a transverse conveyor ( 14 ) designed to convey the fish ( 13 ) transversely to their head-tail orientation in a transverse conveying direction ( 15 ), wherein the transverse conveyor ( 14 ) comprises a plurality of receptacles ( 17 ) each designed to individually hold one of the fish ( 13 ), and the transverse conveyor ( 14 ) has a controllable drive unit ( 19 ), at least one feeder device ( 11 ) designed to supply fish to the receptacles ( 17 ) of the transverse conveyor ( 14 ), a plurality of transfer devices ( 16 ) which are designed to selectively transfer the fish ( 13 ) from the transverse conveyor to longitudinal conveyors ( 12 ) arranged upstream of the respective fish-processing devices, wherein the longitudinal conveyors ( 12 ) are designed to convey the fish ( 13 ) in their head-tail orientation to the fish-processing machines, and a control device which is designed to control the at least one feeder device ( 11 ), the transfer devices ( 16 ), and the conveying speed of the transverse conveyor ( 14 ) on the basis of at least one predefined distribution specification. The invention furthermore concerns a corresponding method for supplying fish.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A fish feed-in device configured and designed to supply fish to fish-processing devices, said fish feed-in device comprising:
a transverse conveyor configured to convey the fish along a conveying direction that is transverse to a head-tail orientation;
said transverse conveyor comprising:
a plurality of receptacles, with each receptacle being configured to individually hold one of the fish; and
a controllable drive unit;

at least one feeder device configured to supply fish to the plurality of receptacles of the transverse conveyor;
a plurality of transfer devices, with each transfer device being configured to selectively transfer the fish from the transverse conveyor to one of a plurality of longitudinal conveyors arranged upstream of the respective fish-processing devices; and
each of the plurality of longitudinal conveyors being configured to convey the fish in the head-tail orientation to the fish-processing devices, and
a control device configured to control:
the at least one feeder device;
the plurality of transfer devices; and
a conveying speed of the transverse conveyor on a basis of at least one predefined distribution specification.

2. The fish feed-in device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one feeder device comprises at least one clocking flap element that is movable under a control of a clocking control signal generated by the control device, whereby an infeed of the fish to one of the receptacles at a preselected output time is controlled.

3. The fish feed-in device of claim 2 , wherein the at least one feeder device comprises a guide plane that is inclined such that under an effect of gravity, the fish automatically come to lie in a first retaining area in front of the clocking flap element when the clocking flap element is in a closed position, whereby the fish automatically move in a direction of the transverse conveyor into the respective receptacle when said clocking flap element is in an open position.

4. The fish feed-in device of claim 3 , wherein the at least one feeder device comprises a storage flap element that is movable under the control of the control device, said storage flap element being arranged upstream of the clocking flap element so as to constitute a flap cascade.

5. The fish feed-in device of claim 4 , wherein the control device is configured to control the flap cascade such that when the clocking flap element is moved from the open position to the closed position, the storage flap element is configured to move from a closed position to an open position and vice versa.

6. The fish feed-in device of claim 5 , further comprising:
a fish detection sensor arranged in a region of the storage flap element and that is configured to detect a presence of a fish in a waiting area in front of the storage flap element and communicate with the control device.

7. The fish feed-in device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one feeder device comprises plural feeder devices arranged next to and offset from each other in the conveying direction by at least a width of one of the plurality of receptacles.

8. The fish feed-in device of claim 1 , wherein the transverse conveyor is a circulating conveyor.

9. The fish feed-in device of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of receptacles is configured pivot about a transverse axis.

10. The fish feed-in device of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of transfer devices comprises an ejecting diverter that is configured to pivot a respective receptacle from a fish transport position into a fish ejection position based on a transfer control signal generated by the control device.

11. The fish feed-in device of claim 10 , wherein the ejecting diverter comprises a pivot guide that is controllable based on the transfer control signal.

12. The fish feed-in device of claim 10 , wherein each of the plurality of transfer devices comprise a guiding device located in a region of the ejecting diverter, whereby the guiding device is configured to transfer the fish from the plurality of receptacles in the fish ejection position to a respective longitudinal conveyor under the effect of gravity.

13. The fish feed-in device of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of transfer devices comprises a fish occupation sensor configured to communicate with the control device.

14. The fish feed-in device of claim 1 , wherein the control device is configured to assign a respective one of the plurality of receptacles to a respective fish-processing device on a basis of the predefined distribution specification and to determine an allocation specification.

15. The fish feed-in device of claim 14 , wherein the control device is configured to determine positions of the plurality of receptacles and determine respective output times on a basis of the allocation specification and the determined positions.

16. The fish feed-in device of claim 1 , wherein the control device is configured to:
determine a respective take-up performance of the fish-processing devices and/or an occupation state of each of the plurality of transfer devices; and
determine an actual take-up performance for each of the fish-processing devices.

17. The fish feed-in device of claim 16 , wherein the control device comprises a comparison unit adapted to compare the actual take-up performance with a predetermined nominal take-up performance assigned to the respective fish-processing device, and if at least one of the actual take-up performances falls below the respective assigned nominal take-up performance, to adapt the predefined distribution specification such that the respective nominal take-up performance is at least temporarily reduced.

18. The fish feed-in device of claim 16 , wherein the control device is configured to determine a total actual take-up performance as a sum of the actual take-up performances and control the conveying speed of the transverse conveyor.

19. A method for supplying fish to fish-processing machines, comprising:
conveying the fish transversely to a head-tail orientation along a conveying direction, said fish being conveyed on a transverse conveyor comprising a plurality of receptacles which are each configured to individually hold one of the fish;
supplying the fish to the transverse conveyor utilizing at least one feeder device;
selectively transferring the fish, via a plurality of transfer devices, from the transverse conveyor to longitudinal conveyors arranged upstream of the fish-processing machines;
conveying of the transferred fish in a head-tail orientation to the fish-processing machines utilizing the longitudinal conveyors; and
controlling the supplying and the selectively transferring on a basis of at least one predefined distribution specification.

20. The method of claim 19 , further comprising generating a clocking control signal with a control device and activating at least one clocking flap element of the at least one feeder device, whereby during the activating, the at least one clocking flap element moves and the fish are supplied at a preselected output time.

21. The method of claim 19 , wherein the at least one feeder device comprises a guide plane that is inclined such that under an effect of gravity, the fish automatically come to lie in a first retaining area in front of the clocking flap element when the clocking flap element is in a closed position, whereby the fish automatically move in a direction of the transverse conveyor into the respective receptacle when said clocking flap element is in

Assignees

• Nordischer Maschinenbau

Inventors

• Herbst Jan-Patrick
• Schubert Frank
• Jacobsen Ulf
• Lohse Christian
• Dalgaard-Nielsen Ib Verner

Classifications

• A22C25/08 Primary

  Holding, guiding, or conveying fish before, during or after its preparation (A22C25/06 takes precedence){; Devices for sizing fish; Automatically adapting conveyors or processing machines to the measured size (transport in general B65G)} · CPC title

• A22C25/12

  Arranging fish, e.g. according to the position of head and tail {(orientating articles during conveying B65G47/24)} · CPC title

• A22C25/04 Primary

  Sorting fish; Separating ice from fish packed in ice {(investigating fish G01N33/12)} · CPC title