CA1116469A - Method and apparatus for continuously manufacturing multi-layered dough materials - Google Patents
Method and apparatus for continuously manufacturing multi-layered dough materialsInfo
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- CA1116469A CA1116469A CA000322102A CA322102A CA1116469A CA 1116469 A CA1116469 A CA 1116469A CA 000322102 A CA000322102 A CA 000322102A CA 322102 A CA322102 A CA 322102A CA 1116469 A CA1116469 A CA 1116469A
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Abstract
ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
A method and an apparatus are disclosed for contin-uously manufacturing a flattened layered food material. The material is formed by feeding out of a feeder or extruder con-tinuously and simultaneously two kinds of food materials in the form of a hollow tube consisting of two layers, transferring the hollow tube onto a continuously driven conveyor means thereby to allow it, while progressing on said conveyor means, to continuously collapse by gravity on said conveyor means, and flattening the collapsed tube on said conveyor means.
A method and an apparatus are disclosed for contin-uously manufacturing a flattened layered food material. The material is formed by feeding out of a feeder or extruder con-tinuously and simultaneously two kinds of food materials in the form of a hollow tube consisting of two layers, transferring the hollow tube onto a continuously driven conveyor means thereby to allow it, while progressing on said conveyor means, to continuously collapse by gravity on said conveyor means, and flattening the collapsed tube on said conveyor means.
Description
The present invention is the divisional of ayplication Serial No.
247,502, filed March 9, 1976, and relates to a method and an apparatus for continuously manufacturing a sheet of layered food material, which is to be generally subjected to subsequent stretching and folding operations to give a food product having a desired number of layers, such as pies and Danish pastry.
In the past, when multi-layered food products containing dough such as pies and Danish pastry are manufactured, dough is first stretched to form a thin strip, lumps of oil products such as butter and margarine are placed thereon and are wrapped up with the strip of dough on which they are placed, then the dough strip folded up with the oil products therein are stretched and folded into a couple of folds, and this stretching and folding step is repeat-ed to give a sufficient number of layers required for the end products.
In the above conventional method, whether it is carried out manually or mechanically, oil products are directly wrapped up with dough strip at the initial stage. This brings about a defect in that the thickness of dough in the end product tends to be uneven. Again, the operation itself is cumbersome and time-consuming because operation is conducted manually in most cases.
In order to obviate such disadvantage and meet the requirements for the end products, a starting material therefor was prepared by extruding it in the form of a solid continuous cylindrical rod, of which the outer part consists of dough and has a substantially even thickness in cross-section, and the core part consists of oil products. However, when the cylindrical rod thus obtained is pressed, and flattened in the form of a sheet, the non-layered parts at the opposite ends contain far greater amounts of dough in comparison with the upper and lower portions of the sheet.
Again, there has been no effective device in the past to press and stretch dough material piled up in more than three layers. Thus, in order to obtain a 27-layered dough product, it was necessary to fold a dough sheet ~16~
in three layers and stretch the three-layered dough material and to repeat this folding-stretching operation two more times. If the above operation was to be performed on a conveyor system, the total length of the folding-stretching device required more than 10 meters, occupying a large operational space.
In Canadian Patent Application Serial No. 105,946, spherical dough materials each containing a core material other than dough are fed onto a movable base and below a press ram, which compresses the fed materials in synchronization with the feed of the materials so as to produce multi-layered food product.
In Canadian Patent Application Serial No. 217,37~ spherical dough materials each containing a core material other than dough are fed into a guide plate and a roller assembly consisting of a group of rollers freely ro-tatable about their axes and revolving along a closed orbit, and the materials thus fed are introduced into a space between a horizontal conveyor belt and the lower straight portion of said closed orbit, whereby the materials are stretched and flattened in such a manner that a sheet material consisting of a plurality of horizontal layers of dough and other materials is obtained.
These inventions have resolved the above difficulties in the conven--tional processes. However, they required manufacture of spherical dough mate-rials comprising core material to produce ~ulti-layered dough materials, and the formation of the layers in the end product was accomplished by compressing said sphereical dough materials. In these cases, there was a certain limitation in efficiency deriving from the use of such spherical materials. Further, in the first mentioned application, compression by the action of a press some-times tended to injure the dough tissue. In the second application, the use of a single stretcher resulted in difficulty in obtaining a large number of layers in the end product.
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According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of continuously manufacturing a flattened layered food material, comprising the steps of feeding out of a feeder or ex-truder continuously and simultaneously two kinds of food materials in the form of a hollow tube consisting of two layers, transferring the hollow tube onto a continuously driven conveyor means thereby to allow it, while progressing on said conveyor means, to con-tinuously collapse by gravity on said conveyor means, and flattening the collapsed hollow tube on said conveyor means.
In an embodiment of the method, multi-layered dough materials containing dough layers can be manufactured by the steps of continuously extruding material in the form of a hollow tube having two layers, allowing the tubular material to collapse flat under its own weight on a continuously travelling conveyor, stretch-ing the flattened material to a thin strip, folding and piling up the strip of material to a predetermined number of multi-layers, and re-stretching the piled material to a desired thickness.
Thus, it is possible to manufacture continuously and automatically multi-layered dough materials containing thirty layers or more of dough or dough and other material orderly arranged there-in without injuring the dough tissue. Further, the present in-vention enables the manufacture of multi-layered dough materials comprising layers of dough and fat or oil such as butter overlapping alternately without the problem of butter being squeezed out or dough adhering to adjacent machine portions during a stretching operation.
~1~6~ 3 A further aspect of the present invention provides an apparatus for continuously manufacturing a flattened layered food material, comprising a feeder or extruder for feeding continuously and simultaneously ~wo kinds of food material in the form of a hollow tube consisting of two layers, and a continuously driven conveyor means adapted to receive and convey the tube thereon there-by to allow it, while progressing on said conveyor means, -to con-tinously collapse by gravity on said conveyor, and means for flattening the collapsed hollow tube on said conveyor means. The apparatus optionally includes means for folding the flattened hollow tube.
In one embodiment, said feeder comprises a vertical hollow outer cylinder having an opening for receiving dough at the side wall thereof, a vertical hollow screw arranged within said outer cylinder so as to rotate about its own axis which is substantially aligned with the axis of said outer cylinder thereby to feed down-wards dough between the outer surface of said screw and the inner surface of said outer cylinder, the hollow screw providing a passage for allowing a food material other than dough to pass therethrough, a nozzle having an annular lower end which is arranged integrally with said hollow screw at the bottom thereof, said end defining an annular orifice for discharging dough in cooperation . with the inner surface of the lower end of said outer cylinder, and a plug means arranged within the lower end of said nozzle so that the peripheral surface of the lower end of said plug means defines an annular orifice for said food material other than dough in cooperation ~i~h the inner surface of the lower end of sald nozzle.
In an alternative embodiment, said feeder comprises a vertical hollow outer cylinder having an opening for receiving dough at the side wall thereof, a vertical hollow screw arranged within said outer cylinder so as to rotate about its own axis which is substantially aligned with the axis of said outer cyl-inder thereby to feed downwards dough between the outer surface of said screw and the inner surface of said outer cylinder, an inner cylinder arranged to pass through said hollow screw and providing a passage for allowing a food material other than dough to pass therethrough, a nozzle having an annular lower end which is arranged integrally with said inner cylinder at the bottom thereof, said annular end defining an annular orifice for dis-charging dough in cooperation with the inner surface of the lower end of said outer cylinder, and a plug means arranged with-in the lower end of said nozzle so that the peripheral surface of the lower end of said plug means defines an annular orifice for said food material other than dough in cooperation with the inner surface of the lower end of said nozzle.
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The extrusion of dough material in a tubular form may be conducted by a dough feeder comprising a vertical screw for feeding dough, a passage in the axial portion of the screw for feeding other material, and a double-layered annular outlet at the bottom of the device, from which dough and the other material flow down in the form of a tube wherein dough forms the outer layer and the other material forms the inner layer.
The tubular material may be collapsed flat by its own weight on a conveyor which advances substantially horizont-ally. The flattened material may be stretched to a thin stripof a thickness such as 2 to 3 mm by a first stretcher comprising a plurality of freely rotating rollers revolving along an elliptical track having a straight bottom portion and a convey-ing means positioned thereunder. The stretched strip of material coming out of the stretcher may be suspended from the level of the strip of material undergoing the stretching operation and slowly swung back and forth guided by a swing - ~b -~.
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means such as a swinging plate so that it may be folded and piled up so as partially to overlap itself in tens of layers on a continuously travelling conveyor. The piled up multi-layered material may be stretched by a second stretcher~ e.g. freely rotating rollers which are revolving along an ellipti-cal track having a straight bottom portion and a conveying means positioned thereunder without destroying the regularity of the layers in the material.
The above-mentioned conveying means in each of the first and the second stretchers comprises a plurality of belt conveyors each of which has individual feed speed, arranged in series in the order of feed speed such that a downstream belt conveyor runs faster than an upstream belt conveyor. The revolving speed of the rollers along the elliptical track is greater than that of the fastest conveyor belt.
The conveyor means may have brush rollers interposed between any pair of adjacent conveyor belts. The brush rollers3 due to the flection of thin flexible bristles, can stably transfer dough material to any adjacent downstream conveyor belt while all the flour on the upstream conveyor belt is transferred simultaneously so that the dough material does not adhere to the downstream conveyor belt.
Thus, the present invention affords a process which enables continu-ous and automatic manufacture of dough material comprising dough in a multip-- licity of orderly layers. The dough material may comprise layers of dough and other material such as fat or oil overlapping alternatively. In the apparatus for producing the dough sheets in a plurality of layers with or with-out layers of fat or oil interposed in layers of dough~ the working distance is substantially shorter than that necessary for any conventional automatic apparatus of this kind. The process and apparatus of the invention are capable of continuously producing dough sheets containing layers of oil or fat such as butter without the problem of oil or fat being squeezed out or dough adhering to adjacent machille portions during stretching operations, with the result that oil or fat may be orderly laminated.
Thus all of the difficulties encountere~ on the prior art have been eliminated by the present invention.
In the present invention, a sheet of layered food nla.erial can be continuously and automatically manufactured by extruding a desir~d number of food materials in a tubular form, which comprises layers each of which are substantially concentric in cross-section, and transferring the tubular food material onto a continuously driven conveyor.
