Method and apparatus for increasing portion yield from industry standard frozen fish blocks

Claim 5

Apparatus for increasing the portion yeild from industry standard frozen rectangular fish blocks having declared uniform dimensions and weights with a tendency for the blocks to be slightly overweight comprising means for conveying a plurality of said blocks in succession to a weighing station, automatic weigher means at the weighing station to weigh each block and to record its overweight or underweight factor with reference to a known weight for the block required to produce therefrom a predetermined number of substantially identical portions produced by first cutting the block into plural elongate strips and then cross-cutting the strips into plural individual portions, said automatic weigher means also adding the overweight factor of each succeeding block and substracting any underweight factor until an accumulated overweight factor for a plurality of the blocks is recorded equal to the weight of one extra strip, diverter means responding to the recording of said accumulated overweight factor to divert one block from the procession of blocks onto a conveyor branch which is separated from the portion of the conveyor means transporting all of the other blocks beyond the weighing station, a pair of separate block stripping means, one such means acting on each diverted block and forming the same into plural equally sized strips including one extra strip, the other strippng means acting upon all of the other blocks in succession to form each of them into a regular predetermined number of strips and said number for each block being one less than the number of strips produced from each diverted block, additional conveyor means transporting all of the strips produced by the pair of stripping means toward a portion forming station including means to intermix the strips produced from diverted blocks with strips produced from all of the other blocks, and means at said portion forming station to cross-cut all strips into individual portions.

Claim 6

Apparatus for increasing the portion yeild from industry standard frozen rectangular fish blocks having declared uniform dimensions and weights with a tendency for the blocks to be slightly overweight comprising means for conveying a plurality of said blocks in succession to a weighing station, automatic weigher means at the weighing station to weigh each block and to record its overweight or underweight factor with reference to a known weight for the block required to produce therefrom a predetermined number of substantially identical portions produced by first cutting the block into plural elongate strips and then cross-cutting the strips into plural individual portions, said automatic weigher means also adding the overweight factor of each succeeding block and substracting any underweight factor until an accumulated overweight factor for a plurality of the blocks is recorded equal to the weight of one extra strip, diverter means responding to the recording of said accumulated overweight factor to divert one block from the procession of blocks onto a conveyor branch which is separated from the portion of the conveyor means transporting all of the other blocks beyond the weighing station, a pair of separate block stripping means, one such means acting on each diverted block and forming the same into plural equally sized strips including one extra strip, the other strippng means acting upon all of the other blocks in succession to form each of them into a regular predetermined number of strips and said number for each block being one less than the number of strips produced from each diverted block, additional conveyor means transporting all of the strips produced by the pair of stripping means toward a portion forming station including means to intermix the strips produced from diverted blocks with strips produced from all of the other blocks, and means at said portion forming station to cross-cut all strips into individual portions.

Claim 7

Apparatus for increasing the portion yield from industry standard size frozen fish blocks comprising conveyor means for transporting a procession of the blocks to a weighing station, an automatic weigher at the weighing station to weigh each block in succession and record its overweight or underweight and to record accumulated overweight for a number of the blocks as they pass over the automatic weigher, diverter means adjacent to the automatic weigher and responding to a predetermined accumulated overweight recorded by the automatic weigher to divert a single block from said procession, separated conveyor means leading from the weighing station including two conveyor branches, one branch transporting each single diverted block and the other branch transporting all of the other blocks beyond the weighing station, a first stripping saw means receiving the other blocks on their conveyor branch and dividing each such block into a normal number of equal size strips to be subsequently cross-cut into individual portions, and a second stripping saw means receiving the diverted blocks on their conveyor branch and dividing each such block into a plurality of equal size strips including one more strip than the normal number produced by the first stripping saw means.

Claim 8

Apparatus for increasing the portion yield from industry standard size frozen fish blocks comprising conveyor means for transporting a procession of the blocks to a weighing station, an automatic weigher at the weighing station to weigh each block in succession and record its overweight or underweight and to record accumulated overweight for a number of the blocks as they pass over the automatic weigher, diverter means adjacent to the automatic weigher and responding to a predetermined accumulated overweight recorded by the automatic weigher to divert a single block from said procession, separated conveyor means leading from the weighing station including two conveyor branches, one branch transporting each single diverted block and the other branch transporting all of the other blocks beyond the weighing station, a first stripping saw means receiving the other blocks on their conveyor branch and dividing each such block into a normal number of equal size strips to be subsequently cross-cut into individual portions, and a second stripping saw means receiving the diverted blocks on their conveyor branch and dividing each such block into a plurality of equal size strips including one more strip than the normal number produced by the first stripping saw means.

Claim 9

The apparatus as defined by claim 4, and an additional conveyor means receiving all of the strips produced by the first and second stripping saw means and carrying them to a portion producing station, and a strip cross-cutting means at the portion producing station dividing each strip into plural equal size portions.

Claim 10

The method as defined by claim 2, and the additional steps of transporting all of the strips from both stripping saw stations to a cross-cutting station and at the cross-cutting station cutting each strip into a plurality of individual portions of a substantially equal size.

Claim 11

The method as defined by claim 6, wherein each industry standard frozen rectangular fish block is elongated and has a width considerably exceeding the thickness of the block and being considerably less than the length of the block, each strip produced at each stripping saw station comprising a thin elongated rectangular cross setion strip taken from the full length of the block, and subsequently cross-cutting each strip into a plurality of equal length rectangular slab-like individual portions being the same thickness as the strip from which they are cut.