Ice cream conveyor line tray, system and method.

摘要

A tiered ice cream product tray (20) for attaching to a conveyor includes a mounting region (26) (see Fig. 4b) for affixing the tray to the conveyor (40) (see Fig. 3) and tiered product support regions (22a, 22b, 22c) extending therefrom and vertically offset from one another. At least one further region (24a; 24b) of the tray extends vertically between an upper end thereof at a first product support region (22a) and a lower end thereof at an adjacent product support region (22b). The ice cream product fabrication system includes the conveyor (40) oriented along a direction of conveyor motion and having a plurality of such trays attached thereto. The vertical regions (24a, 24b) of the tray are aligned parallel to the direction of motion of the conveyor. The system fabricates ice cream portions having a thickness t, and the vertical faces (24a, 24b) have a height at least (t/2). The system includes a stick inserting work station (4) (see Fig. 1) for inserting a stick (51) into ice cream portions (50) along a horizontal direction transverse to the direction of motion. The products may be oriented such that an inserted stick (51) in an upper portion (50) extends over a lower portion (50) without touching it, in a shingled array along the conveyor, to provide significant economy of tray space.