AU4206701A - Quick-release griddletrays - Google Patents

Description

WATERMARK PATENT 'P;06O 11 28'rA' Regulat 3.2(2)

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990

ORIGINAL

COMPLETE

SPECIFICATION

STANDARD

PATENT

Application Number: Lodged; Invention Title: Quick-Release Griddle Trays The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method ot performing it known to us RECEIVED TIME 4. MAY, 15~:52 PITTM 74 PRINT TIME 5. MAY. 7 4 3 L 3 S WATERMARK PATENT 1 QUICK-RELEASE GRIDDLE TRAYS Field of the invention The present invention relates to the design of conveyors for dough pieces in commercial bakeries, and to a new form of English muffin.

Background to the invention The English Muffin is a familiar food item. It features a bread-like texture and a flat, round appearance. English Muffins are commonly manufactured and marketed by large commercial bakeries. They also feature a distinctive flavour and texture that is popular with a substantial portion of the marketplace.

It is common practice for split English Muffins to be toasted in domestic toasters. Such toasters are normally designed to accommodate square slices of bread, rather than round English Muffins. One disadvantage with the round variety is that it tends to 'roll' from side to side while being manually extracted from the toaster. In some circumstances, this uncertain positioning may lead to inadvertent discomfort or burning of the fingers of the consumer on the hot toaster, It is perceived that some means of preventing this 'rolling' is desirable.

It is also the case that a round muffin-half, having a diameter equal to the length of one side of a square slice of bread, will be smaller and will hold less topping than the slice of bread. This necessitates the preparation of perhaps three English Muffin-halves to where perhaps two normal slices of bread would have sufficed. There is, therefore, a need to provide satiety for English Muffin *00000 consumers that does not penalise such consumers, either by forcing them to use their less-favoured alternative bread, nor by obliging them to perform the extra o:ooo preparation required for e.g. three muffin-halves.

'25 Typical toppings for English Muffins also includes items such as processed ham and processed cheese, These items are commonly sold in a substantially 'square' format, meaning that they cannot easily fit on a typical round muffin, as opposed to a typical slice of bread. It would be desirable to have an item that combined the distinctive flavour of the typical English Muffin, with the ability to wholly contain such toppings, without overhanging comers.

RECEIVED TIME 4. MAY, 15:52 PRINT TIME 5, MAY. 7:43 WATERMARK PATENT 2 Further, the physical appearance of English muffins sold by a wide variety of different manufacturers is more or less identical. Therefore, there is very little to differentiate the product of one manufacturer from those of another, English muffins having shapes that incorporate straight edges are unknown to date, Therefore, it is only possible to speculate as to the effectiveness of alternative geometries. For example, a triangular muffin will be unable to address the issue of topping overhang. Five- or six-sided English muffins would present the same issues, with the added tendency to 'roll' as per the round muffin.

The present invention is therefore directed in one aspect towards providing an English muffin that overcomes the shortcomings presented by the geometry of the typical round English muffin, by offering English muffins having a more useful geometry.

m Another aspect of the present invention is directed toward providing a 15 means for effecting a relatively quick and non-labour intensive changeover of commercial bakery conveyors from normal round English Muffin production to production of muffins embodying this more useful shape. In addition, this aspect of the present invention is directed towards a means to achieving the above that ile• ~may be retrofitted to all existing English Muffin bakery facilities.

Summary of the Invention The present invention provides a square, or substantially square, English Muffin. The invention shares all textural and organoleptic properties with the 'round' English Muffin known in the art. However, its geometry features substantially straight edges and slightly rounded corners when viewed from above, and a similar profile to the round English Muffin when viewed from the side. The size of the inventive muffin when split is similar to that of a commercial bread slice, while its thickness is similar to a round English Muffin.

In order to achieve the economic manufacture of English Muffins having this alternative appearance, there are technical difficulties that must be overcome by a large commercial bakery operation. In normal operation, the dough for the English Muffin is prepared and deposited onto a conveyor that transports the dough through the proving and baking unit operations. These conveyors are RECEIVED TIME 4. MAY. 15:52 PRINT TIME 5. MAY, 7 4 WATERMARK PATENT 3 typically constructed of a continuous series of parallel units, attached to two drive chains at the under-side of said units. The upper sides of the units normally feature a series of compartments, or "griddles" that are adapted to the desired shape for the finished muffin. During proving and baking, the dough piece will expand outwards to the perimeter of the griddle, thereby taking up the shape of the griddle. In current practice, the shape of the griddle is exclusively circular.

For many years, it has been common practice for all English Muffins to be manufactured as circular items. Therefore, it was common practice whenever constructing a production line for such English Muffins, to attach the circular griddles directly (usually by welding) to the individual conveyor unit. The problem now faced by a manufacturer who wishes to change the size or geometry of the English Muffin to a more advantageous design, is that such a change would require the removal of all existing griddle plates via the complete disassembly of the existing conveyor system, followed by complete re-assembly of a new conveyor system featuring alternative griddle plates. Such an exercise is extremely costly in terms of labour and time consumed, i.e. lost production time.