The extrusion of the food material in a tubular form having two layers consisting of an outer layer formed of dough and an inner layer of another material) is conducted by a feeder or extruder comprising a vertical screw for feeding dough, a passage in the axial portion of the screw for feed-ing other material, and a double-layered annular outlet at the bottom of the feeder, wherefrom dough and the other material flow down in the form of a tube wherein dough forms the outer layer and the other material forms the inner layer. It will be readily understood that a tube having more than two layers can be extruded by a slight modification of the above feeder or extruder by, for instance, providing the feeder with additional screw or screws or addition-al duct in the passage inside the screw, together with some attachments.
The tube may be collapsed flat by its own weight on a conveyor which receives the tube. Then, the hollow portion of the tubular body disappears and the innermost tubular layer merges into one body.
Accordingly, in one aspect the present invention consists in a method of continuously manufacturing a sheet of layered food material, compris-ing the steps of feeding out of a feeder or extruder continuously and simul-- taneously a plurality of food materials in the form of a tube consisting of a plurality of layers, and transferring the tube onto a continuollsly driven conveyor thereby to allow it to continuously collapse flat by gravity on said conveyor to give the sheet of layered food material.
In accordance wit~ a second aspect the present invention consists in an apparatus for continuously manufacturing a sheet of layered food material, comprising a feeder or extruder for feeding continuously and simultaneously two kinds of food material in the form of a hollow tube consisting of two layers, and a continuously driven conveyor means adapted to receive and convey the hollow tube thereon, said feeder comprising a vertical hollow outer cylinder having an opening for receiving dough at the side wall thereof, a vertical hollow screw arranged within said outer cylinder so as to rotate about its own axis which is substantially aligned with the axis of said outer cylinder thereby to feed downwards dough between the outer surface of said screw and the inner surface of said outer cylinder, the hollow screw providing a passage for allowing a food material other than dough to pass therethrough, a nozzle having an annular lower end which is arranged integrally with sald hollow screw at the bottom thereof, said end defining an annular orifice for discharging dough in cooperation with the inner surface of the lower end of said outer cylinder, and a plug means arranged within the lower end of said nozzle so that the peripheral surface of the lower end of said plug means defines an annular orifice for said food material other than dough in cooperation with the inner surface of the lower end of said nozzle.
Also, in the present invention, an inner cylinder may be arranged to pass through said hollow screw without the cylinder ~eing forr.led integrally with the hollow screw as described above.
~f Said nozzle has an annular lower end which is arranged integrally with said inner cylinder at the bottom end thereof in place of said hollow screw as described above. Therefore, an annular orifice for discharging dough is defined by said annular end of the nozzle in cooperation with the inner surface of the lower end of said outer ~ - 7a _ cylinder. Purther, an annular orifice for said food material other than dough is defined by the peripheral surface of the lower end of said plug means in cooperation with the inner surface of the lower end of said nozzle.
For a better understanding of the invention, reference will now be made by way of example to the accompanying drawings, in which:-Figure 1 is a diagrammatic plan view of an embodiment of an apparatusaccording to the present invention, Figure 2 is a diagrammatic side view, partially broken, of the apparatus of Figure 1, Figure 3 is a cross-sectional side view of a dough feeder to be used in the above apparatus, Figure 4 illustrates for reference purposes a cross-section of a solid rod consisting of two concentric materials wherein the outer layer con-sists of dough and the core portion consists of butter, extruded from a known feeder or extruder, Figure 5 is a cross-section of a sheet obtained by compressing the solid rod shown in Figure 4, e.g. by flattening by gravity the tube shown in Figure 16, Figure 6 is a cross-section of a sheet obtained by flattening a hollow tube having two concentric materials extruded from a dough feeder, Figure 7 is a perspective view of a roller driving mechanism for the first roller assembly of the apparatus, Figure 8 is a diagram illustrating the operation of a portion of the apparatus, Figure 9 is a diagrammatic side view, partially in cross-section, of the driving mechanism of a first stretcher and a swing means of the apparatus, Figure 10 is a plan view, partially in cross-section, of the driving mechanism shown in Figure 9, Figure 11 is a diagrammatic side view, partially in cross-section, of the driving mechanism of a second stretcher of the apparatus, and Figure 12 is a plan view, partially in cross-section, of the same driving mechanism as shown in Figure 11.
Figures 13 to 15 illustrate for reference purposes cross-sections of several dough materials formed by the conventional methods, in any of which core material is wrapped up with a dough sheet, Figure 16 is a cross-section of a tube having two substantially concentric layers extruded from a feeder or extruder used in the present invention, In Figure 3, dough (1) is supplied into a hopper (3) of the dough feeder (F). Dough (1) consists, in case of pies, ordinarily of kneaded mix-ture of wheat flour and water and sometimes contains about 15% of sugar.
In case of danish pastries, dough consists of kneaded mixture of wheat, water, yeast fungi, salt and a small amount of butter.
The hopper (3) is f ixedly connected to the body portion of the dough feeder (F), and contains therein a feed screw or screws (9) which are disposed at the bottom of the interior chamber of the hopper (3). Dough in d 20 the hopper is thus conveyed by the screw or screws (9) into the body portion of the dough feeder (F).
The body portion of the dough feeder (F) comprises a vertical - hollow cylinder (5) which forms an outer housing. Said cylinder (5) has a cylindrical hollow portion, wherein a vertical hollow screw (19) is positioned.
The cylinder (5) and the screw (19) define an annular space therebetween. An opening (7) is provided on the side wall of the cylinder (5) and the annular space between the cylinder and the screw (19) is directly connected through said opening (7) with the interior chamber of the hopper (3). Thus, dough (1) in the hopper may be fed through the opening (7) into the anmllar space.
Oil or fat (1l), for example, butter for pies and Danish pastries and lard for Chinese cakes, is supplied into a hopper (13) positioned above the body portion of the dough feeder (F). The hopper (13) comprises in its interior chamber pump means (17) for transporting oil or fat downwards and into an inner cylinder (15) positioned below the hopper (13) and connected to the circumference of an opening at the bottom thereof. The cylinder (lS) is stationary and arranged within the hollow portion of the screw (19) concen-trically therewith. The bottom portion of the cylinder (15) constitutes a nozzle (16). A conical plug (25) is positioned concentrically with the inner cylinder (15) at the bottom part thereof and is suspended from the inner wall of the inner cylinder (15) through a support rod (27) so that an annular ori-fice (29) may be defined between the plug (25) and the nozzle (16). The lower end portion of the cylinder (5) forms a dough nozzle (31) which is concentric with the annular orifice (29) so that an annular orifice (33) may be defined betweeen the inner nozzle (16) and the dough nozzle (31) in the manner as illus-trated in the drawing.
The lower end portion of the nozzle (31) and that of the inner nozzle (16) may be constructed to be detachable from the remainder and may be provided in variety of different sizes so as to be adapted to change the dimensions of the orifices (29) and (33).
A sprocket wheel (21) is secured to the top portion of the hollow - screw (19) for the rotation of the screw. The screw may be rotatably held by, for instance, an extension of the hopper (13) ~hrough bearing means (23).
A feature of the use in the present invention of a conical plug (25) is that when the diameter of the nozzle (31) is increased, the cross-section of the discharged material may be kept unchanged by adjusting the size of the conical plug (25). It even permits reduction of the ratio of the non--- 10 -- .
layered part consisting of dough alone at each end as against the layered portion even when the diameter of the nozzle (31) is increased.
In Figure 2, the dough feeder (F) may be received by a support (35) integral with the frame (37? of the apparatus. The power of a drive motor (39) is transmitted through pulleys to reduction gears (41) of a ver-tical output spindle type and reduction gears (43) of a horizontal output spindle type simultaneously.
The output spindle (45) of the reduction gears (41) is operative-ly connected to an input end of the screws (9) to drive them and to the sprocket wheel (21) to rotate the vertical screw (19) so that dough (1) is discharged from the annular orifice (33) contiinuously in a tubular form.
Further, since the pump means (17) extrudes fat or oil continu-ously through the annular orifice (29) in a tubular form, it will be readily understood that a dough material may be continuously extruded from the dough feeder (F) in the form of a hollow rod or tube (47) consisting of an outer layer of dough (1), an inner layer of oil or fat (11) and a central hollow portion.
In this regard, it is to be noted that the dough material may be extruded as a hollow rod or tube consisting of only one layer of dough, if required, by feeding dough alone.
In another embodiment, the inner cylinder (15) may be omitted.
In this instance, the inner nozzle (16) may be provided at the lower portion of the screw (19).
The advantages of the above hollow rod are expained below.
- When two strips of dough containing a layer of oil or fat in between where oil or fat is exposed at both ends are subjected to stretching action, oil or fat which is softer than dough iæ forced out of both ends by pressure and adheres A
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to the belt or other parts of tlle machine, so that a contimlous operation sometimes becomes impossible. However, in the present invention no such danger exists since dough envelops the inner material completely.
The advantages of the above hollow rod in comparison with a solid continuous rod as illustrated in Figure 4 are that compression of dough mate-rial is facilitated and that oil or fat (11) and dough (1), when pressed, from more complete layers as shown in Figure 6 in comparison with the flatten-ed solid rod as illustrated in Figure 5, wherein the non-layered parts at the two ends are excessively large and the upper and lower dough portions are too thin. In contrast, what is obtained from the hollow rod as shown in Figure 6 is superior in the formation of layers to that shown in Figure 5.
Since the ratio of the amount of dough as against oil or fat to be folded into layers for Danish pastries is generally 1.4:1, when the solid rod is flattened as shown in Figure 5, the part consisting of dough alone at each end becomes excessively large, and no layer of oil or fat is formed there while the ratio of oil or fat at the central portion remains excessively large even if the material is folded in subsequent steps. This does not give any product suitable for commercial use.
As described above, the dough nozzle (31) and the inner nozzle (16) are each in the circular form. If they were in the flattened or rec-tangular form, since the elevation angles of various portions of the inner face of the nozzles are considerably different from each other because of the required changes in the form of the vertical cylinder (5) and the inner cy-linder (15) from the circle at their upper portions to flattened or elongated shape at their lower portions, not only the discharge speed is different between the middle portions and end portions, but also there occurs the destruction of gluten tissue, which does not permit to produce good-quality products.
The dough materlal thus extruded is recelved by the first con-veyor belt (65). The upper surface of the first conveyor belt (65) is strewn with flour (67) by a flour feeder ~69) mounted on the frame (37) at a suitable position upstream of the dough feeder (F). Consequently, the dough material is extruded on the conveyor belt (65) strewn with flour.
The dough material is then carried for~ard on the conveyor belt (65) to a position where it is pressed preliminarily by a press roller (71j to a certain extent before it enters the first stretcher.
