Convertible drum-type coating apparatus

摘要

A convertible drum-type coating apparatus for applying breading material to food products includes an in-line breader section, a rotary drum section, and an outflow section. The rotary drum is mounted on an elevator for lowering and lifting between a low use position and a high non-use position. The low use position is involved with tumbling the breading material and food product together to enhance the coating by the breading material, and in a sense the tumbling gives the appearance of dusting off excess breading material. The coating apparatus is convertible in that the rotary drum can be lifted out of the way to the high non-use position to allow substitution in favor of a bypass conveyor. Bypass of the drum is desired when running "formed" food products and the like, such as patties (eg., beef) or cakes (eg., fish), which are ordinarily too delicate to tumble in the drum. The convertible drum-type coating apparatus further includes an auger-less re-circulation system for recovering excess breading material from the outflow section and returning it for re-use to the in-line breader section. Eliminating augers or "screw-conveyors" avoids clogging problems associated therewith. The convertible drum-type coating apparatus moreover includes a spreader mechanism at the drum's discharge end for spreading the discharging product in a series of courses traversing the lateral width of the outflow conveyor. This improvement eliminates four and five worker crews who to date do the same thing manually.