GB2064291A - Pizza topping device - Google Patents

Abstract

A pizza topping device to apply ingredients to a pastry shell including first apertured conveyer 3, applicator spray nozzles 13A, 13B disposed above the first conveyor 3 to spray a selected, fluid, sauce-like material onto the pastry shells wherein the excess sauce-like material flows through the apertures of the conveyor to sauce accumulator 7, hopper 72 disposed above the first conveyer to receive selected particulate topping substances to be applied to the sauce carried on the pastry shell where the hopper 72 includes a second, imperforate, conveyer 75 disposed in the bottom of the hopper where the topping material is carried on the second conveyer 75 in the same direction as the direction of the first conveyor, topping retention and mixing means 90 disposed in the hopper to continually mix materials in the hopper 72 and emit a selected depth of topping material on the second conveyer 75, delivery means 77 to deliver the emitted topping onto the pastry shells where excess topping material falls through the first conveyer to accumulator 56. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Pizza machine This invention relates to a pizza topping device to apply selected ingredients to a pastry shell.

Various pastry-like foods, including pizza, are generally available where the product is produced as a pastry under shell with overlying layers of selected ingredients.

The food product commonly known as pizza includes a pastry shell covered with a layer of sauce, usually tomato based, with various selected topping ingredients such as cheese, olives, ground meat applied to the sauce covered shell prior to baking.

The popularity of such foods, and the volume of the market available for sale of such foods can in many instances justify automation of the procedures for the manufacture thereof.

Likewise, increasingly stringent health regulations, while in many instances permitting hand preparation of food products available for consumption in public restaurants, limit the degree of contact between the human hand and the food product in the case of products which are produced for resale in retail food outlets, or institutional service.

Heretofore, pizza type foods have been primarily assembled in their several separate stages, in separate operations and no devices are known in the art to exist where a pizza, or pizza type food, can be assembled in one completely integrated operation with minimal contact with the human body.

Moreover, such previous procedures have been labour intensive and therefore quite expensive and have required the pizza shell, or other pastry, to be handled numerous times during the preparation and prior to packaging.

The present invention provides a device wherein a food product based on an underlying pastry shell, for example a pizza type food, can be prepared from beginning to end with only minimal human contact particularly where it is not necessary to handle the pastry shell from the time the shell is placed on the device to the time the finished product is removed from the device ready for cooking or packaging.

Moreover, devices in accordance with the present invention are easily adapted to comply with even the most stringent health code because of the lack of human contact with the product and because the devices can be easily adapted for cleaning.

Likewise, devices in accordance with the present invention can be adapted to produce suitable pastry shell based food products in large quantities at high production rates so that the previously experienced labour factor in the preparation of such products is greatly reduced.

Briefly, the present invention provides a device to apply sauce to a pastry shell, recover the excess sauce which is not applied to the shell then apply selected particulate topping ingredients to the pastry shell then remove the excess ingredients while the pastry shell is in motion and where means are provided to recycle the unused portion of the ingredients not applied to the pizza shell and further where the particulate topping ingredients are supplied from a hopper where the contents of the hopper are thoroughly mixed until applied to the pizza shell.

More specifically, the present invention provided a topping device to apply ingredients to a pastry shell including first conveyor means to receive a preformed pastry shell and convey the shell in a selected direction thereon, sauce applicator spray means disposed at a selected location above the first conveyor means to spray a selected, fluid, sauce-like material onto the pastry shell travelling on the first conveyor where the sauce-like material which oversprays the pastry shell flows through the apertures ofthe conveyor to an accumulator means, hopper means disposed above the first conveyor means adapted to receive particulate topping materials to be applied to the pastry shell where the hopper means includes a second conveyor means which is imperforate, disposed in the bottom of the hopper so the topping material is carried on the second conveyor in the same direction of travel as the direction of travel of the first conveyor, topping retention and mixing means disposed within the hopper to continually mix the topping materials in the hopper and emit a selected thickness of topping material on the second conveyor means, delivery means to deliver the topping carried on the second conveyor means to pastry shells carried on the first conveyor means.