Above the press roller (71) is disposed a flour hopper (73).
Flour in the flour hopper is applied to the upper surface of the dough material - through the press roller (71). Such a preliminary treatment is all conducted on the first conveyor belt (65).
Subsequent to the above, the dough material is stretched to a very thin strip and then undergoes folding and re-stretching operations to form a multi-layered dough product. The number of layers obtainable in the final product is to a large extent dependent upon the thickness of the dough material stretched in the first stretching process.
The first stretching may be effected by the first stretcher com-prising a number of rollers movable on the predetermined elliptical track by means of chains, and a conveying means positioned thereunder comprising a plurality of conveyor bclts. The first stretcher comprises the first roller assembly (51) consisting of a number of small rollers (55) mounted through bearings (57) on shafts (59) which in turn are rotatably, mounted on chains (61) at equal intervals.
The chains (61) are trained around two sprocket wheels (63), so that they form a flattened or elliptical track (a) on which the small rollers (55) travel along with the rotation of the chains (61). The travel of the outermost points of the small rollers (55) along the elliptlcal track (a) forms a ]ocus represented by (b) in Figure 8. The locus (b) has a straight bottom portion facing the conveyor means, consisting of a plurality of convey-or belts (65), (79) and (83).
The first conveyor belt (65) extends about 100 mm into the por-tion adjacent the straight portion of the locus (b) and therebelow.
The dough material is fed into the gap between the lower straight portion of the locus (b) and the upper surface of the upper flight of the conveyor (65).
~ ownstream of the first conveyor belt (65) is arranged a second conveyor belt (79) spaced about 50 mm apart from the first conveyor belt.
In the space between the first and the second conveyor belts, a brush roller (81) is disposed. Due to the flection of the flexible bristles, the brush roller (81) transfers dough material from the first conveyor belt (65) to the second conveyor belt (79) while all the flour on the conveyor (65) is transferred simultaneously so that dough does not adhere to the second con-veyor belt (79). The length of the second conveyor belt (79) is preferably 50 to 100 mm. ~ third conveyor belt (83) is likewise arranged downstream of the second conveyor belt spaced apart about 50 mm from the second conveyor belt. Between the second conveyor belt (79) and the third conveyor belt (83) is disposed at brush roller (85) as illustrated in Figure 8. The brush roller (85) plays a similar role to that of the first brush roller (81).
The speeds of the first, second9 and third conveyor belts (65), (79), and (83) are arranged such that a downstream conveyor moves faster than any upstream conveyor. Similarly, the rotary speed of the second brush roller (85) is higher than that of the first brush roller (81).
Since the length of dough material is extended by the stretching operation, it is necessary to vary the speed of each of these conveyor belts and the brush rollers so as to absorb the extension of the dough material.
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The upper flight of the third conveyor belt (83) may extend beyond the lower straight portion of the locus (b) after running therebelow about 100 mm.
The space between the first, second and the third conveyor belts and the lower straight portion of the locus (b) becomes continuously narrower in the downstream direction.
It is to be noted that the number of the conveyor belts and the - brush rollers is not critical. If the number increases and accordingly the total length of the roller assembly, the capacity of the device may also increase.
A higher stretching capability of the first stretcher enables reduction of the height of the stack of the dough material folded and stack-ed in the subsequent folding process. Consequently, a finished dough product may contain more layers for a predetermined thickness.
In an experiment, dough material extruded in tubular form and of 20 mm thickness at the entrance of the stretcher could reduce its thickness to 1.5 mm employing the stIetcher of the present invention com?rising three - conveyor belts and two brush rollers in between. In the above experiment, the effective operating length of the locus (b) was set at 330 mm, the effective operating number of rollers (55) set at 5, and the revolving speed of the rollers along the elliptical track (a) was set at twice the travelling speed of the third conveyor belt (83).
In contrast, in a conventional stretching employing a pair of cylindrical rollers rotating at a fixed position so as to cause dough material to pass and to be pressed therebetween, the minimum thickness to which dough material containing a large amount of sticky and soft material such as butter can be stretched without breaking the infonnation of layers is 5 mm. The limitation in the efficiency derives from the fact that pressure applied is concentrated on the surface between the rollers, so that dough material tends to adhere to the rollers or be broken in the stretching process.
The above stretching operation is followed by the process of folding dough material. It is preferable that the stretched dough mate-rial is fed through a pair of vertically arranged press rollers (151) and (153) to a swing plate (155). The press rollers (151), (153) are rotated at a certain speed in order to keep a constant supply of the dough mate-rial for folding operation. They suppress whatever elasticity remaining in the stretched dough material. The constant rotation of the rollers (151) and (153) is effected by the engagement of gears (157), (159), (161), (163), (165) and (167) (see Figure 9). The number of rotation of these rollers (151) and (153) determines in coaction with their diameter the actual amount (length) of dough discharged from them. This amount determines the length (d) of the path of the swlng plate (155) at its lower end and the speed (f) of the swinging motion of the swing plate (155).
In Figure 9, a crank pin (169) is mounted on the gear (161) eccentrically to the shaft (171) thereof. To the crank pin (169) is con-nected a crank rod (175), which in turn is connected to the shaft (173) of the swing plate (155). The swing plate (155) is made to conduct rotary oscillation through a crank rod (175) to determine the aforesaid (d) and (f) in relation to the amount of rotation of the rollers (151) and . (153). The input to the gear (161) will be explained later.
The roller (151) has a shaft (177) in its central portion. The , shaft (177) is hollow and the rocking shaft (173) is inserted therein in ; such a manner that the movement of the rocking shaft (173) does not inter-fere with that of the roller (151).
A cover plate (156) may preferably be attached to the swing :.
6~9 plate (155) by suitable means. The cover plate (lS6) rnay be substantially parallel to the swing plate (155) and may have substantially the same length with that of the swing plate. The cover plate can be removed from the swing plate for cleaning.
The provision of the cover plate (156) permits the swing plate (1~5) to be swung at a greater angle that the case the swing plate has no cover plate, whereby the length of a layer of the folded dough material can be increased.
The dough material fed from the swing plate (155) is folded on the fourth conveyor belt (181) positioned below the swing plate (155) and ex-plained later in further detail, into a continuous stack of a predetermined height by the swinging motion of the swing plate.
If 2 mm thick dough material is piled up in 30 layers, the height becomes 60 mm. If dough material piled up in as many as 30 layers to such a thickness were subjected to compression by a single roller rotating around a fixed shaft the diameter of the roller should be 1 m or more to conduct the stretching operation without destroying the regularity of the pile, which size is totally impracticable. This is because, at the portion of the roller where it takes up material for compression, the surface of the roller has a tendency - 20 to "repel" the material when the height of the material approaches the height of the shaft of the roller.
Thus, the material in the upper part of the pile is repelled from the surface of the single roller so that the regularity of the pile is destroyed and is not taken up by the roller in a regular manner. Such a result is contrary to the object of the present invention.
` In the above-described apparatus, loosely folded dough material piled up in 30 Iayers and having a thickness of 60 mm can be taken up without destroying the regularity of the layers by the roller assembly (53) of the ~6~
second stretcher. T}le roller assembly (53) comprises a number of rollers revolving along an elliptical track ~a), the take-up end oE which has a radius of curvature o only 85 mm.
The fourth conveyor belt (181) which supplies dough material to the second roller assembly (53) moves in substantially the same direction as the third conveyor belt (83) but differs in height.
This difference in height is the sum of the distance of the space in which the swing plate (155) hanging from the dcwnstream end of the upper flight of the third conveyor belt (83) can swing effectively and the thickness of the dough material stacked thereunder to such a height as that at which the stacked dough material may be stretched by the second stretcher. The fourth conveyor belt (1~1) is mounted at a position which is compatible with such difference in height.
The upper flight of the fourth conveyor belt (181) extends at its upstream end into the portion below the second and third conveyor belts (79) and ~83) so that it receives flour dropping from these conveyor belts. This is effective in preventing dough from adhering to the belt.
The fourth conveyor belt (181) is disposed at an angle with the lower straight portion of the locus (b) formed by the path of the outermost portions of the small rollers (55). In the embodiment illustrated in Figure 8, the fourth conveyor belt (181) is provided at an angle (~)~ for instance, about 20 relative to said straight portion of the locus (b), which is main-tained horizontal. However, it is also allowable that the fourth conveyor belt (181) is horizontal and the straight portion of the locus (b) is inclined relative to the conveyor belt (181).
Thus, the plane portion of the outer envelope surface defined by the r revolving rollers may be provided at an angle, for instance, about 20 relative to the upper flight of the nearest upstream conveyor~ i.e. the upper flight of the fourth conveyor belt (181). When said upper flight is positioned at an angle of 20 to the above plane portion and the material is piled up on the conveyor belt forming layers, each maintaining an angle of, for instance, 20 as against the plane of the upper flight of the conveyor belt ~181) 9 said layers hold an angle of 40 relative to the level of the above plane portion.
Since the rollers revolve at a faster speed than any of said conveyors, the cooperation of the rollers with the conveyors reduces the angle of the layers towards zero.
The fourth conveyor belt ~181) approaches the lower straight portion of the locus (b) of the second roller assembly ~53) at a certain angle ~) and moves away from the straight portion of the locus (b) after it comes to a position where it is separated from the locus (b) at a certain distance ~g).
At a certain interval (experimentally 50 mm), a fifth conveyor belt (183) is arranged downstream of the fourth conveyor belt ~181). The distance (h) be-: tween the fifth conveyor belt ~183) and the straight portion of the locus ~b) is smaller than the distance (g). The speed of the fifth conveyor belt is faster than that of the fourth conveyor belt ~181). Between the fourth con-veyor belt (181) and the fifth conveyor belt ~183) is arranged a brush roller (185). Downstream of the fifth conveyor belt ~183) is similarly arranged a brush roller (187~, and downstream thereof is arranged a sixth conveyor belt (189). The distance (i) between the sixth conveyor belt (189) and the locus ~b) is smaller than the distance ~h). The speed of the sixth conveyor belt ~189) is faster than the speed of the fifth conveyor belt (183).
The upstream end of the upper flight of the sixthconveyor belt (189) may extend about 100 mm below and along the straight portion of thelocus ~b) and the remaining part thereof is outside said straight portion. The leading end of the upper flight of the sixth conveyor belt functions to - discharge the finished dough material.
