EP3096622A1 - Industrial oven particularly for bakery products - Google Patents

Abstract

An industrial oven (100), particularly for bakery products, comprising a cooking chamber (105) and means (140, 145) for handling a plurality of baking trays (300) within the cooking chamber (105), its particularity residing in the fact that the cooking chamber (105) is arranged vertically and in that it comprises means (120) for inserting at least one baking tray (300), means (130) for extracting at least one of the plurality of baking trays (300), and mechanical chain systems (200, 205) adapted to manage the baking trays (300) in input and in output from the cooking chamber (105).

Description

INDUSTRIAL OVEN PARTICULARLY FOR BAKERY PRODUCTS

The present invention relates to an industrial oven particularly for bakery products. The industrial oven described herein is particularly but not exclusively useful and practical for cooking bakery food products, i.e., for the process which, by means of a series of chemical, biological and physical transformations, makes it possible to obtain an edible product, such as for example bread, starting from dough.

The various forms of dough, once introduced in adapted industrial ovens, are baked at a cooking temperature that varies between 150°C and 275°C for a time that can range from 15 to 60 minutes. The dough inside the adapted industrial ovens absorbs heat, and is therefore baked, from three separate sources: from the walls (radiation), from the air (convection) and from the cooking plate (conduction).

Currently, in order to cook bakery food products, four different types of industrial ovens are used and are described briefly hereafter, each having its own particular characteristics.

The static single-chamber oven and the rotary single-chamber oven, both with loading/unloading of the manual type and with a vertical arrangement, are the most common industrial ovens for cooking bakery food products, and both are characterized by the small dimensions of the oven itself, which usually occupies a surface of approximately 2 meters by 2 meters.

Despite the small dimensions that characterize the static single- chamber oven and the rotary single-chamber oven, these two types of industrial ovens for cooking bakery products also have a very severe disadvantage, since whenever a trolley of bakery products to be cooked is introduced in one of these ovens, said trolley usually comprising 20 trays, which are arranged one above the other and on which the shapes of dough are arranged, the oven is opened frontally, i.e., the front door is opened for loading, with a consequent high loss of heat and drop in the internal temperature of the oven. Of course, the same negative consequences also occur if the front door of the oven is opened to unload the finished products.

The only difference between the two types of industrial ovens for cooking bakery products described above, i.e., between the static single- chamber oven and the rotary single-chamber oven, is that in the former the trolley remains stationary once it has been introduced in the oven, whereas in the latter the trolley rotates about itself, consequently improving the cooking of the bakery products.

Another known type of industrial oven for cooking bakery food products is the static multi-chamber oven, which has manual or automatic loading/unloading and a horizontal arrangement, usually on 3 or 4 levels. This type of industrial oven for cooking bakery products ensures significant volumes of hourly production and is characterized by the loading and unloading of a single tray at a time, on which the shapes of dough are placed, by opening a small passage that is sufficient to load or unload said tray in only one of the cooking chambers of the oven.

In practice, the static multi-chamber oven is constituted by multiple levels on which multiple cooking chambers are distributed, each chamber having its own opening for the loading and unloading of the trays on which the shapes of dough are placed.

This configuration of the static multi-chamber oven reduces, during loading or unloading operations, the loss of heat and the lowering of the internal temperature of the oven. However, this same configuration has a severe disadvantage, since it requires the static multi-chamber oven to reach considerable dimensions, especially if it is provided with an automatic loading system: this industrial oven for cooking bakery products usually occupies a surface of approximately 3 meters by 4 meters without an automatic loading system and a surface of approximately 3 meters by 8 meters with an automatic loading system.

A final known type of industrial oven for cooking bakery food products is the continuous tunnel oven, which has manual or automatic loading/unloading and a horizontal arrangement. This type of industrial oven for cooking bakery products is characterized by continuous-cycle cooking of the bakery products, which ensures an excellent hourly production yield and uniform cooking of the finished product.

This industrial oven for cooking bakery products, however, also has a substantial disadvantage, which relates, as in the case of the static multi- chamber oven, to the dimensions of the oven itself. The continuous tunnel oven, due to the configuration of this type of industrial oven for cooking bakery products, in fact reaches even larger dimensions, usually occupying a surface of approximately 3 meters by 12 meters.

The invention is an alternative and improved solution with respect to the types of industrial ovens for cooking bakery food products described briefly above, which are known and currently used.

The aim of the present invention is to overcome the limitations of the background art described above, providing an industrial oven, particularly for bakery products, that makes it possible to achieve effects that are similar to or better than those that can be obtained with known industrial ovens for cooking bakery products, minimizing the loss of heat and the lowering of the internal temperature of the oven during the loading or unloading operations, thus allowing not only cooking of excellent quality but also considerable energy saving.