Further difficulties arise when it is considered that many manufacturers will require the capacity to continue manufacturing the original shape muffins in the ooo same bakery. In such cases the requirement for complete disassembly and reassembly of muffin conveyors between production runs, are processed requiring approximately 8.5 hours for a medium size English Muffin production line, would make the entire process economically unfeasible.

In addition, continual changeovers of entire conveyor units, involving the undoing of four (or more) bolts, the manual removal of conveyor units that may weigh up to 15kgs and the replacing and re-bolting of alternative units, present considerable occupational health and safety (OH&S) risks to those persons who must perform these tasks on a regular basis. In particular, the continual manual handling of such heavy and awkward items is highly likely to increase the risk of injury to these workers.

A potential solution to this problem would be for a large manufacturer, having the appropriate resources, to dedicate at least one of their bakeries to square muffin production while retaining round muffin capability at other bakeries, RECEIVED TIME 4. MAY. 15:52 PRINT TIME 5. MAY. 7 4 WATERMARK PATENT 4 This would potentially avoid the issues of continual changeovers of conveyors, with the attendant time lost and OH&S risks, However, English Muffins have a relatively short shelf life. Therefore, there are considerable logistic difficulties presented by dedicating a particular bakery in one population centre to alternative muffin production that must satisfy demand in a number of other population centres. For example, in Australia, it is unlikely that a dedicated muffin bakery situated in e.g. Sydney would be able to supply markets in e.g. Brisbane, Melbourne, or Perth with square muffins having the requisite freshness. Further, even if the shelf life of these products were extended sufficiently to overcome this problem, the added cost of transportation from a single source to all relevant population centres would be such as to make this alternative economically unfeasible.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a conveyor for transporting English muffin dough pieces through commercial bakery proving and baking unit operations. The conveyor is formed from a continuous chain of elongated units. Each unit includes a conveyor tray that is affixed to said :i conveyor, and one or more griddle slats, each of which is releasably attached to said conveyor tray. Each griddle slat has one or more griddle pans for receiving the English muffin dough pieces. The two main components can be disassembled without the need for skilled manipulation that is, without the need for one or more trained fitters, equipped with suitable tooling, to effect the disassembly. The main components are the conveyor tray, that remains permanently affixed to the drive mechanism of the conveyor, and the griddle slat, featuring one or more shaped griddle pans for receiving the English muffin dough pieces.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the conveyor tray has a quickrelease retaining means capable of preventing the griddle slat from vertical and lateral movement.

One potential method for providing the above quick-release retaining means would be to provide an interlocking mechanism, which is designed to resiliently hold the locking members in place via a 'clip'. For example, by the use of a restraining member that is adapted to pivot from one end, running across the RECEIVED TIME 4. MAY. 15:52 PRINT TIME 5,MAY. 7:43 WATERMARK PATENT top of the griddle slat such that the free end of said member is forced into a manually releasable clamp positioned at the opposite side of the griddle slat.

However, such a construction may not prove to be sufficiently rugged to cope with normal production conditions, and is likely to be more expensive to manufacture than, e.g. a spring-loaded mechanism.

Therefore, in a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the quick release retaining means has one or more restraining lugs and one or more biasing retaining members, In a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the biasing retaining members are tensioned springs.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the release mechanism allows the rapid manual changeover to a griddle slat featuring substantially squareshaped griddles.

The conveyor tray and the griddle slat may both be constructed from sheet metal. The griddle slat sits on top of the conveyor tray and is resiliently attached to the conveyor tray by means of restraining lugs situated at both ends of the :i conveyor tray. The restraining lugs are located in a restraining position above the flat base of the griddle slat, thereby preventing the griddle slat both from sliding sideways in relation to the conveyor tray, and from lifting off the conveyor tray.

The conveyor tray features at one end, or at both ends, a release mechanism that allows the restraining lugs to be manually retracted from their restraining position, thereby allowing the griddle slat to be manually lifted from the conveyor tray, According to another aspect the present invention provides a method of allowing the changeover of griddle trays on a english muffin conveyor, including the steps of: Providing a conveyor is formed from a continuous chain of elongated units, each unit including a conveyor tray that is affixed to said conveyor, and one or more griddle slats, each of which is releasably attached to said conveyor tray, each griddle slat having one or more griddle pans for receiving the English muffin dough pieces; Detaching one or more griddle slats from said unit; and Attaching one or more alternative griddle slat to said unit.

RECEIVED TIME 4. MAY. 15:52 PRINT TIME 5. MAY. 7:43 WATERMARK PATENT 6 Preferably, the alternative griddle slat unit has griddle pans of a different shape or size from the first griddle slats.