In Figure 8, a friction plate (191) is disposed at the upstream end - '.9 -of the second roller assembl~ ~53) J along the locus (j) formed by the path of tile innermost portions of the rollers (55) revolving along the elliptical track ~a). The friction plate contacts the smaller rollers (55), which are otherwise in free rotation, so as to forcibly rotate the small rollers in the direction of the arrow (k) only where the friction plate is in contact with them.
The force created on the surface of the rollers (55) when they rotate in the direction of the arrow (k) acts to increase the action of the rollers to take in the material. It pulls the material in the upper layers of the piled up dough material in the direction of the movement of the con-veyor belts and presses it so that it prevents the destruction of the regular-ity of the layers in the piled up dollgh material. Thus, all the dough material is led to the linear portion of the locus ~b) in a desired manner.
If the speed of progress (n) of the small rollers (55) along the locu (a) is set at 70 times or more the travelling speed of the fourth con-veyor belt, destruction of the order of the layers in the piled up dough material can be prevented without the use of the friction plate (191). How-ever, if the speed of progress ~n) cannot be set at such a high speed, the friction plate is required.
When both of the above expedients, namely, the increase of the speed of progress (n) and the friction plate (191), are used in combination, dough material piled up at a greater height can be rolled without trouble.
In an experiment, with the radius of curvature of the locus (b) set at 85 mm, the length of the major axis of the elliptical orbit set at 520 mm, the number of the operating rollers ~55) set at 8, and the speed of pro-gress of the rollers along the locus ~a) set at 15 times the speed of the sixth conveyor belt ~189), dough material containing butter layers piled up in 30 layers (counting the dough material before folding as one layer) and having a height of 60 mm was stretched to a thickness of 3.5 mm, wherein thin layers of butter were arranged without any disorder.
Turning to the driving mechanism, the rotation of the motor ~39), as illustrated in Figure 2, is transmitted to reduction gears (41) and (43) simultaneously, and the output spindle ~45) of the reduction gears (41) is operatively connected to the dough feeder (F). In Figures 9 and 10, the output spindle (201) of the reduction gears (43) is operatively connected to a bi-directional output bevel gear box (203), the output of which is conveyed through spindles (205) and (207) (Figure 9).
The spindle (205) rises vertically to rotate a gear (209~ which in turn rotates a shaft (211) through a gear (213) (Figure 10). The shaft (211) rotates the drive shaft (215) of the first roller assembly (51) through bevel gears ~Figure 7). In Figure 9, bevel gear (217) fixed on the middle of the shaft (205) transmits power to the rollers (151) and (153) by rotating the gears (157), (159), (161), (163), (165) and (167), and simultaneously the ;~ swing plate (155) through the crank pin (169), crank rod (175) and the shaft (173) of the swing plate.
The gear (157) also engages with a gear (219) to rotate the input rollers (221) and (223) of the third conveyor belt (83). The rotation of the gear (219) is transmitted through a chain to a gear (225) which engages with a gear (227) to rotate the input rollers (229) and (231~ of the second conveyor belt (79). The gear (225) engages also with a gea.r (233) which transmits the rotation through a timing belt to the shaft ~235) of the brush roller (85).
A power transmission system divided out from the gear (227) per-forms the drive of the input rollers (75) and (77) of the first conveyor belt (65), the drive of the shaft (237) of the brush roller (81), and transmits the input to the press roller (71).
The spindle (207) extending from the bevel gear box (203) enters a gear box (239) which has two output shafts ~241) and ~243) (Figures 11 and 12). The output shaft ~241) rises vertically to drive the second roller assem-bly ~53), and the other output shaft ~243) extends laterally to rotate the input rollers ~245)~ ~247), ~249) of the fourth, fifth, and sixth conveyor belts, respectively~ and the brush rollers ~185) and (187).
A roller ~251) and gears (253) may be provided for transmitting power to a further conveyor not shown.
In any of Figures 13 to 15, a core material ~A) is merely wrapped up with dough sheet (B) according to the conventional method. In Figure 13, the dough (B) is thick at the position _. Dough at the position a is thinner than at the position b. The reason is that the position _ is where the ends of the dough strip are overlapped. If dough ends are made to come in contact as in Figure 15, without any any overlapping portion, the oil product would be exposed and the subsequent stretching operation would become impossible. There-fore, the dough ends must be overlapped sufficiently as in Figure 13.
Figure 14 shows an example wherein the overlapping portion comes on one side of the body. The thickness of the dough at the overlapping portion, - taken at the position b' as well as taken at the position a, is substantially larger than those of position _.
The above unevenness in the thickness of the wrapped-up material will remain through the subsequent stretching and folding operations and in the multi-layered end product. This results in a defect in the quality of the end product. Namely, the uneven thickness prevents the dough product from rising evenly at the baking stage, or heat would not conduct evenly through the dough product.
As indicated above, Figure 4 shows a cross-section of a product hav-ing a form of solid rod consisting of two substantially concentric materials extruded from a known feeder or extruder. The application of pressure on two opposite sides of the tubular body shown in Figure 4 will give a flat body as showll in Figure 5, wherein the dough (B) is unduly thicker at the position c than at the position _. This does not eliminate the defect in the conven-tional methods as shown in Figures 13 to 15.
Figures 6 and 16 explain the present invention. Figure 6 shows a cross-section of a cylindrical body (4) extruded continuously from a feeder or extruder (Figure 3) of the present invention. On the interior surface of the cylindrically formed dough (B) is found a core material such an oil product (A). The center of the cylindrical body consists of a hollow portion (3).
If dough and the oil product are supplied in the above positional relationship, the cylindrical body becomes flat as shown in Figure 6 by a light pressure on opposite sides thereof. The thickness of the dough (B) is even at either of positions e and f, thus resolving the difficulty in the conventional methods.
l~len the present invention (Figure 16) and the above comparative example (Figure 4) are compared as to the processibility in the subsequent steps, it will be clear that the force required for extension is far smaller in the present invention than the comyarative example.
The present invention employs a method wherein a hollow cylinder is first produced and then it is flattened. This method has the following advantage as compared with a method wherein dough outlet in the extruder is virtually rectangular or oval or takes any other flat configurations. Name-ly, when dough (or the oil product) is extruded from the nozzle of the extruder the friction between the dough and the walls of the nozzle affects the velo-city of extrusion. In case the nozzle outlet is rectangular or oval, *he velocity of extrusion at the two ends in the direction of a longer dimension becomes slower than the portion in the direction of a shorter dimension and, in detail, no even extrusion velocity can be obtainecl throughout the cross ~1~6~
section of the nozzle outlet. If, however, the cross section of the nozzle is of substantially circular ring as in the present invention, the extrusion velocity becomes even throughout the cross section. If there is any unevenness in the extrusion velocity of dough (B), it affects the end product in the form of uneven thickness of dough layers. The above equally applies to the extrusion of the oil product (A).
The device to be used for the method of the present invention will now be explained.
In Figure 3, (3) represents a hopper for introducing dough (1).
(9) represents a screw which transports the dough (1~ into a vertical cylinder (5) through a side portion thereof. (19) represents a vertical screw for guiding the dough (1) introduced into the vertical cylinder (5) to the ex-trusion outlet at the bottom of the vertical cylinder (5). The vertical screw (19) is made to rotate by sprocket (21) and is supported by a pair of bearing assemblies (23), (23) vertically aligned.
(16) represent a hollow cylindrical nozzle inserted concentrically into the hollow portion formed along the axis of the vertical screw (19).
The nozzle (16) constitutes a passage for the oil product (11) and is stationary while the vertical screw (19) rotates. At a lower portion of the nozzle (16), a conical plug (25) is suspended by a support rod (27) so that an annular gap may be defined between the plug (25) and the nozzle (16).
(17) represents pump means for transporting oil or fat downwards and into the nozzle (16). (13) represents a hopper for oil or fat (1).
(31) represents a dough nozzle formed at the bottom end of the vertical cylinder (5). The dough nozzle (31) is positioned concentrically with the conical plug (25) and the nozzle (16) and is mounted onto the vertical cylinder (5) from a lateral side thereof. The lower end of the nozzle (16~ and the lower end of the dough nozzle (31) are positioned concentrically, ~, - 24 -and form an annular gap therebetween for extruding dough. Again, between the lower-end periphery of the conical plug (25) and the lower end of the nozzle (16) is formed a similarly annular gap for extruding the oil product. These gaps function to form the extruded dough and the oil product into a two-layered and hollow cylindrical body.
The dough fed into the vertical cylinder ~5) is moved downwardly by the action of the vertical screw (l9) and is discharged from the dough nozzle (31). Since the conical plug (25) is positioned at the center of the dough nozzle (31), the dough is discharged from the annular gap in the form of a cylinder. When the dough is discharged, the oil product flowing down the surface of the conical plug (25) comes into contact with the interior surface of the cylindrical dough (1). Thereby, a cylindrical body (47) made of the oil : product and the dough put together in two layers is manufactured continuously.
The hollow cylindrical body (47), while being continuously manufactured, is received and conveyed sideways by a conveyor (65). While the cylindrical body is received and conveyed, it collapses by its own weight to form a flat sheet. In this case, the oil product of the inner cylindrical layer is united into one body. The thus flattened sheet may then be further subjected to the flattening action of a roller (71) so as to reduce its thickness. The sheet thus formed may undergo further flattening or stretching operations and is folded to give an end product, i.e. a multi-layered dough product.
Although preferred embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and alterations may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.
247,502, filed March 9, 1976, and relates to a method and an apparatus for continuously manufacturing a sheet of layered food material, which is to be generally subjected to subsequent stretching and folding operations to give a food product having a desired number of layers, such as pies and Danish pastry.
In the past, when multi-layered food products containing dough such as pies and Danish pastry are manufactured, dough is first stretched to form a thin strip, lumps of oil products such as butter and margarine are placed thereon and are wrapped up with the strip of dough on which they are placed, then the dough strip folded up with the oil products therein are stretched and folded into a couple of folds, and this stretching and folding step is repeat-ed to give a sufficient number of layers required for the end products.
In the above conventional method, whether it is carried out manually or mechanically, oil products are directly wrapped up with dough strip at the initial stage. This brings about a defect in that the thickness of dough in the end product tends to be uneven. Again, the operation itself is cumbersome and time-consuming because operation is conducted manually in most cases.
In order to obviate such disadvantage and meet the requirements for the end products, a starting material therefor was prepared by extruding it in the form of a solid continuous cylindrical rod, of which the outer part consists of dough and has a substantially even thickness in cross-section, and the core part consists of oil products. However, when the cylindrical rod thus obtained is pressed, and flattened in the form of a sheet, the non-layered parts at the opposite ends contain far greater amounts of dough in comparison with the upper and lower portions of the sheet.