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is an overall perspective view of a complete apparatus in accordance with the present invention; Figure 2 is a larger perspective view of one portion of the appparatus of Figure 1; Figure 3 is an enlarged view of a second portion of the apparatus shown in Figure 1; Figure 4 is a schematic plan view of a conveyor arrangement included in the apparatus shown in Figure 1; Figure 5 is a schematic side elevation of a conveyor arrangement as shown in Figure 1; Figure 6 is a schematic side elevation of another drive arrangement provided for a portion of the apparatus shown in Figure 1; Figure 7 is a schematic side elevation illustrating the operation of a device in accordance with the present invention; and Figure 8 is a side view of an example of a mixing device taken along a plane passing through line 8-8 of Figure 1.

As shown in Figure 1, the device illustrated includes two principal portions namely a sauce applicator portion 1 and a topping applicator section 2.

As shown in Figure 2, which is an enlarged view of the sauce applicator portion taken from a different angle, the sauce applicator apparatus is disposed on a framework 5 where a chain conveyor or other apertured conveyor means 3 is provided to travel with the upper surface of the conveyor travelling in the direction shown by a rrow 3A. The conveyor can be driven buy a motor 12 (Figure 2) means not shown, for example a sprocket and chain arrangement adapted to drive roller 6 to move chain conveyor 3 in the direction shown by 3A around rollers 6 and 4 located at opposite ends of the framework 5 and rotatable in journals 6A and 4A respectively.

A hopper 7 is disposed beneath conveyor 3 as shown, extends generally from one side to the other of frame 5, and has an outlet 9 communicating with a pump 8, also driven by motor 12 (by means not shown) to recirculate material from hopper7 via pump outlets 12Aand 123 two nozzles 13Aand 13B disposed over the upper surface of conveyor 3 so that pizza sauce, or other suitable material, is emit ted from nozzles 13A and 1spas a spray to be uniformly applied to pastry shells travelling on conveyor 3.

One reason for the open-work construction of conveyor 3 is to permit the overspray from nozzles 13A and 13B to pass through the conveyor into hopper 7 for reuse.

Spikes (not shown) can be provided on the upper surface of conveyor 3 to extend upwardly therefrom so that the pastry shells rest on the tops of the spikes rather than on the surface of the conveyor, to minimise contact between the bottom of the pizza shell and the conveyor surface. This further minimises unwanted sauce pickup on the bottom of the pastry shell as it travels on conveyor 3.

The coated pizza shell is then passed from conveyor 3 to the topping applicator section 2, particularly to conveyor 22 of the topping applicator section 2 which, like conveyor 3, is of an open-work construction. Conveyor 22 travels around rollers 34 and 33, best illustrated in Figure 4, where drive roller 33 is driven by a shaft 27 journalled in framework 21 provided to support the entire topping section.

As shown in Figures 1 and 4, a motor 29 is provided to drive conveyor 22 by means of a chain 28 travelling around a sprocket 26 carried by shaft 27, and a second sprocket 26A on shaft 27 drives a chain 32 around a sprocket 30 which rotates a shaft 31 to drive a conveyor 35 located beneath a hopper 72 as described hereinafter.

The second conveyor 35, similar in structure to the conveyor 22, is provided beneath hopper 72 to travel around rollers 36 and 37 where roller 36 is driven by sprocket 30 carried on shaft 31 which extends across the width of frame 21 as illustrated schematically in Figure 4.

The pizza shells travel along conveyor 35 and beneath hopper 72 where the topping material is stored and blended as described hereinafter and upon emission from conveyor 35, the topping material is applied to the pizza as described hereinafter as the pizza shell is received on a conveyor composed of spaced rollers 52 as shown in Figure 4. The drive arrangement for rollers 52 is shown in Figures 1,3, and will be explained with respect to Figures 4 and 5.

