Food product topping or filling machines are well known and are disclosed in a number of earlier patents. By way of examples, Kuhlman patented a distributing device in 1968, U.S. Pat. No. 3,368,501, for a “Food Distribution Apparatus” that purports to disclose a pizza making machine in which a block of cheese is first shredded and the shredded cheese is lifted by a slanted conveyor to a second, lateral conveyor. The cheese drops to a third conveyor where the cheese is deposited in heaps. The heaped cheese is then raked to cause a more even distribution, and the cheese is beaten to result in a more uniform thickness. Thereafter, the raked and beaten cheese falls from the third conveyor onto pizza bases moving on a fourth, lower horizontal conveyor. Excess cheese is captured and returned to the slanted lift conveyor. It is noted that over the years, pizza dough moving on a conveyor has been referred to as bases, targets, substrates and shells. Four years after the Kuhlman patent, a patent issued to Westling, U.S. Pat. No. 3,662,677, for a “Machine For Shredding Cheese And For Depositing The Cheese Onto Pizzas” and purports to disclose a machine for depositing cheese including a cutter for shredding a cheese block. Falling shredded cheese is directed by a swinging baffle to initially land to the rear of a pizza base. As the baffle swings upward the shredded cheese is directed to the center and then the forward portions of the pizza base. A paddle is used to deflect falling cheese to the baffle.
In 1973, U.S. Pat. No. 3,780,643 issued to Papai and purports to disclose a pizza-making machine where pizza bases or shells move along incrementally on a conveyor, stopping at a tomato paste depositing station, a grated cheese depositing station and a sliced sausage depositing station. Tomato paste, grated cheese and sliced sausage are deposited on the pizza shells at each station by gravity. In 1975, U.S. Pat. No. 3,905,326 issued to Eisenberg for a “Product Spreading Machine and Method” and purports to disclose a machine for spreading or shaking topping products on food items such as pizza shells. A conveyor transports pizza shells through a drum and passed a row of air nozzles where the air nozzles blow a topping, such as shredded cheese, off rake tines connected to the drum and onto a shaker tray. The shaker tray progressively moves the shredded cheese until it cascades over a diagonal edge and onto passing pizza shells. Excess cheese is blown or scrapped off the conveyor and collected. A couple of weeks later in 1975, a patent issued to Raque, U.S. Pat. No. 3,908,584 for a “Pizza Topping Machine.” The patent purports to disclose a pizza topping system where pizza shells pass a tomato paste station, and then the shells speed more quickly on another conveyor before momentarily stopping at two other stations, one for the deposit of ground meat and the other for the deposit of grated cheese. Tomato paste passes through a valve consisting of a cylindrical rotor with grooves rotating in a tubular outer shell. The ground meat and grated cheese are dispensed from individual hoppers, each hopper having an agitator unit.
In 1979, Hochandel and Meyer were issued a patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,145,990, for an “Apparatus for Applying Grated Cheese to Pizza Shells” and the patent purports to disclose yet another device for the automatic application of grated cheese to passing pizza shells moving on a conveyor under the device. The cheese is grated and deposited onto a transfer conveyor that is stationary during grating, then driven in timed relationship to the pizza shells moving on the lower conveyor. The cheese falls onto the pizza shells in a preselected pattern, frequently called a “waterfall.” Later in 1979, U.S. Pat. No. 4,152,976 issued to Kawasaki and others for an “Automatic Weighing and Distributing Apparatus for Topping Sliced Cheese Etc. on Pie Crusts.” The apparatus is another device for depositing grated cheese on passing pizza shells. Each shell stops under a casing having a configuration slightly smaller than the pizza shell and a weighted amounted of grated cheese is dropped through the casing onto each shell. The casing includes a bucket for weighing the cheese and stirrer blades that uniformly spreads the cheese as the cheese falls past.