Again, there has been no effective device in the past to press and stretch dough material piled up in more than three layers. Thus, in order to obtain a 27-layered dough product, it was necessary to fold a dough sheet ~16~
in three layers and stretch the three-layered dough material and to repeat this folding-stretching operation two more times. If the above operation was to be performed on a conveyor system, the total length of the folding-stretching device required more than 10 meters, occupying a large operational space.
In Canadian Patent Application Serial No. 105,946, spherical dough materials each containing a core material other than dough are fed onto a movable base and below a press ram, which compresses the fed materials in synchronization with the feed of the materials so as to produce multi-layered food product.
In Canadian Patent Application Serial No. 217,37~ spherical dough materials each containing a core material other than dough are fed into a guide plate and a roller assembly consisting of a group of rollers freely ro-tatable about their axes and revolving along a closed orbit, and the materials thus fed are introduced into a space between a horizontal conveyor belt and the lower straight portion of said closed orbit, whereby the materials are stretched and flattened in such a manner that a sheet material consisting of a plurality of horizontal layers of dough and other materials is obtained.
These inventions have resolved the above difficulties in the conven--tional processes. However, they required manufacture of spherical dough mate-rials comprising core material to produce ~ulti-layered dough materials, and the formation of the layers in the end product was accomplished by compressing said sphereical dough materials. In these cases, there was a certain limitation in efficiency deriving from the use of such spherical materials. Further, in the first mentioned application, compression by the action of a press some-times tended to injure the dough tissue. In the second application, the use of a single stretcher resulted in difficulty in obtaining a large number of layers in the end product.
~116~
According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of continuously manufacturing a flattened layered food material, comprising the steps of feeding out of a feeder or ex-truder continuously and simultaneously two kinds of food materials in the form of a hollow tube consisting of two layers, transferring the hollow tube onto a continuously driven conveyor means thereby to allow it, while progressing on said conveyor means, to con-tinuously collapse by gravity on said conveyor means, and flattening the collapsed hollow tube on said conveyor means.
In an embodiment of the method, multi-layered dough materials containing dough layers can be manufactured by the steps of continuously extruding material in the form of a hollow tube having two layers, allowing the tubular material to collapse flat under its own weight on a continuously travelling conveyor, stretch-ing the flattened material to a thin strip, folding and piling up the strip of material to a predetermined number of multi-layers, and re-stretching the piled material to a desired thickness.
Thus, it is possible to manufacture continuously and automatically multi-layered dough materials containing thirty layers or more of dough or dough and other material orderly arranged there-in without injuring the dough tissue. Further, the present in-vention enables the manufacture of multi-layered dough materials comprising layers of dough and fat or oil such as butter overlapping alternately without the problem of butter being squeezed out or dough adhering to adjacent machine portions during a stretching operation.
~1~6~ 3 A further aspect of the present invention provides an apparatus for continuously manufacturing a flattened layered food material, comprising a feeder or extruder for feeding continuously and simultaneously ~wo kinds of food material in the form of a hollow tube consisting of two layers, and a continuously driven conveyor means adapted to receive and convey the tube thereon there-by to allow it, while progressing on said conveyor means, -to con-tinously collapse by gravity on said conveyor, and means for flattening the collapsed hollow tube on said conveyor means. The apparatus optionally includes means for folding the flattened hollow tube.
In one embodiment, said feeder comprises a vertical hollow outer cylinder having an opening for receiving dough at the side wall thereof, a vertical hollow screw arranged within said outer cylinder so as to rotate about its own axis which is substantially aligned with the axis of said outer cylinder thereby to feed down-wards dough between the outer surface of said screw and the inner surface of said outer cylinder, the hollow screw providing a passage for allowing a food material other than dough to pass therethrough, a nozzle having an annular lower end which is arranged integrally with said hollow screw at the bottom thereof, said end defining an annular orifice for discharging dough in cooperation . with the inner surface of the lower end of said outer cylinder, and a plug means arranged within the lower end of said nozzle so that the peripheral surface of the lower end of said plug means defines an annular orifice for said food material other than dough in cooperation ~i~h the inner surface of the lower end of sald nozzle.
In an alternative embodiment, said feeder comprises a vertical hollow outer cylinder having an opening for receiving dough at the side wall thereof, a vertical hollow screw arranged within said outer cylinder so as to rotate about its own axis which is substantially aligned with the axis of said outer cyl-inder thereby to feed downwards dough between the outer surface of said screw and the inner surface of said outer cylinder, an inner cylinder arranged to pass through said hollow screw and providing a passage for allowing a food material other than dough to pass therethrough, a nozzle having an annular lower end which is arranged integrally with said inner cylinder at the bottom thereof, said annular end defining an annular orifice for dis-charging dough in cooperation with the inner surface of the lower end of said outer cylinder, and a plug means arranged with-in the lower end of said nozzle so that the peripheral surface of the lower end of said plug means defines an annular orifice for said food material other than dough in cooperation with the inner surface of the lower end of said nozzle.
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The extrusion of dough material in a tubular form may be conducted by a dough feeder comprising a vertical screw for feeding dough, a passage in the axial portion of the screw for feeding other material, and a double-layered annular outlet at the bottom of the device, from which dough and the other material flow down in the form of a tube wherein dough forms the outer layer and the other material forms the inner layer.
The tubular material may be collapsed flat by its own weight on a conveyor which advances substantially horizont-ally. The flattened material may be stretched to a thin stripof a thickness such as 2 to 3 mm by a first stretcher comprising a plurality of freely rotating rollers revolving along an elliptical track having a straight bottom portion and a convey-ing means positioned thereunder. The stretched strip of material coming out of the stretcher may be suspended from the level of the strip of material undergoing the stretching operation and slowly swung back and forth guided by a swing - ~b -~.
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means such as a swinging plate so that it may be folded and piled up so as partially to overlap itself in tens of layers on a continuously travelling conveyor. The piled up multi-layered material may be stretched by a second stretcher~ e.g. freely rotating rollers which are revolving along an ellipti-cal track having a straight bottom portion and a conveying means positioned thereunder without destroying the regularity of the layers in the material.
The above-mentioned conveying means in each of the first and the second stretchers comprises a plurality of belt conveyors each of which has individual feed speed, arranged in series in the order of feed speed such that a downstream belt conveyor runs faster than an upstream belt conveyor. The revolving speed of the rollers along the elliptical track is greater than that of the fastest conveyor belt.
The conveyor means may have brush rollers interposed between any pair of adjacent conveyor belts. The brush rollers3 due to the flection of thin flexible bristles, can stably transfer dough material to any adjacent downstream conveyor belt while all the flour on the upstream conveyor belt is transferred simultaneously so that the dough material does not adhere to the downstream conveyor belt.
Thus, the present invention affords a process which enables continu-ous and automatic manufacture of dough material comprising dough in a multip-- licity of orderly layers. The dough material may comprise layers of dough and other material such as fat or oil overlapping alternatively. In the apparatus for producing the dough sheets in a plurality of layers with or with-out layers of fat or oil interposed in layers of dough~ the working distance is substantially shorter than that necessary for any conventional automatic apparatus of this kind. The process and apparatus of the invention are capable of continuously producing dough sheets containing layers of oil or fat such as butter without the problem of oil or fat being squeezed out or dough adhering to adjacent machille portions during stretching operations, with the result that oil or fat may be orderly laminated.
Thus all of the difficulties encountere~ on the prior art have been eliminated by the present invention.
In the present invention, a sheet of layered food nla.erial can be continuously and automatically manufactured by extruding a desir~d number of food materials in a tubular form, which comprises layers each of which are substantially concentric in cross-section, and transferring the tubular food material onto a continuously driven conveyor.
The extrusion of the food material in a tubular form having two layers consisting of an outer layer formed of dough and an inner layer of another material) is conducted by a feeder or extruder comprising a vertical screw for feeding dough, a passage in the axial portion of the screw for feed-ing other material, and a double-layered annular outlet at the bottom of the feeder, wherefrom dough and the other material flow down in the form of a tube wherein dough forms the outer layer and the other material forms the inner layer. It will be readily understood that a tube having more than two layers can be extruded by a slight modification of the above feeder or extruder by, for instance, providing the feeder with additional screw or screws or addition-al duct in the passage inside the screw, together with some attachments.
The tube may be collapsed flat by its own weight on a conveyor which receives the tube. Then, the hollow portion of the tubular body disappears and the innermost tubular layer merges into one body.
Accordingly, in one aspect the present invention consists in a method of continuously manufacturing a sheet of layered food material, compris-ing the steps of feeding out of a feeder or extruder continuously and simul-- taneously a plurality of food materials in the form of a tube consisting of a plurality of layers, and transferring the tube onto a continuollsly driven conveyor thereby to allow it to continuously collapse flat by gravity on said conveyor to give the sheet of layered food material.
In accordance wit~ a second aspect the present invention consists in an apparatus for continuously manufacturing a sheet of layered food material, comprising a feeder or extruder for feeding continuously and simultaneously two kinds of food material in the form of a hollow tube consisting of two layers, and a continuously driven conveyor means adapted to receive and convey the hollow tube thereon, said feeder comprising a vertical hollow outer cylinder having an opening for receiving dough at the side wall thereof, a vertical hollow screw arranged within said outer cylinder so as to rotate about its own axis which is substantially aligned with the axis of said outer cylinder thereby to feed downwards dough between the outer surface of said screw and the inner surface of said outer cylinder, the hollow screw providing a passage for allowing a food material other than dough to pass therethrough, a nozzle having an annular lower end which is arranged integrally with sald hollow screw at the bottom thereof, said end defining an annular orifice for discharging dough in cooperation with the inner surface of the lower end of said outer cylinder, and a plug means arranged within the lower end of said nozzle so that the peripheral surface of the lower end of said plug means defines an annular orifice for said food material other than dough in cooperation with the inner surface of the lower end of said nozzle.
Also, in the present invention, an inner cylinder may be arranged to pass through said hollow screw without the cylinder ~eing forr.led integrally with the hollow screw as described above.
~f Said nozzle has an annular lower end which is arranged integrally with said inner cylinder at the bottom end thereof in place of said hollow screw as described above. Therefore, an annular orifice for discharging dough is defined by said annular end of the nozzle in cooperation with the inner surface of the lower end of said outer ~ - 7a _ cylinder. Purther, an annular orifice for said food material other than dough is defined by the peripheral surface of the lower end of said plug means in cooperation with the inner surface of the lower end of said nozzle.