Within this aim, an object of the invention is to conceive an industrial oven, particularly for bakery products, that occupies an acceptable surface and volume within bakery rooms and therefore has a space occupation that is reduced to the possible minimum and has extremely compact dimensions.

Another object of the invention is to devise an industrial oven particularly for bakery products that ensures high hourly production volumes and therefore an excellent yield.

A further object of the invention is to conceive an industrial oven particularly for bakery products that allows uniform and progressive cooking of the shapes of dough inserted within said oven, said uniform and progressive cooking providing temperatures ranging from 150°C at entry to 250°C at exit.

Another object of the present invention is to devise an industrial oven, particularly for bakery products, that allows a continuous-cycle cooking process.

Another object of the invention is to provide an industrial oven particularly for bakery products that is highly reliable, relatively easy to provide and has competitive costs.

This aim, as well as these and other objects that will become more apparent hereinafter, are achieved by an industrial oven, particularly for bakery products, comprising a cooking chamber and means for handling a plurality of baking trays within said cooking chamber, characterized in that said cooking chamber is arranged vertically and in that it comprises means for inserting at least one baking tray, means for extracting at least one of said plurality of baking trays, and mechanical chain systems adapted to manage said baking trays in input and in output from said cooking chamber.

Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the description of a preferred but not exclusive embodiment of the industrial oven particularly for bakery products according to the invention, illustrated by way of non-limiting example in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a possible embodiment of the industrial oven particularly for bakery products according to the invention;

Figure 2 is a side view of a possible embodiment of the industrial oven particularly for bakery products according to the invention;

Figure 3 is a vertical sectional view of a possible embodiment of the industrial oven particularly for bakery products according to the invention;

Figure 4 is a horizontal sectional view of a possible embodiment of the industrial oven particularly for bakery products according to the invention;

Figure 5 is a horizontal sectional detail view of the cooking chamber of a possible embodiment of the industrial oven particularly for bakery products according to the invention;

Figure 6 is a detail view of the rods, provided with pivoting supports, installed within the cooking chamber of a possible embodiment of the industrial oven particularly for bakery products according to the invention;

Figure 7 is a view of the inactive position (solid line) and of the movement position (broken line) of a pivoting support in one of the rods installed within the cooking chamber of one possible embodiment of the industrial oven particularly for bakery products according to the invention.

With reference to the cited figures, the industrial oven particularly for bakery products according to the invention, generally designated by the reference numeral 100, comprises substantially a cooking chamber 105 and two mechanical chain systems 200 and 205 arranged at the sides of said cooking chamber 105; the system 200 is adapted to manage the incoming baking trays 300 and the system 205 is adapted to manage the outgoing baking trays 300.

The cooking chamber 105 is shaped like a right-angled parallelepiped and is arranged vertically in order to utilize the compactness characteristics that are typical of vertically extending structures; furthermore, the cooking chamber 105 is provided with four independent fan heaters 110, which are arranged laterally to said cooking chamber 105 and are adapted to heat and move the air inside it.

At the base of the cooking chamber 105 there is an entry slot 115 that can be closed and has dimensions that are sufficient to allow the passage of a baking tray 300; said entry slot 115 opens only when necessary, in order to avoid the loss of heat; the baking trays 300, on which the shapes of dough intended for cooking are placed, are introduced automatically through said slot into said cooking chamber 105, by means of an adapted insertion trolley 120 or more generally by means suitable to perform this operation.

Likewise, at the top of the cooking chamber 105 and on the side opposite to the entry slot 115 there is an exit slot 125 that can be closed and has dimensions that are sufficient to allow the passage of a baking tray 300, said exit slot 125 opening only if necessary in order to avoid loss of heat; the baking trays 300, on which the finished products, i.e., the shapes of dough that were introduced previously through the entry slot 115 and have undergone the cooking process, are arranged, are extracted automatically through said slot from said cooking chamber 105 by means of an adapted extraction trolley 130 or, more generally, by means suitable to perform this operation.

Furthermore, the cooking chamber 105 is designed so as not to have velocity gradients in the heated air, which circulates inside it, due to the operation of the fan heaters 110, and which must cook the shapes of dough by convection: the C-shaped cross-section of the cooking chamber 105 in fact distributes uniformly the air that is heated and introduced by the fan heater 110 into said cooking chamber 105.

Four pairs 135 of rods, in particular two pairs 135 of rods for each of the two opposite internal walls, are installed on the surface of two opposite internal walls of the cooking chamber 105. Each one of the four pairs 135 of rods is constituted by a fixed rod 140, which is coupled to the cooking chamber 105, and by a movable rod 145.