The invention may feature a spring-loaded release mechanism that causes the restraining lugs to be held in place during conveyor operation, and which allows said lugs to be retracted manually to effect change-over from one type of griddle slat to another.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 shows a conveyor tray with a griddle slat for round English Muffin production in place, Figure 2 shows a griddle slat for round English Muffin production.

Figure 3 shows a griddle slat for square English Muffin production, Figure 4 shows detail of a conveyor tray with the restraining mechanism disengaged.

Figure 5 shows a perspective view of the substantially square English 15 Muffin.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The following description is made with reference to the figures described above. Once a commercial bakery operation has completed a production run of round English Muffins, the proving and baking unit operations are shut down, and the conveyor is stopped. Once the conveyor has cooled sufficiently, the changeover operation begins.

The invention will be described in relation to the changeover of a single conveyor unit from round, in this case, to square English Muffin production capacity. It will be appreciated that the overall conveyor is made up of a series of coco 25 identical units 1, and that the operation described herein will be repeated for each unit 1, Each unit 1 is made up from two main components: the conveyor tray 2, and the griddle slat 3. The conveyor tray 2 remains affixed to the conveyor chains 4, while the griddle slat 3 is resiliently attached to the conveyor tray 2 during baking operation. The griddle slat 3 features a flat rectangular base atop which are permanently affixed a series of griddle plates 6. In Figure 1 the griddle plates 6 are depicted as being substantially round, by way of example.

RECEIVED TIME 4. MAY. 15:52 PRINT TIME 5, MAY. 7:43 WATERMARK PATENT 7 At one end of the conveyor tray 2 is a manual release mechanism. This features a flat slide 7 that is fitted underneath the conveyor tray 2. The slide features one or more restraining lugs 8 that are attached to the outer end of the slide, and which are adapted to hook over the upper surface of the conveyor tray 2 and the flat base 5 of the griddle slat 3, The presence of the lugs in this position prevents the griddle slat 3 from sliding out of the position shown in Fig. 1, and from being lifted out of the position shown in Fig, 1. The slide 7 is attached to the body of the conveyor tray 2 via one or more springs 9 that allow the slide to be extended outward by the application of moderate manual force.

In order to effect a changeover from a round griddle slat, as shown in Fig.

2, to a square griddle slat, as shown in Fig. 3, the slide 7 is manually pulled outward from the position shown in Fig. 1 to the position shown in Fig. 4. The removal of the lugs thereby from above and adjacent to the base 5 of the griddle slat 3 allows the round griddle slat 3 to be lifted out of position and thereby removed from the conveyor tray 2. The square griddle slat is then placed in position, the slide 7 pulled out to allow the base 5 to fit below the level of the :i restraining lugs 8, and the spring 9 tension allowed to return the lugs 8 to their engaged position.

oo*It will be apparent that the same operation in reverse may be applied to return the round griddle slat to its original position.

Fig 5 depicts a square English Muffin, as embodied in one aspect of the invention.

RECEIVED TIME 4. MAY. 15:52 PRINT TIME 5. MAY, 7:43

Claims (6)

1. An English Muffin having a substantially square appearance when laying on a flat surface and viewed from above,

2. The English Muffin of claim 1, wherein the overall size of the muffin is similar to a commercial bread slice.

3. A conveyor for transporting English muffin dough pieces through commercial bakery proving and baking unit operations; wherein the conveyor is formed from a continuous chain of elongated units; each of said units including a conveyor tray which is affixed to said conveyor, and one or more griddle slats, each of which is releasably attached to said conveyor tray, each said griddle slat having one or more griddle pans for receiving the English muffin dough pieces.

4. The conveyor of claim 3, wherein the conveyor tray has a quick-release retaining means capable of preventing the griddle slat from upwards and lateral movement. The conveyor of claim 4, wherein the quick release retaining means has one or more restraining lugs and one or more biasing retaining members.

6. The conveyor of claim 5, wherein the biasing retaining members are tensioned springs. RECEIVED TIME 4. MAY. 15:52 PRINT TIME 5.MAY. 7:43

11- 11 a WATERMARK PATENT 9 7. The conveyor of claims 3,4,5 or 6, wherein the release mechanism allows the rapid manual changeover to a griddle slat featuring substantially square- shaped griddles.,-5 T DATED this 4"h day of May 2001 nnIU~z MEMO a tuqbt g&erc AutraWt 1j;,iskc1 WATERMARK PATENT TRADEMARK ATTORNEYS 290 BURWOOD ROAD HAWTHORN, VICTORIA 3122 AUSTRALIA 000 .0.0 .00. RECEIVED TIME 4. MAY. 15:52 PITTM 74 PRINT TIME 5.MAY. 7:42