For a better understanding of the invention, reference will now be made by way of example to the accompanying drawings, in which:-Figure 1 is a diagrammatic plan view of an embodiment of an apparatusaccording to the present invention, Figure 2 is a diagrammatic side view, partially broken, of the apparatus of Figure 1, Figure 3 is a cross-sectional side view of a dough feeder to be used in the above apparatus, Figure 4 illustrates for reference purposes a cross-section of a solid rod consisting of two concentric materials wherein the outer layer con-sists of dough and the core portion consists of butter, extruded from a known feeder or extruder, Figure 5 is a cross-section of a sheet obtained by compressing the solid rod shown in Figure 4, e.g. by flattening by gravity the tube shown in Figure 16, Figure 6 is a cross-section of a sheet obtained by flattening a hollow tube having two concentric materials extruded from a dough feeder, Figure 7 is a perspective view of a roller driving mechanism for the first roller assembly of the apparatus, Figure 8 is a diagram illustrating the operation of a portion of the apparatus, Figure 9 is a diagrammatic side view, partially in cross-section, of the driving mechanism of a first stretcher and a swing means of the apparatus, Figure 10 is a plan view, partially in cross-section, of the driving mechanism shown in Figure 9, Figure 11 is a diagrammatic side view, partially in cross-section, of the driving mechanism of a second stretcher of the apparatus, and Figure 12 is a plan view, partially in cross-section, of the same driving mechanism as shown in Figure 11.
Figures 13 to 15 illustrate for reference purposes cross-sections of several dough materials formed by the conventional methods, in any of which core material is wrapped up with a dough sheet, Figure 16 is a cross-section of a tube having two substantially concentric layers extruded from a feeder or extruder used in the present invention, In Figure 3, dough (1) is supplied into a hopper (3) of the dough feeder (F). Dough (1) consists, in case of pies, ordinarily of kneaded mix-ture of wheat flour and water and sometimes contains about 15% of sugar.
In case of danish pastries, dough consists of kneaded mixture of wheat, water, yeast fungi, salt and a small amount of butter.
The hopper (3) is f ixedly connected to the body portion of the dough feeder (F), and contains therein a feed screw or screws (9) which are disposed at the bottom of the interior chamber of the hopper (3). Dough in d 20 the hopper is thus conveyed by the screw or screws (9) into the body portion of the dough feeder (F).
The body portion of the dough feeder (F) comprises a vertical - hollow cylinder (5) which forms an outer housing. Said cylinder (5) has a cylindrical hollow portion, wherein a vertical hollow screw (19) is positioned.
The cylinder (5) and the screw (19) define an annular space therebetween. An opening (7) is provided on the side wall of the cylinder (5) and the annular space between the cylinder and the screw (19) is directly connected through said opening (7) with the interior chamber of the hopper (3). Thus, dough (1) in the hopper may be fed through the opening (7) into the anmllar space.
Oil or fat (1l), for example, butter for pies and Danish pastries and lard for Chinese cakes, is supplied into a hopper (13) positioned above the body portion of the dough feeder (F). The hopper (13) comprises in its interior chamber pump means (17) for transporting oil or fat downwards and into an inner cylinder (15) positioned below the hopper (13) and connected to the circumference of an opening at the bottom thereof. The cylinder (lS) is stationary and arranged within the hollow portion of the screw (19) concen-trically therewith. The bottom portion of the cylinder (15) constitutes a nozzle (16). A conical plug (25) is positioned concentrically with the inner cylinder (15) at the bottom part thereof and is suspended from the inner wall of the inner cylinder (15) through a support rod (27) so that an annular ori-fice (29) may be defined between the plug (25) and the nozzle (16). The lower end portion of the cylinder (5) forms a dough nozzle (31) which is concentric with the annular orifice (29) so that an annular orifice (33) may be defined betweeen the inner nozzle (16) and the dough nozzle (31) in the manner as illus-trated in the drawing.
The lower end portion of the nozzle (31) and that of the inner nozzle (16) may be constructed to be detachable from the remainder and may be provided in variety of different sizes so as to be adapted to change the dimensions of the orifices (29) and (33).
A sprocket wheel (21) is secured to the top portion of the hollow - screw (19) for the rotation of the screw. The screw may be rotatably held by, for instance, an extension of the hopper (13) ~hrough bearing means (23).
A feature of the use in the present invention of a conical plug (25) is that when the diameter of the nozzle (31) is increased, the cross-section of the discharged material may be kept unchanged by adjusting the size of the conical plug (25). It even permits reduction of the ratio of the non--- 10 -- .
layered part consisting of dough alone at each end as against the layered portion even when the diameter of the nozzle (31) is increased.
In Figure 2, the dough feeder (F) may be received by a support (35) integral with the frame (37? of the apparatus. The power of a drive motor (39) is transmitted through pulleys to reduction gears (41) of a ver-tical output spindle type and reduction gears (43) of a horizontal output spindle type simultaneously.
The output spindle (45) of the reduction gears (41) is operative-ly connected to an input end of the screws (9) to drive them and to the sprocket wheel (21) to rotate the vertical screw (19) so that dough (1) is discharged from the annular orifice (33) contiinuously in a tubular form.
Further, since the pump means (17) extrudes fat or oil continu-ously through the annular orifice (29) in a tubular form, it will be readily understood that a dough material may be continuously extruded from the dough feeder (F) in the form of a hollow rod or tube (47) consisting of an outer layer of dough (1), an inner layer of oil or fat (11) and a central hollow portion.
In this regard, it is to be noted that the dough material may be extruded as a hollow rod or tube consisting of only one layer of dough, if required, by feeding dough alone.
In another embodiment, the inner cylinder (15) may be omitted.
In this instance, the inner nozzle (16) may be provided at the lower portion of the screw (19).
The advantages of the above hollow rod are expained below.
- When two strips of dough containing a layer of oil or fat in between where oil or fat is exposed at both ends are subjected to stretching action, oil or fat which is softer than dough iæ forced out of both ends by pressure and adheres A
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' ' '' ' ' ~
to the belt or other parts of tlle machine, so that a contimlous operation sometimes becomes impossible. However, in the present invention no such danger exists since dough envelops the inner material completely.
The advantages of the above hollow rod in comparison with a solid continuous rod as illustrated in Figure 4 are that compression of dough mate-rial is facilitated and that oil or fat (11) and dough (1), when pressed, from more complete layers as shown in Figure 6 in comparison with the flatten-ed solid rod as illustrated in Figure 5, wherein the non-layered parts at the two ends are excessively large and the upper and lower dough portions are too thin. In contrast, what is obtained from the hollow rod as shown in Figure 6 is superior in the formation of layers to that shown in Figure 5.
Since the ratio of the amount of dough as against oil or fat to be folded into layers for Danish pastries is generally 1.4:1, when the solid rod is flattened as shown in Figure 5, the part consisting of dough alone at each end becomes excessively large, and no layer of oil or fat is formed there while the ratio of oil or fat at the central portion remains excessively large even if the material is folded in subsequent steps. This does not give any product suitable for commercial use.
As described above, the dough nozzle (31) and the inner nozzle (16) are each in the circular form. If they were in the flattened or rec-tangular form, since the elevation angles of various portions of the inner face of the nozzles are considerably different from each other because of the required changes in the form of the vertical cylinder (5) and the inner cy-linder (15) from the circle at their upper portions to flattened or elongated shape at their lower portions, not only the discharge speed is different between the middle portions and end portions, but also there occurs the destruction of gluten tissue, which does not permit to produce good-quality products.
The dough materlal thus extruded is recelved by the first con-veyor belt (65). The upper surface of the first conveyor belt (65) is strewn with flour (67) by a flour feeder ~69) mounted on the frame (37) at a suitable position upstream of the dough feeder (F). Consequently, the dough material is extruded on the conveyor belt (65) strewn with flour.
The dough material is then carried for~ard on the conveyor belt (65) to a position where it is pressed preliminarily by a press roller (71j to a certain extent before it enters the first stretcher.
Above the press roller (71) is disposed a flour hopper (73).
Flour in the flour hopper is applied to the upper surface of the dough material - through the press roller (71). Such a preliminary treatment is all conducted on the first conveyor belt (65).
Subsequent to the above, the dough material is stretched to a very thin strip and then undergoes folding and re-stretching operations to form a multi-layered dough product. The number of layers obtainable in the final product is to a large extent dependent upon the thickness of the dough material stretched in the first stretching process.
The first stretching may be effected by the first stretcher com-prising a number of rollers movable on the predetermined elliptical track by means of chains, and a conveying means positioned thereunder comprising a plurality of conveyor bclts. The first stretcher comprises the first roller assembly (51) consisting of a number of small rollers (55) mounted through bearings (57) on shafts (59) which in turn are rotatably, mounted on chains (61) at equal intervals.
The chains (61) are trained around two sprocket wheels (63), so that they form a flattened or elliptical track (a) on which the small rollers (55) travel along with the rotation of the chains (61). The travel of the outermost points of the small rollers (55) along the elliptlcal track (a) forms a ]ocus represented by (b) in Figure 8. The locus (b) has a straight bottom portion facing the conveyor means, consisting of a plurality of convey-or belts (65), (79) and (83).
The first conveyor belt (65) extends about 100 mm into the por-tion adjacent the straight portion of the locus (b) and therebelow.
The dough material is fed into the gap between the lower straight portion of the locus (b) and the upper surface of the upper flight of the conveyor (65).
~ ownstream of the first conveyor belt (65) is arranged a second conveyor belt (79) spaced about 50 mm apart from the first conveyor belt.
In the space between the first and the second conveyor belts, a brush roller (81) is disposed. Due to the flection of the flexible bristles, the brush roller (81) transfers dough material from the first conveyor belt (65) to the second conveyor belt (79) while all the flour on the conveyor (65) is transferred simultaneously so that dough does not adhere to the second con-veyor belt (79). The length of the second conveyor belt (79) is preferably 50 to 100 mm. ~ third conveyor belt (83) is likewise arranged downstream of the second conveyor belt spaced apart about 50 mm from the second conveyor belt. Between the second conveyor belt (79) and the third conveyor belt (83) is disposed at brush roller (85) as illustrated in Figure 8. The brush roller (85) plays a similar role to that of the first brush roller (81).
The speeds of the first, second9 and third conveyor belts (65), (79), and (83) are arranged such that a downstream conveyor moves faster than any upstream conveyor. Similarly, the rotary speed of the second brush roller (85) is higher than that of the first brush roller (81).