The four fixed rods 140 and the four movable rods 145 installed within the cooking chamber 105 are all provided with supports 150 that are pivoted in said rods 140 and 145 at a constant distance from each other; said supports 150 can assume an inactive position, in which they are visible since their center of gravity is external to the hinge, and a movement position, which is assumed during the transition of a baking tray 300 upward from below and in which they are hidden within said rods 140 and 145.

Furthermore, the four movable rods 145 installed on the two opposite internal walls of the cooking chamber 105 are connected to two frames 155 and have a synchronous vertical alternating motion with a stroke of 160 mm, said synchronous vertical alternating motion being generated by two rod-and-crank mechanisms 160, which act on the two frames 155 and are actuated by a common driving shaft 165.

Each one of the two frames 155 is moved by one of the two rod-and- crank mechanisms 160 and guides the two movable rods 145, which are installed in a front position on the two opposite internal walls of the cooking chamber 105. Therefore, the right frame 155 guides the two movable rods 145 installed on the right side of the cooking chamber 105 and is moved by the right rod-and-crank mechanism 160, while the left frame 155 guides the two movable rods 145, which are installed on the left side of the cooking chamber 105, and is moved by the left rod-and-crank mechanism 160.

In practice, the set constituted by the pairs 135 of fixed rods 140 and movable rods 145 allows the vertical movement from below, i.e., from the base of the cooking chamber 105, upward, i.e., toward the top of the cooking chamber 105, of the baking trays 300 on which the shapes of dough are placed, according to a cyclic process that provides for an advancement that is approximately equal to the stroke of the vertical alternating motion of the movable rods 145 at each time interval, said time interval depending on the cooking time.

Each movable rod 145 works in combination with the fixed rod 140 to which it is coupled, and its vertical movements are synchronized with those of the other movable rods 145, in particular due to the presence of the common driving shaft 165.

The movable rod 145 pushes upward, by means of the corresponding vertical alternating motion, a first baking tray 300 arranged on one of its supports 150, until it reaches the nearest upper support 150 of the fixed rod 140.

At this point, the passage of the first baking tray 300 makes the nearest upper support 150 of the fixed rod 140 assume the movement position and after this passage said support 150 returns to the inactive position.

Once the movable rod 145 has reached the highest point of its vertical alternating motion, it begins to descend and its support 150 releases the first baking tray 300, which is now located on the nearest upper support 150 of the fixed rod 140, which has just returned to the inactive position.

By descending, the support 150 of the movable rod 145, which is now free, crosses a second baking tray 300 that is arranged on the nearest lower support 150 of the fixed rod 140, assuming first the movement position and then returning to the inactive position after passing the second baking tray 300.

Once the movable rod 145 has reached the lowest point of its vertical alternating motion, it begins to rise again and picks up with its support 150 the second baking tray 300 arranged on the nearest lower support 150 of the fixed rod 140, thus restarting the handling cycle.

As already mentioned, the automatic loading of the baking trays 300 inside the cooking chamber 105 occurs by means of the insertion trolley 120, which is arranged at the base of the cooking chamber 105 itself at the entry slot 115, whereas the automatic unloading of the baking trays 300 occurs by means of the extraction trolley 130, which is arranged at the top of the cooking chamber 105 itself at the exit slot 125.

In order to allow a continuous-cycle cooking process, the insertion trolley 120 and the extraction trolley 130 work in combination and synchronously with the mechanical chain systems 200 and 205 respectively, which are both arranged at the sides of the cooking chamber 105 and allow respectively the management 20 of incoming baking trays 300 and 20 outgoing baking trays 300. The mechanical chain systems 200 and 205 are each constituted by a pair of catenaries 210, which form a band that is closed in a loop (therefore endless) and have a continuous series of supports 215 that are long enough to support the baking trays 300.

The rotation of the catenaries 210 is caused by a rod-and-crank mechanism 160, which acts on the shafts 220 of the catenaries 210 and is actuated by a common driving shaft 165.

The mechanical chain system 200, arranged on the side of the cooking chamber 105 where the entry slot 115 is located, accompanies the baking trays 300 downward, which rest on the supports 215 of the pair of catenaries 210 of the mechanical chain system 200, until the entry slot 115 is reached, where the baking trays 300 are picked up by the insertion trolley 120 and loaded into the cooking chamber 105.

The mechanical chain system 205, instead, arranged on the side of the cooking chamber 105 where the exit slot 125 is located, picks up the baking trays 300 unloaded by the extraction trolley 130 at the height of the exit slot 125, which rest on the supports 215 of the pair of catenaries 210 of the mechanical chain system 205, and accompanies them downward.

The industrial oven 100, particularly for bakery products, generally has the following standard operation, which begins with the insertion of the baking tray 300, on which the shapes of dough are placed and which is arranged in the lowest position of the mechanical chain system 200; such insertion occurs at the base of the cooking chamber 105 by means of the insertion trolley 120 and by the opening of the entry slot 115.

