AMF’s pan cleaning system awarded patent

AMF Bakery Systems announced that the United States Patent Office has awarded the company a patent for their Pan Cleaner System and method.

AMF’s Pan Cleaner is comprised of a supply system, an inverting system, and a cleaning system. These structures work together to create a synchronized continuous line that allows the pans to be received, transported, cleaned, and released in one cycle.
 
The Pan Cleaner System is groundbreaking in that it improves the process of automated bread pan cleaning by mitigating the production line from being stopped to ensure proper cleaning of baking equipment. In the past, pan cleaners were only able to focus on either cleaning speed or cleaning quality, but not both. The AMF pan cleaning method improves the cleaning process by limiting the risk of breakage, loss and improper pan flow.
 
“The pan cleaner uses gravity to its advantage releasing crumbs or bread loaves left in pans. The automatic product reject conveyor is particularly beneficial when a run of under proofed products occurs,” mentioned Bobby Martin, Executive Product Manager for AMF in a press release. “In this unlikely situation, the bread pan cleaner will remove the loaves from the pans in a continuous motion. Loaves are then conveyed to an outside recuperation bin to eliminate potential jams within the enclosed bins, as seen in other conventional pan cleaners when a surge of products occurs.”

This new pan cleaning system is filed under Patent #62/563,940.