In 1992, U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,677 issued to Claire and others for a “Pizza Making and Baking Machine” and purports to disclose a device for pizza making having a conveyor for pizza shells and multiple stations for depositing various toppings. The pizza shell conveyor moves, stepwise, along to each station, and a computer controls whether a station deposits an ingredient according to a computer program. U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,055 issued to Fitch Jr., in 1995 for a “Method and Apparatus for Portioning Food.” The patent purports to disclose that pizza shells move by a conveyor to cylindrically shaped dispensing hoppers. Each hopper stores food to be deposited and is able to rotate about a central axis in a circular manner above the pizza shell conveyor. Where the pizza shell conveyor passes beneath a hopper, the conveyor is specially configured in a semi-circle to match a portion of the cross section of the cylindrical geometry of the hopper. This arrangement allows the hopper to be synchronized to move above each pizza shell for a time so that the food product stored in the hopper is deposited onto the pizza shell.
In 1997, U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,476 issued to Sauders for an “Apparatus for the Uniform Distribution of a Food Product Over a Surface.” The Sauders' patent purports to disclose a food spreader for spreading cheese onto a pizza crust in an even manner, the pizza crust being positioned under the spreader. The spreader includes a cylindrical housing with hand-cranked paddles that move the cheese through a porous bottom plate. In 2000, a patent issued to Sunter, U.S. Pat. No. 6,051,070, for an “Apparatus for Applying Materials to Substrates” which purports to disclose another device for applying a food product on a substrate, such as a pizza shell. The device includes upper and lower shutter assemblies that open quickly to allow product, such as cheese, to fall a predetermined height from the upper shutter, and thereby determine the spread of the product, before the lower assembly opens to deposit the product on the substrate. U.S. Pat. No. 6,598,519 issued to Thomas and Wharton in 2003 for a “Particulate Distributor” purports to disclose a device to distribute food, such as grated or shredded cheese, vegetables or meats, over a discrete region of a moving pizza substrate. The device weighs product to be distributed and directs the product to one of two buckets. The buckets store the product until it is time to drop the product into a distributor, an upper conveyor that moves at the same velocity as a conveyor with the pizza shells.
In 2004, U.S. Pat. No. RE38,478 reissued for an “Apparatus for Dispensing a Quantity of Material on a Shell” and purports to disclose a device for dispensing food material on a target food, such as pizza shells, moving on a stop and go conveyor belt where the food material is dropped from a hopper through a mask, passing a stirring and distribution unit unto the target. In a preferred embodiment, the patent discloses that the food from the hopper drops to a short transfer conveyor that stops under the hopper to receive a load, and then the transfer conveyor moves in a synchronized fashion with the pizza shell conveyor. Food material on the transfer conveyor then falls onto the target when the food reaches the end of the transfer conveyor.
Also issuing in 2004, a patent was granted to Zschoche, U.S. Pat. No. 6,711,877, for a “Food Product Handling Machine.” The patent purports to disclose a product-handling machine in which a transfer machine moves a plurality of independently moveable transfer pockets having open tops and bottoms along a conveyor between a portioning machine and a container handling machine. In one embodiment the conveyor supports the food in the pockets but moves independently of the pockets so that the pockets may be stopped to receive food, and again, to discharge food. In another embodiment, it is disclosed that the transfer pockets and the container-handling machine may move in alignment so as to allow continuous movement. In yet another embodiment, each transfer pockets is supported by a guide plate from the food-portioning machine to a container conveyor. Product placed in the transfer pocket by the food portioning machine is retained by the guide plate which supports the transfer pocket as it travels on the guide plate, with the guide plate acting as a bottom for the transfer pocket. The guide plate moves to a slide plate location where the transfer pocket is positioned over an empty container. When the transfer pocket containing the food portion has been advanced to the slide plate location above the container-handling machine, the slide plate moves laterally resulting in an opening under the transfer pocket to enable the food portion in the transfer pocket to drop into the food container.
These patents and the devices disclosed are of some interest, however, they do not disclose or illustrate an advantageous dispensing apparatus.