Since the length of dough material is extended by the stretching operation, it is necessary to vary the speed of each of these conveyor belts and the brush rollers so as to absorb the extension of the dough material.
; - 14 -,:
6~
The upper flight of the third conveyor belt (83) may extend beyond the lower straight portion of the locus (b) after running therebelow about 100 mm.
The space between the first, second and the third conveyor belts and the lower straight portion of the locus (b) becomes continuously narrower in the downstream direction.
It is to be noted that the number of the conveyor belts and the - brush rollers is not critical. If the number increases and accordingly the total length of the roller assembly, the capacity of the device may also increase.
A higher stretching capability of the first stretcher enables reduction of the height of the stack of the dough material folded and stack-ed in the subsequent folding process. Consequently, a finished dough product may contain more layers for a predetermined thickness.
In an experiment, dough material extruded in tubular form and of 20 mm thickness at the entrance of the stretcher could reduce its thickness to 1.5 mm employing the stIetcher of the present invention com?rising three - conveyor belts and two brush rollers in between. In the above experiment, the effective operating length of the locus (b) was set at 330 mm, the effective operating number of rollers (55) set at 5, and the revolving speed of the rollers along the elliptical track (a) was set at twice the travelling speed of the third conveyor belt (83).
In contrast, in a conventional stretching employing a pair of cylindrical rollers rotating at a fixed position so as to cause dough material to pass and to be pressed therebetween, the minimum thickness to which dough material containing a large amount of sticky and soft material such as butter can be stretched without breaking the infonnation of layers is 5 mm. The limitation in the efficiency derives from the fact that pressure applied is concentrated on the surface between the rollers, so that dough material tends to adhere to the rollers or be broken in the stretching process.
The above stretching operation is followed by the process of folding dough material. It is preferable that the stretched dough mate-rial is fed through a pair of vertically arranged press rollers (151) and (153) to a swing plate (155). The press rollers (151), (153) are rotated at a certain speed in order to keep a constant supply of the dough mate-rial for folding operation. They suppress whatever elasticity remaining in the stretched dough material. The constant rotation of the rollers (151) and (153) is effected by the engagement of gears (157), (159), (161), (163), (165) and (167) (see Figure 9). The number of rotation of these rollers (151) and (153) determines in coaction with their diameter the actual amount (length) of dough discharged from them. This amount determines the length (d) of the path of the swlng plate (155) at its lower end and the speed (f) of the swinging motion of the swing plate (155).
In Figure 9, a crank pin (169) is mounted on the gear (161) eccentrically to the shaft (171) thereof. To the crank pin (169) is con-nected a crank rod (175), which in turn is connected to the shaft (173) of the swing plate (155). The swing plate (155) is made to conduct rotary oscillation through a crank rod (175) to determine the aforesaid (d) and (f) in relation to the amount of rotation of the rollers (151) and . (153). The input to the gear (161) will be explained later.
The roller (151) has a shaft (177) in its central portion. The , shaft (177) is hollow and the rocking shaft (173) is inserted therein in ; such a manner that the movement of the rocking shaft (173) does not inter-fere with that of the roller (151).
A cover plate (156) may preferably be attached to the swing :.
6~9 plate (155) by suitable means. The cover plate (lS6) rnay be substantially parallel to the swing plate (155) and may have substantially the same length with that of the swing plate. The cover plate can be removed from the swing plate for cleaning.
The provision of the cover plate (156) permits the swing plate (1~5) to be swung at a greater angle that the case the swing plate has no cover plate, whereby the length of a layer of the folded dough material can be increased.
The dough material fed from the swing plate (155) is folded on the fourth conveyor belt (181) positioned below the swing plate (155) and ex-plained later in further detail, into a continuous stack of a predetermined height by the swinging motion of the swing plate.
If 2 mm thick dough material is piled up in 30 layers, the height becomes 60 mm. If dough material piled up in as many as 30 layers to such a thickness were subjected to compression by a single roller rotating around a fixed shaft the diameter of the roller should be 1 m or more to conduct the stretching operation without destroying the regularity of the pile, which size is totally impracticable. This is because, at the portion of the roller where it takes up material for compression, the surface of the roller has a tendency - 20 to "repel" the material when the height of the material approaches the height of the shaft of the roller.
Thus, the material in the upper part of the pile is repelled from the surface of the single roller so that the regularity of the pile is destroyed and is not taken up by the roller in a regular manner. Such a result is contrary to the object of the present invention.
` In the above-described apparatus, loosely folded dough material piled up in 30 Iayers and having a thickness of 60 mm can be taken up without destroying the regularity of the layers by the roller assembly (53) of the ~6~
second stretcher. T}le roller assembly (53) comprises a number of rollers revolving along an elliptical track ~a), the take-up end oE which has a radius of curvature o only 85 mm.
The fourth conveyor belt (181) which supplies dough material to the second roller assembly (53) moves in substantially the same direction as the third conveyor belt (83) but differs in height.
This difference in height is the sum of the distance of the space in which the swing plate (155) hanging from the dcwnstream end of the upper flight of the third conveyor belt (83) can swing effectively and the thickness of the dough material stacked thereunder to such a height as that at which the stacked dough material may be stretched by the second stretcher. The fourth conveyor belt (1~1) is mounted at a position which is compatible with such difference in height.
The upper flight of the fourth conveyor belt (181) extends at its upstream end into the portion below the second and third conveyor belts (79) and ~83) so that it receives flour dropping from these conveyor belts. This is effective in preventing dough from adhering to the belt.
The fourth conveyor belt (181) is disposed at an angle with the lower straight portion of the locus (b) formed by the path of the outermost portions of the small rollers (55). In the embodiment illustrated in Figure 8, the fourth conveyor belt (181) is provided at an angle (~)~ for instance, about 20 relative to said straight portion of the locus (b), which is main-tained horizontal. However, it is also allowable that the fourth conveyor belt (181) is horizontal and the straight portion of the locus (b) is inclined relative to the conveyor belt (181).
Thus, the plane portion of the outer envelope surface defined by the r revolving rollers may be provided at an angle, for instance, about 20 relative to the upper flight of the nearest upstream conveyor~ i.e. the upper flight of the fourth conveyor belt (181). When said upper flight is positioned at an angle of 20 to the above plane portion and the material is piled up on the conveyor belt forming layers, each maintaining an angle of, for instance, 20 as against the plane of the upper flight of the conveyor belt ~181) 9 said layers hold an angle of 40 relative to the level of the above plane portion.
Since the rollers revolve at a faster speed than any of said conveyors, the cooperation of the rollers with the conveyors reduces the angle of the layers towards zero.
The fourth conveyor belt ~181) approaches the lower straight portion of the locus (b) of the second roller assembly ~53) at a certain angle ~) and moves away from the straight portion of the locus (b) after it comes to a position where it is separated from the locus (b) at a certain distance ~g).
At a certain interval (experimentally 50 mm), a fifth conveyor belt (183) is arranged downstream of the fourth conveyor belt ~181). The distance (h) be-: tween the fifth conveyor belt ~183) and the straight portion of the locus ~b) is smaller than the distance (g). The speed of the fifth conveyor belt is faster than that of the fourth conveyor belt ~181). Between the fourth con-veyor belt (181) and the fifth conveyor belt ~183) is arranged a brush roller (185). Downstream of the fifth conveyor belt ~183) is similarly arranged a brush roller (187~, and downstream thereof is arranged a sixth conveyor belt (189). The distance (i) between the sixth conveyor belt (189) and the locus ~b) is smaller than the distance ~h). The speed of the sixth conveyor belt ~189) is faster than the speed of the fifth conveyor belt (183).
The upstream end of the upper flight of the sixthconveyor belt (189) may extend about 100 mm below and along the straight portion of thelocus ~b) and the remaining part thereof is outside said straight portion. The leading end of the upper flight of the sixth conveyor belt functions to - discharge the finished dough material.
In Figure 8, a friction plate (191) is disposed at the upstream end - '.9 -of the second roller assembl~ ~53) J along the locus (j) formed by the path of tile innermost portions of the rollers (55) revolving along the elliptical track ~a). The friction plate contacts the smaller rollers (55), which are otherwise in free rotation, so as to forcibly rotate the small rollers in the direction of the arrow (k) only where the friction plate is in contact with them.
The force created on the surface of the rollers (55) when they rotate in the direction of the arrow (k) acts to increase the action of the rollers to take in the material. It pulls the material in the upper layers of the piled up dough material in the direction of the movement of the con-veyor belts and presses it so that it prevents the destruction of the regular-ity of the layers in the piled up dollgh material. Thus, all the dough material is led to the linear portion of the locus ~b) in a desired manner.
If the speed of progress (n) of the small rollers (55) along the locu (a) is set at 70 times or more the travelling speed of the fourth con-veyor belt, destruction of the order of the layers in the piled up dough material can be prevented without the use of the friction plate (191). How-ever, if the speed of progress ~n) cannot be set at such a high speed, the friction plate is required.
When both of the above expedients, namely, the increase of the speed of progress (n) and the friction plate (191), are used in combination, dough material piled up at a greater height can be rolled without trouble.
In an experiment, with the radius of curvature of the locus (b) set at 85 mm, the length of the major axis of the elliptical orbit set at 520 mm, the number of the operating rollers ~55) set at 8, and the speed of pro-gress of the rollers along the locus ~a) set at 15 times the speed of the sixth conveyor belt ~189), dough material containing butter layers piled up in 30 layers (counting the dough material before folding as one layer) and having a height of 60 mm was stretched to a thickness of 3.5 mm, wherein thin layers of butter were arranged without any disorder.
Turning to the driving mechanism, the rotation of the motor ~39), as illustrated in Figure 2, is transmitted to reduction gears (41) and (43) simultaneously, and the output spindle ~45) of the reduction gears (41) is operatively connected to the dough feeder (F). In Figures 9 and 10, the output spindle (201) of the reduction gears (43) is operatively connected to a bi-directional output bevel gear box (203), the output of which is conveyed through spindles (205) and (207) (Figure 9).
The spindle (205) rises vertically to rotate a gear (209~ which in turn rotates a shaft (211) through a gear (213) (Figure 10). The shaft (211) rotates the drive shaft (215) of the first roller assembly (51) through bevel gears ~Figure 7). In Figure 9, bevel gear (217) fixed on the middle of the shaft (205) transmits power to the rollers (151) and (153) by rotating the gears (157), (159), (161), (163), (165) and (167), and simultaneously the ;~ swing plate (155) through the crank pin (169), crank rod (175) and the shaft (173) of the swing plate.