A motor 41 is provided to drive rollers 52; as shown in Figure 4, motor 41 is connected to a right angle speed reducer 42 to drive a sprocket 43 at a selected speed to drive a chain 45 around a sprocket 46 carried on frame 21 where a tension idler 44 is provided, as shown in Figure 5, to continually adjust the tension in chain 45. Sprocket 46 rotates a shaft 47, which as shown in Figure 4 extends across the width of frame 21 to a sprocket 48. A sprocket 46A is also carried by shaft 47 to drive a chain 55 around a sprocket 54 carried on a shaft 59 journalled at opposite ends of frame 21. A multiplicity of shafts 59 are provided, each carrying a roller 52 for rotation by the shafts 59 and, as shown in Figure 5, on the side of the frame 21 shown, each shaft 59 carries a gear 49, one gear 49 being rotated by sprocket 54.An idler gear 51 is provided between each two adjacent gears 49 to mesh with the gears 49 so that all gears 49 turn in the same direction and, consequently, rotate rollers 52 in the same direction to convey the pizza shell as previously described. Advantageously, a spacing 52A (Figure 4) is provided between each of the rollers 52 to permit the topping material which does not fall onto the pizza shell to fall between the rollers 52 and into a hopper 56, located beneath conveyor rollers 52, and from hopper 56 to a conveyor 53 where the material is recovered for disposal or recycling to hopper 72 as described hereinafter.

The hopper 72 is provided to receive and store the topping ingredients. Hopper 72 is suspended above a conveyor base 83 by means of brackets 71, and the sides of hopper 72 extend downwardly to a point immediately adjacent to the upper surface of an imperforate conveyor belt 75. Advantageously, conveyor belt 75 is adapted for movement about rollers 84A and 84B journalled in journals 85A and 85B as shown. Intermediate idler rollers 82 are provided to maintain the position of the upper flight of conveyor 75 in the proper position with respect to the bottom of hopper 72 to prevent escape of topping material from the sides of hopper 72.

Conveyor base 83 is fastened to frame 21 by means of brackets 56 as shown.

A mixer device is provided in hopper 72 to maintain the integrity of the mixture of the materials in the device; it is to be understood that diverse materials may be added and it is necessary to maintain a proper mixture thereof.

In the example shown in Figures 1 and 3, a carrousel mixer and flow regulator 90 is provided to rotate on a shaft 93 where, as shown in Figure 8, two eccentric discs 98 and 99 are provided. Shaft 93 is centered with respect to disc 99 but is off centre with respect to disc 98 by dimension B (Figure 8). Shafts 94 are rotatably received in journals in discs 99 and the ends of the shafts 94 which extend through disc 99 are connected to iinkages 92 which are connected to pivots 96 carried by discs 98. The distance between shaft 93 of disc 99 and the centres of the pivots on links 92 (dimension A Figure 8), is equal to dimension B so that fingers 91 carried by shafts 94 always point downwards when shaft 93 rotates disc 99. In order to accomplish the foregoing result, it will be recognised that disc 99 is fixed for rotation with shaft 93 while disc 98 is free to rotate independent of shaft 93.

Means are provided to retain topping material within hopper 72 and control the emission of the material from hopper 72.

It has been found that the carrousel mixer assembly 90 can provide both the flow control and mixing necessary for proper operation of the device. Specificaily, carrousel 90 is rotated at a selected speed in a direction of rotation such that, at the bottom of the arc of rotation, fingers 91 move in a direction opposite to the direction of travel of conveyor 75, so that fingers 91 comb through the topping mixture to separate the materials and move the materials backwards with respect to the direction of travel of conveyor 75.Advantageously, the vertical position of carrousel 90 is adjusted so that the clearance between fingers 91 and conveyor 75 is approximately equal to the depth of topping desired, so that fingers 91 simultaneously comb the topping, and the speed of carrousel 90 is adjusted to retain the topping in hopper 72 except for that portion of topping which passes beneath fingers 91, so that carrousel 90 acts as a metering device.

