Of course, it's a retrofit into a standard grill setup, so Flippy has to mimic what a human would do. A better setup would be a conveyor belt system to process the burgers and produce them ready to eat. This system still needs a human to assist Flippy at its job.
Complex, expensive, can't do much...what a misguided use of this technology.
It would be so much cheaper and less complex to put the burgers in "muffin pans". You have something like a muffin pan, but with wide flat circular depressions for the burgers. The burgers are sandwiched between two of these pans for flipping. So, a worker can flip the whole lot of them at once.
The burners underneath each burger throttle themselves to minimum, as necessary, to prevent overcooking and keep the burgers warm.
A cook can do other things, and only flip the burger pans when a notification light flashes.
Well, Burger King broilers are pretty simple - a wire conveyor belt that goes through a broiler. Put the patties on one end. They will drop out the other end cooked.
But of course, a wire conveyor belt is flexible enough to loop like that.
For something similar with a flat surface, you could have rotating discs like a tortilla machine.
But I figure that a pair of muffin pans would be really cheap and reliable and wouldn't take much of a cook's time due to flipping a whole bunch at once. Not many moving parts to worry about breaking down.
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Of course, it's a retrofit into a standard grill setup, so Flippy has to mimic what a human would do. A better setup would be a conveyor belt system to process the burgers and produce them ready to eat. This system still needs a human to assist Flippy at its job.
ReplyDeleteComplex, expensive, can't do much...what a misguided use of this technology.
ReplyDeleteIt would be so much cheaper and less complex to put the burgers in "muffin pans". You have something like a muffin pan, but with wide flat circular depressions for the burgers. The burgers are sandwiched between two of these pans for flipping. So, a worker can flip the whole lot of them at once.
The burners underneath each burger throttle themselves to minimum, as necessary, to prevent overcooking and keep the burgers warm.
A cook can do other things, and only flip the burger pans when a notification light flashes.
I'd have just bought a two-sided grill so I didn't have to flip.
ReplyDeleteAl Hunt That's cheatin'.
ReplyDeleteDoes make one wonder why a simpler solution hasn't been used yet though.
Well, Burger King broilers are pretty simple - a wire conveyor belt that goes through a broiler. Put the patties on one end. They will drop out the other end cooked.
ReplyDeleteBut of course, a wire conveyor belt is flexible enough to loop like that.
For something similar with a flat surface, you could have rotating discs like a tortilla machine.
But I figure that a pair of muffin pans would be really cheap and reliable and wouldn't take much of a cook's time due to flipping a whole bunch at once. Not many moving parts to worry about breaking down.
youtube.com - Amazing Automatic Tortilla Making Machine