The cooking of the shapes of dough inside the cooking chamber 105 then occurs with a constant upward motion from below by means of the fixed rods 140 and the movable rods 145, which move the baking trays 300 that are present inside said cooking chamber 105 and on which the shapes of dough are arranged, according to the cyclic process described earlier. This upward movement of the baking trays 300 from below is applied in order to ensure uniform cooking of the bakery product.

Finally, the extraction of the tray 300 on which the finished products, i.e., the bakery products, are arranged, occurs at the top of the cooking chamber 105 by means of the extraction trolley 130 and by opening of the exit slot 125; such expelled baking tray 300 is arranged in the uppermost position of the mechanical chain system 205.

In practice it has been found that the invention achieves fully the intended aim and objects. In particular, it has been shown that the industrial oven 100, particularly for bakery products, thus conceived makes it possible to overcome the qualitative limitations of the background art, since it allows a minimization of heat loss and of the drop in the internal temperature of the oven during the loading and unloading operations, and an optimization of the management of space occupation.

Although the industrial oven 100 according to the invention has been conceived in particular for cooking bakery food products, it can be used in any case more generally for any type of cooking in which it is necessary or in any case useful to cook the products being processed in a uniform and progressive manner, performing a production process in a continuous cycle.

The invention thus conceived is susceptible of numerous modifications and variations, all of which are within the scope of the appended claims; by way of non-limiting example, the person skilled in the art understands without effort that a fully automated management of the industrial oven 100 can also be provided by means of a PLC control system both as regards the loading and unloading rate of the baking trays on which the shapes of dough are placed and as regards the cooking times and temperatures, optionally comprising various temperature detection points with the possibility of independent adjustment. Moreover, a function for counting, for example, the total and/or the partial number of input baking trays, the total and/or the partial number of output baking trays, and the number of baking trays inside the industrial oven 100 can be provided. All the details may furthermore be replaced with other technically equivalent elements.

In practice, the materials used, as well as the contingent shapes and dimensions, may be any according to the requirements and the state of the art.

Finally, the scope of protection of the claims must not be limited by the illustrations or preferred embodiments shown in the description by way of example, but rather the claims must comprise all the characteristics of patentable novelty that reside in the present invention, including all the characteristics that would be treated as equivalents by the person skilled in the art.

The disclosures in Italian Patent Application No. MI2014A000051 from which this application claims priority are incorporated herein by reference.

Where technical features mentioned in any claim are followed by reference signs, those reference signs have been included for the sole purpose of increasing the intelligibility of the claims and accordingly such reference signs do not have any limiting effect on the interpretation of each element identified by way of example by such reference signs.

Claims

1. An industrial oven (100), particularly for bakery products, comprising a cooking chamber (105) and means (140, 145) for handling a plurality of baking trays (300) within said cooking chamber (105), characterized in that said cooking chamber (105) is arranged vertically and in that it comprises means (120) for inserting at least one baking tray (300), means (130) for extracting at least one of said plurality of baking trays (300), and mechanical chain systems (200, 205) adapted to manage said baking trays (300) in input and in output from said cooking chamber (105).

2. The industrial oven (100) according to claim 1, characterized in that said cooking chamber (105) includes an entry slot (115) and/or an exit slot (125), both of which can be closed.

3. The industrial oven (100) according to claims 1 or 2, characterized in that said cooking chamber (105) has a C-shaped cross-section and is provided with at least one fan heater (110).

4. The industrial oven (100) according to claims 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that said means (140, 145) for handling a plurality of baking trays (300) within said cooking chamber (105) include fixed rods (140) and movable rods (145) provided with supports (150) that are pivoted in said rods (140, 145).

5. The industrial oven (100) according to claim 4, characterized in that said supports (150) pivoted in said rods (140, 145) have an inactive position and a movement position.

6. The industrial oven (100) according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said insertion means (120) include at least one insertion trolley.

7. The industrial oven (100) according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said extraction means (130) include at least one extraction trolley.

8. The industrial oven (100) according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said mechanical chain systems (200, 205) include at least one catenary (210), said at least one catenary (210) being a band closed in a loop.

9. The industrial oven (100) according to claim 8, characterized in that said at least one catenary (210) has a continuous series of supports

(215).

10. The industrial oven (100) according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said means (140, 145) for handling a plurality of baking trays (300) within said cooking chamber (105) and/or said mechanical chain systems (200, 205) adapted to manage said baking trays (300) in input and in output are moved by at least one rod-and-crank mechanism (160).

11. The industrial oven (100) according to claim 10, characterized in that said at least one rod-and-crank mechanism (160) is actuated by at least one driving shaft (165).