1.1 General
This European Standard deals with all significant hazards, hazardous situations and events relevant to food depositors as defined in Subclauses 1.2.2 to 1.2.6 and the equipment typically integrated into them, i.e. product pumps, product elevators, conveyors and indexing mechanisms, when they are used as intended and under conditions of misuse which are reasonably foreseeable by the manufacturer (see Clause 4).
This document deals with the significant hazards, hazardous situations and events during transport, assembly and installation, commissioning, use and decommissioning as defined in EN ISO 12100.
NOTE 1 According to the clause which is referred to, "use" includes "setting, teaching/programming or process changeover, operation, cleaning, fault finding and maintenance".
NOTE 2 Although this standard is intended to apply to depositors used in the food industry, many of its requirements can also be used for similar machines used in other industries.
This standard is not applicable to the following machines:
- auger depositors or auger fillers and gravimetric filling machines, safety requirements for these machines are contained in EN 415 3;
- automatic dough dividers, safety requirements for these machines are contained in EN 12042;
- filling machines for sausages, safety requirements for these machines are contained in EN 12463;
- mincing machines, safety requirements for these machines are contained in EN 12331;
- food depositors that are powered exclusively by manual effort.
This document does not deal with the hazards related to the use of food depositors in a potentially explosive atmosphere.
This document is not applicable to food depositors that were manufactured before the date of its publication as a European Standard.
1.2 Types of food depositors
1.2.1 General
This European Standard deals with five different types of food depositors. These machines can be free standing machines or be assemblies incorporated into other machines e.g. pie and tart machines. Food depositors may work fully automatically integrated with a product conveyor or product indexing mechanism or semi-automatically discharging a deposit when required by an operator.
1.2.2 Piston depositor
A piston depositor typically comprises a hopper, a rotary valve, a product measuring chamber in the form of a piston and a product dispensing valve. Some piston depositors incorporate several product measuring chambers and dispensing valves. Some designs dispense the product directly from the rotary valve without the use of a separate product dispensing valve. The volume of product dispensed is varied by altering the stroke of the product measuring chamber piston. Piston depositors are used to fill liquids, liquids containing solids in suspension and pastes. The product dispensing valve may be attached rigidly to the depositor or using a flexible pipe and in some cases is held by the operator. Figure 1 shows the typical cross section of a piston depositor.
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1.2.3 Chamber depositor
A chamber depositor comprises a hopper feeding one or more product measuring chambers that are filled under gravity from the top. When the chamber has been filled with product the flow of product is stopped either by moving the chamber or using a product cutting device. The chamber is then discharged through the bottom of the chamber either by moving the chamber or by moving a plate in the base of the chamber. The volume of product dispensed is varied by altering the volume of the chamber. Chamber depositors are typically used to deposit free-flowing products like cooked rice or pasta. Figure 2 shows the typical cross section of a chamber depositor.
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1.2.4 Roller depositor
A roller depositor typically comprises a hopper that feeds product to two or more fluted contra-rotating rollers. These rollers force the product through one or more dies that shape the product. (.)