In some applications a second device can be utilised to further meter the flow of topping and, in the example shown, a drum 73, carried by a rotatable shaft 74 journalled in brackets 79, is provided on which fingers 61 (Figures 1,3 and 7) extend radially outwards; roller 73 is rotated in the direction shown by arrow 62 so that the roller also retains topping material in hopper 72. In such applications, roller drum 73 is disposed a selected distance above the upper flight of conveyor 75 so that the topping material issuing from hopper 72 on conveyor 75 passes beneath fingers 61 unless an excessive thickness of material is emitted from hopper 72.

The drive arrangement for drum 73, and for drum 77 located downstream from conveyor 75, will be discussed hereinafter.

However, when a carrousel mixer of the type shown in Figures 1 and 3 is provided and is rotated so that the orbital path of the downwardly extending fingers 91 of the carrousel causes the fingers to move in a direction opposite to the direction of travel of belt 75, the fingers pass through the mass of topping retained in hopper 72 and move the topping towards the rear of hopper 72 and the clearance between the bottom of the orbital path of fingers 91 and the surface of belt 75 so the carrousel primarily determines the thickness of topping emitted from hopper 72 to be applied to the pizza shells.

The drum 77 is carried by shaft 101 journalled in brackets 57 located at opposite sides of base 83.

Drum 77 is located a selected distance from roller 84B around which conveyor 75 passes, to provide an opening 60 (Figure 7) for the topping material carried by conveyor 75 to drop onto the pizza shells passing under the space 60. Drum 77, like drum 73, includes outwardly extending fingers 78 to control the rate of application of topping material to the pizza shell dependent on the separation between drum 77 and the end of conveyor 75 and the rate of rotation of drum 77. The rate of rotation of drum 77 is selectively determined by the diameter of a sprocket 58 (Figure 6) and the speed of a chain 88 which drives sprocket 58 from the sprocket 48. Accordingly, drum 77 turns in the direction indicated by arrow 77A, so that the surface of the drum and the surface of conveyor75 move in the same direction in space 60.

The drive arrangement to drive shaft 93 of the carrousel mixer and shaft 74 rotating the drum 73 in the direction shown by arrow 62, and sprocket 58 which drives shaft 78A of drum 77, is best described with reference to Figure 6. The shaft 47, as previously described, extends through, and is journalled in, frame 21 and is driven by sprocket 46. Shaft 47 carries the sprocket 48 and a sprocket 112. Sprocket 48 drives the drive chain 88 which travels over an adjustable chain tension device 81, as is known in the art, around a sprocket 74A to drive shaft 74 which drives drum 73 in a direction opposite to the direction of rotation of drum 77, and under sprocket 58 to drive shaft 78A and drum 77 in the direction shown by arrow 77A of Figure 7.

A motor 103 is provided to drive a speed reducer 104 having an output sprocket 106 which drives a chain 107 received by a sprocket 86 to drive shaft 85B to rotate roller 84B to drive conveyor 75 in the general direction shown in Figure 3.

Athird sprocket (not shown) can be provided on shaft 47 to drive a chain 111 meshing with a sprocket 108 of a speed reducer 110 having an output sproc- ket 1 to drive a chain driving a sprocket 117 connected to a shaft 118 which powers the conveyor 53 (see Figures 1 and 6). The hopper 56 is provided beneath the separation between the end of belt 75 and the periphery of drum 77 so that topping material which is not received by a pizza shell falls through into hopper 56 onto conveyor 53 for return to the process.

Figure 7 illustrates the operation of the device with respect to two pizza shells 121 and 124, both of which have a layer of sauce topping respectively 122 and 125. Pizza shell 121 is shown emerging from the pizza sauce spray heads 13A, 13B, which continue to emit a stream of sauce 126 into hopper 7 for return and recirculation. Pizza shell 121 has passed to the conveyor 22 while pizza shell 124 is in position beneath space 60 between roller 77 and the end of conveyor 75 to receive the cascade of topping material. As shown, the fingers 78 of drum 77 extend into the topping material 131 which is being applied to pizza shell 124.

