Food product orienting and loading apparatus

摘要

An apparatus and method for placing food products into a food tray are disclosed. The apparatus comprises at least one sleeve at least one sleeve having a first end configured to singly receive food products and an at least partially closed second end opposite the first end. The at least one sleeve has a first position where the food products are singly receivable through the first end to form a stack having a predetermined orientation in the at least one sleeve. The at least one sleeve is configured to rotate from the first position to a second position where the food products are positioned over the food tray and substantially simultaneously unloaded in the predetermined orientation through an opening positioned between the first and second ends into the food tray.

主权项

1. A method of placing food products into food trays, the method comprising:
placing the food products one-by-one into a rotatable sleeve to form a stack of the food products in the rotatable sleeve in a first position; rotating the stack of the food products in the rotatable sleeve from the first position to a second position to place the stack of the food products in the rotatable sleeve over a food tray, the stack in the second position being non-parallel to the stack in the first position; and simultaneously depositing the stack of the food products from the second position and from the rotatable sleeve into the food tray by dropping the stack of the food products from the rotatable sleeve directly into the food tray.