The gear (157) also engages with a gear (219) to rotate the input rollers (221) and (223) of the third conveyor belt (83). The rotation of the gear (219) is transmitted through a chain to a gear (225) which engages with a gear (227) to rotate the input rollers (229) and (231~ of the second conveyor belt (79). The gear (225) engages also with a gea.r (233) which transmits the rotation through a timing belt to the shaft ~235) of the brush roller (85).
A power transmission system divided out from the gear (227) per-forms the drive of the input rollers (75) and (77) of the first conveyor belt (65), the drive of the shaft (237) of the brush roller (81), and transmits the input to the press roller (71).
The spindle (207) extending from the bevel gear box (203) enters a gear box (239) which has two output shafts ~241) and ~243) (Figures 11 and 12). The output shaft ~241) rises vertically to drive the second roller assem-bly ~53), and the other output shaft ~243) extends laterally to rotate the input rollers ~245)~ ~247), ~249) of the fourth, fifth, and sixth conveyor belts, respectively~ and the brush rollers ~185) and (187).
A roller ~251) and gears (253) may be provided for transmitting power to a further conveyor not shown.
In any of Figures 13 to 15, a core material ~A) is merely wrapped up with dough sheet (B) according to the conventional method. In Figure 13, the dough (B) is thick at the position _. Dough at the position a is thinner than at the position b. The reason is that the position _ is where the ends of the dough strip are overlapped. If dough ends are made to come in contact as in Figure 15, without any any overlapping portion, the oil product would be exposed and the subsequent stretching operation would become impossible. There-fore, the dough ends must be overlapped sufficiently as in Figure 13.
Figure 14 shows an example wherein the overlapping portion comes on one side of the body. The thickness of the dough at the overlapping portion, - taken at the position b' as well as taken at the position a, is substantially larger than those of position _.
The above unevenness in the thickness of the wrapped-up material will remain through the subsequent stretching and folding operations and in the multi-layered end product. This results in a defect in the quality of the end product. Namely, the uneven thickness prevents the dough product from rising evenly at the baking stage, or heat would not conduct evenly through the dough product.
As indicated above, Figure 4 shows a cross-section of a product hav-ing a form of solid rod consisting of two substantially concentric materials extruded from a known feeder or extruder. The application of pressure on two opposite sides of the tubular body shown in Figure 4 will give a flat body as showll in Figure 5, wherein the dough (B) is unduly thicker at the position c than at the position _. This does not eliminate the defect in the conven-tional methods as shown in Figures 13 to 15.
Figures 6 and 16 explain the present invention. Figure 6 shows a cross-section of a cylindrical body (4) extruded continuously from a feeder or extruder (Figure 3) of the present invention. On the interior surface of the cylindrically formed dough (B) is found a core material such an oil product (A). The center of the cylindrical body consists of a hollow portion (3).
If dough and the oil product are supplied in the above positional relationship, the cylindrical body becomes flat as shown in Figure 6 by a light pressure on opposite sides thereof. The thickness of the dough (B) is even at either of positions e and f, thus resolving the difficulty in the conventional methods.
l~len the present invention (Figure 16) and the above comparative example (Figure 4) are compared as to the processibility in the subsequent steps, it will be clear that the force required for extension is far smaller in the present invention than the comyarative example.
The present invention employs a method wherein a hollow cylinder is first produced and then it is flattened. This method has the following advantage as compared with a method wherein dough outlet in the extruder is virtually rectangular or oval or takes any other flat configurations. Name-ly, when dough (or the oil product) is extruded from the nozzle of the extruder the friction between the dough and the walls of the nozzle affects the velo-city of extrusion. In case the nozzle outlet is rectangular or oval, *he velocity of extrusion at the two ends in the direction of a longer dimension becomes slower than the portion in the direction of a shorter dimension and, in detail, no even extrusion velocity can be obtainecl throughout the cross ~1~6~
section of the nozzle outlet. If, however, the cross section of the nozzle is of substantially circular ring as in the present invention, the extrusion velocity becomes even throughout the cross section. If there is any unevenness in the extrusion velocity of dough (B), it affects the end product in the form of uneven thickness of dough layers. The above equally applies to the extrusion of the oil product (A).
The device to be used for the method of the present invention will now be explained.
In Figure 3, (3) represents a hopper for introducing dough (1).
(9) represents a screw which transports the dough (1~ into a vertical cylinder (5) through a side portion thereof. (19) represents a vertical screw for guiding the dough (1) introduced into the vertical cylinder (5) to the ex-trusion outlet at the bottom of the vertical cylinder (5). The vertical screw (19) is made to rotate by sprocket (21) and is supported by a pair of bearing assemblies (23), (23) vertically aligned.
(16) represent a hollow cylindrical nozzle inserted concentrically into the hollow portion formed along the axis of the vertical screw (19).
The nozzle (16) constitutes a passage for the oil product (11) and is stationary while the vertical screw (19) rotates. At a lower portion of the nozzle (16), a conical plug (25) is suspended by a support rod (27) so that an annular gap may be defined between the plug (25) and the nozzle (16).
(17) represents pump means for transporting oil or fat downwards and into the nozzle (16). (13) represents a hopper for oil or fat (1).
(31) represents a dough nozzle formed at the bottom end of the vertical cylinder (5). The dough nozzle (31) is positioned concentrically with the conical plug (25) and the nozzle (16) and is mounted onto the vertical cylinder (5) from a lateral side thereof. The lower end of the nozzle (16~ and the lower end of the dough nozzle (31) are positioned concentrically, ~, - 24 -and form an annular gap therebetween for extruding dough. Again, between the lower-end periphery of the conical plug (25) and the lower end of the nozzle (16) is formed a similarly annular gap for extruding the oil product. These gaps function to form the extruded dough and the oil product into a two-layered and hollow cylindrical body.
The dough fed into the vertical cylinder ~5) is moved downwardly by the action of the vertical screw (l9) and is discharged from the dough nozzle (31). Since the conical plug (25) is positioned at the center of the dough nozzle (31), the dough is discharged from the annular gap in the form of a cylinder. When the dough is discharged, the oil product flowing down the surface of the conical plug (25) comes into contact with the interior surface of the cylindrical dough (1). Thereby, a cylindrical body (47) made of the oil : product and the dough put together in two layers is manufactured continuously.
The hollow cylindrical body (47), while being continuously manufactured, is received and conveyed sideways by a conveyor (65). While the cylindrical body is received and conveyed, it collapses by its own weight to form a flat sheet. In this case, the oil product of the inner cylindrical layer is united into one body. The thus flattened sheet may then be further subjected to the flattening action of a roller (71) so as to reduce its thickness. The sheet thus formed may undergo further flattening or stretching operations and is folded to give an end product, i.e. a multi-layered dough product.
Although preferred embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and alterations may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.
Claims (6)
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:
1. A method of continuously manufacturing a flattened layered food material, comprising the steps of feeding out of a feeder or extruder continuously and simultaneously two kinds of food materials in the form of a hollow tube consisting of two layers, transferring the hollow tube onto a continuously driven conveyor means thereby to allow it, while progressing on said conveyor means, to continuously collapse by gravity on said conveyor means, and flattening the collapsed hollow tube on said conveyor means.
2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of folding said flattened hollow tube.
3. An apparatus for continuously manufacturing a flattened layered food material, comprising a feeder or extruder for feeding continuously and simultaneously two kinds of food material in the form of a hollow tube consisting of two layers, and a continuously driven conveyor means adapted to receive and convey the hollow tube thereon thereby to allow it, while progressing on said conveyor means, to continuously collapse by gravity on said conveyor means, and means for flattening the collapsed hollow tube on said conveyor means.
4. An apparatus as defined in claim 3, wherein said feeder comprises a vertical hollow outer cylinder having an opening for receiving dough at the side wall thereof, a vertical hollow screw arranged within said outer cylinder so as to rotate about its own axis which is substantially aligned with the axis of said outer cylinder thereby to feed downwards dough between the outer surface of said screw and the inner surface of said outer cylinder, the hollow screw providing a passage for allowing a food material other than dough to pass therethrough, a nozzle having an annular lower end which is arranged integrally with said hollow screw at the bottom thereof, said end defining an annular orifice for discharg-ing dough in cooperation with the inner surface of the lower end of said outer cylinder, and a plug means arranged within the lower end of said nozzle so that the peripheral surface of the lower end of said plug means defines an annular orifice for said food material other than dough in cooperation with the inner surface of the lower end of said nozzle.
5. An apparatus as defined in claim 3, wherein said feeder comprises a vertical hollow outer cylinder having an opening for receiving dough at the side wall thereof, a vertical hollow screw arranged within said outer cylinder so as to rotate about its own axis which is substantially aligned with the axis of said outer cylinder thereby to feed downwards dough between the outer surface of said screw and the inner surface of said outer cylinder, an inner cylinder arranged to pass through said hollow screw and providing a passage for allowing a food material other than dough to pass therethrough, a nozzle having an annular lower end which is arranged integrally with said inner cylinder at the bottom thereof, said annular end defining an annular orifice for dis-charging dough in cooperation with the inner surface of the lower end of said outer cylinder, and a plug means arranged within the lower end of said nozzle so that the peripheral surface of the lower end of said plug means defines an annular orifice for said food material other than dough in cooperation with the inner sur-face of the lower end of said nozzle.
6. An apparatus according to claim 3, 4 or 5 and including means for folding said flattened hollow tube.
Priority Applications (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA000322102A CA1116469A (en) | 1975-03-10 | 1979-02-22 | Method and apparatus for continuously manufacturing multi-layered dough materials |
Applications Claiming Priority (4)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| JP29,355/75 | 1975-03-10 | ||
| JP50029355A JPS51104082A (en) | 1975-03-10 | 1975-03-10 | Tasokijino seizosochioyobihoho |
| CA247502A CA1054449A (en) | 1975-03-10 | 1976-03-09 | Method and apparatus for continuously manufacturing multi-layered dough materials |
| CA000322102A CA1116469A (en) | 1975-03-10 | 1979-02-22 | Method and apparatus for continuously manufacturing multi-layered dough materials |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA1116469A true CA1116469A (en) | 1982-01-19 |
Family
ID=27164368
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA000322102A Expired CA1116469A (en) | 1975-03-10 | 1979-02-22 | Method and apparatus for continuously manufacturing multi-layered dough materials |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CA (1) | CA1116469A (en) |
-
1979
- 1979-02-22 CA CA000322102A patent/CA1116469A/en not_active Expired
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