Near-spherical cheeses lifted from brine bath - are placed in single row, orientated, and transferred to carriers for moving into store

摘要

Arrangement is claimed for moving approx. spherical cheeses (with flattened polar regions but longer polar axis than equatorial dia., i.e. Edam-type cheeses) from the brine bath on to carriers and then to the maturing store, and passing them through a plastic coating unit if required. They first pass through a buffer store unit comprising a horizontal endless belt with an oppositely moving belt to either side, two belts moving horizontally in vertical planes at the belt entry to return cheeses from the belts to the central belt, and two sets of vertically spaced rollers at the exit to position the cheeses in a single row. After passing through the unit, a slatted belt loads the cheeses on tracks each consisting of two parallel endless transport chains with double-conical rollers between them drivable to orientate the polar axes parallel to the roller axes. The cheeses are then rotated as required to get all labels on the same side, and transferred to the carriers by lateral rotation through 90 deg. Used for transferring near-spherical cheeses from brine bath to carriers for moving into maturing store, plastic coating them on the way and placing them with labels uppermost on the carriers. Arrangement completely mechanises otherwise very labour-intensive manual handling operations.