Additionally, where a drum 73 or similar device is provided, the drawing shows an excess accumulation of topping material behind drum 73 so as it rotates the bottoms of fingers 61 adjacent to conveyor 75 regulate the quantity of topping material emitted from hopper 72. It has been found that with a mixer carrousel 90 of the type shown, the drum 73 can be eliminated if the fingers of carrousel 90, when in rotation, dip through the bed of topping material and at the bottom of the orbit are spaced a selected distance above the surface of the upper flight of conveyor 75 to provide the proper depth of topping material on conveyor 75.

Claims (7)

1. A pizza topping device to apply selected ingre dientsto a pastry shell including: a. first apertured conveyor means to receive a preformed pastry shell and convey said shell in a selected direction; b. applicator spray means disposed at a selected location above the said first conveyor means to spray a selected fluid, sauce-like material into said pastry shell travelling on said first conveyor; c. hopper means disposed above said first conveyor means to receive selected particulate topping material substances to be applied to said pastry shell travelling on said first conveyor where said hopper means includes imperforate second conveyor means disposed in the bottom of said hopper where said topping material is carried on said second conveyor means in the same direction of travel as the direction of travel of said first conveyor;; d. topping retention and mixing means disposed in said hopper to mix topping material in said hopper and meter emission of selected quantity of topping material from said second conveyor; e. delivery means to deliver topping material emitted from said hopper on said second conveyor to said pastry shells travelling on said first conveyor.

2. A pizza topping device as claimed in Claim 1, in which sauce overspray recovery means recover said selected fluid, sauce-like material sprayed towards said first conveyor which is not received on said pastry shells.

3. A pizza topping device as claimed in Claim 1, in which hopper means disposed beneath said delivery means recover topping material delivered from said second conveyor which is not retained on pastry shells travelling on said first conveyor means.

4. A pizza topping device as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said topping retention and mixing means includes a carrousel mixing device having spaced disc means journalled for rotation on opposite sides of said hopper means about an axis transverse to said first direction with at least two parallel arm means extending between said disc means a selected distance from the centre of said disc means for rotation in orbit-like paths with rotation of said disc means where finger means are provided and extend from said arm means where said disc means are adapted to orient said finger means in a downward direction during the rotation of said disc means and where the outer tips of said finger means are adapted to approach said second conveyor means at the lowest point of their arc of travel; in spaced relation therefrom so said finger means move said topping material in a direction opposite to the direction of travel of said second conveyor and topping material to be emitted is carried on said second conveyor means beneath the tips of said finger means; drive means to rotate said disc means of said mixer means in a direction such that the direction of movement of said finger means at the bottom of the orbital travel thereof is opposite the direction of travel of said second conveyor means to retain topping material in said hopper and control rate of emission of topping material from said hopper.

5. A pizza topping device as claimed in Claim 4, wherein said topping retention means include drum means disposed at the outlet from hopper means and rotated in a direction such that the bottom edge of said drum means moves in a direction opposite to the direction of travel of said second conveyor means where finger means are provided to extend radially outwardly from said drum means where the tips of said finger means approach said second conveyor means at the lowest point of their arc of travel.

6. A pizza topping device as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said delivery means includes delivery drum means disposed a selected distance from the end of said first conveyor means for rotation about an axis transverse to the direction of travel of said second conveyor means to define a flow space for emission of topping material therebetween and where said drum means includes finger means extending radially outwardly therefrom where said drum means is rotated in a direction such that the tips of said finger means adjacent the end of said conveyor means rotate in the same direction of travel as said conveyor means so that the topping material ingredients carried by said second conveyor fall from said first conveyor, with the aid of said delivery drum means, onto the pastry shells travelling on said first conveyor means.

7. A pizza topping device substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.