	US 12,011,007 B2
	Production of three-dimensional products from a mass of pumpable fibrous foodstuff material
Jacques Le Paih, Baud (FR); Thomas Willem Dekker, Boxmeer (NL); Yohann Pierre, Baud (FR); Johannes Martinus Meulendijks, Boxmeer (NL); and Fabrice Le Pabic, Baud (FR)
Assigned to MAREL FURTHER PROCESSING B.V., Boxmeer (NL)
Appl. No. 17/909,586
Filed by MAREL FURTHER PROCESSING B.V., Boxmeer (NL); and MAREL FRANCE, Baud (FR)
PCT Filed Mar. 10, 2021, PCT No. PCT/EP2021/056028 § 371(c)(1), (2) Date Sep. 6, 2022, PCT Pub. No. WO2021/180775, PCT Pub. Date Sep. 16, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 20305247 (EP), filed on Mar. 10, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2023/0115775 A1, Apr. 13, 2023
Int. Cl. A22C 7/00 (2006.01)

CPC A22C 7/0069 (2013.01)

15 Claims

1. A method for the production of three-dimensional products from a mass of pumpable fibrous foodstuff material, for example from ground meat,

wherein the mass of pumpable fibrous foodstuff material is fed by a foodstuff mass feed and pressurization assembly into a chamber via an inlet thereof,

wherein a perforated plate is stationary arranged at an outlet side of the chamber, which perforated plate has a multitude of perforations therein between an inlet face of the perforated plate directed towards said chamber and an opposed outlet face of the perforated plate,

wherein a flow channels assembly connects to the outlet side of the chamber,

which flow channels assembly comprises multiple flow channels, each flow channel having a flow channel inlet opening, a flow channel discharge mouth, and a flow channel length,

wherein the flow channel inlet openings are stationary arranged adjoining the outlet face of the perforated plate, so that each flow channel receives therein strands of fibrous foodstuff material emerging at the outlet face of the perforated plate from a subset of the multitude of perforations in the perforated plate,

wherein the strands that are introduced into a flow channel merge into a coherent bundle, in which the strands are arranged against one another in a generally parallel orientation,

wherein said bundle is confined within the flow channel and passes through the flow channel to the discharge mouth where the bundle is discharged, whilst maintaining the generally parallel orientation of the strands in the bundle,

wherein a production device is arranged at the discharge mouths of the flow channels assembly, which production device is configured and operated to produce three-dimensional products, each product out of a portion of a bundle that is discharged from one of the discharge mouths.