ADM-4 Automatic Filling Machine for Stewed Meat Canning and Can Dosing
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The ADM-4 automatic machine (Fig. 1) is designed to fill tinplate cans during the production of "Stewed Meat" canned goods.
The ADM-4 performs a complete sequence of filling operations on a single line. Its tasks include:
- receiving tinplate cans delivered from a belt conveyor;
- dosing and pouring a mixture of salt and pepper into the cans;
- dosing and pouring fat into the cans;
- dosing and filling the cans with meat;
- discharging the filled cans back onto the conveyor belt.
Tinplate cans are used in the manufacture of canned meat products.
What components make up the ADM-4 machine?
The ADM-4 consists of a receiving table for the cans, dosers for salt and fat, a feeder, and a dosing column for meat. The machine's frame carries the start and stop buttons as well as the switches for the electric heating of the feeder, so the operator controls every stage from a single station.
The body of the ADM-4 uses either steam or electric heating and has grooves on its inner surface. These grooves ensure the forward movement of the meat as the screw rotates. At the top of the nozzles used to deliver meat into the dosing cylinders sits a semi-circular knife that cuts off any excess meat that did not enter the cylinder.
How does the dosing column meter the meat?
The dosing column holds eight dosing cylinders, each containing pistons with rods retained inside the cylinders by removable lids. Adjusting screws pass through these lids and limit how high each piston can rise, which in turn fixes a precise quantity of meat in every cylinder. By turning the screws, the operator sets the exact meat portion per can.
A removable annular knife sits in the lower part of each cylinder. Working together with the feeder's knife, it cuts the pieces of meat arriving from the nozzle, ensuring a clean, consistent portion enters the cylinder.
How do the salt and fat dosers work?
The dosers for salt and fat each consist of a receiver, a metering device, and a drive. Salt mixed with ground pepper is loaded into the salt doser, while melted fat is poured into the fat doser. The meat itself is loaded into the feeder's hopper either by hand or via a conveyor.
How does a can move through the filling cycle?
A can already containing onion and a bay leaf first enters the receiving tray, then moves into the slots of the loading table. There it passes beneath the metering device, is filled to a set volume, and is pushed toward one of the cylinders of the meat dosing column.
At that moment the can is captured by a pusher and transferred to the discharge guide. As it travels along this guide, the can stays continuously beneath one of the measuring cylinders, where the piston pushes the meat out into it. The filled can is then directed along the conveyor to the seaming machine.
Figure 1 — ADM-4 machine for dosing meat: 1 — frame; 2 — feeder; 3 — dosing column; 4 — can feed and discharge mechanism; 5 — ejector; 6 — electrical interlock mechanism; 7 — loading table; 8 — fat doser; 9 — salt doser.
