GB2105563A

GB2105563A - Apparatus for making bread

Info

Publication number: GB2105563A
Application number: GB08210086A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Ulf Sohrman
Original assignee: Santrade Ltd
Current assignee: Santrade Ltd
Priority date: 1981-04-06
Filing date: 1982-04-05
Publication date: 1983-03-30
Also published as: GB2105563B; DE3212877C2; SE425831B; GB2135864A; DE3212877A1; SE8102182L; GB8407809D0

Abstract

Apparatus for making bread comprises a main conveyor 10 which carries sections 30 made up of two frame parts 31, 32 connected by parts 33-37 from which baking tins 38 are suspended by flanges on the tins. A transverse conveyor for filling the tins 38 has a portioning device 111 for simultaneously dumping a quantity of dough into a line of tins thereunder. A fermentation chamber 13 is divided into compartments A and B, rows of sections carrying dough-laden tins being transported upwardly in compartment A and downwardly in compartment B. The baking oven 14 preferably has a conveyor 21 lying closely over the tins 38, thus obviating the necessity for devices for applying and removing lids from the tins. A device 16 removes the finished bread from the tins. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Apparatus for making bread This invention relates to an apparatus for production of bread of the type using a conveyor (referred to herein as a "main conveyor") to carry tins through a fermentation chamber and an oven.

The object of the invention is to provide an apparatus which is cheap to build, requires but little space, and is energy saving in use.

The apparatus of the present invention is characterised in that the main conveyor carries sections each comprising at least two transverse frame parts and at least two other frame parts connecting the transverse frame parts. These sections are preferably subdivided by further frame parts, so that baking tins with opposed flanges can be carried thereon.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention sections, having passed into the bottom of the fermentation chamber, are then carried, preferably in batches, firstly in an upward direction and then in a downward direction in the fermentation chamber.

The apparatus may incorporate a device for putting lids on baking tins containing dough and a device for removing lids from baking tins containing bread. However, according to a particularly preferred arrangement, the oven may be provided with an endless conveyor belt, positioned to lie closely over open topped tins on the main conveyor belt, and adapted to operate so that its lower run moves in the same direction as the upper run of the main conveyor belt.

A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described in greater detail by reference to the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a plan view of a baking apparatus; Fig. 2 is a side view of the apparatus according to Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is one section of the main conveyor with tins filled with dough; and Fig. 4 is a section through a tin along the line IV-lV of Fig. 3.

The apparatus comprises a main conveyor 10 of side chain conveyor type, a filling device 11, a fermentation chamber 13, an oven 14 and a device 1 6 for removing the bread from the tins.

Additionally there may be provided devices 12 and 1 5 respectively for putting lids on baking tins containing dough and removing lids from tins containing bread.

The main conveyor 10 is operated by two continuous side chains. Between these side chains and resting on them there are arranged sections 30, each section comprising at least two transverse frame parts 31, 32 and at least two other frame parts 33, 37 connecting the ends of the frame parts 31, 32 with each other and extending in the longitudinal direction of the conveyor. Within each section 30 there are a number of further frame parts 34-36, preferably extending in the longitudinal direction of the conveyor, which connect the transverse frame parts 31, 32 with each other and subdivide the sections 30.

The space between the longitudinal frame parts in each section is filled with heat-resistant tins 38 into which the dough is to be placed. In this connection the tins 38 are preferably positioned such that their longitudinal axis is perpendicular to the moving direction of the main conveyor 1 0.

The tins 38 are made to cooperate with the specially designed main conveyor so that the tins shall come as near the heating device of the oven 14 as possible. For this reason the upper ends of the short sides of the tins are provided with flanges 41,42 which rest against the frame parts 33-37 of the main conveyor 10, whereby the main part of each tin 38 lies between the frame parts 33-37. By this means a distance of 5-30 mm, preferably 10-1 5 mm, between the lower part of the tin 38 and the heating device of the oven 14 is possible.If the flanges 41, 42 extend over the whole of the top of the frame parts 33-37, as shown in Fig. 4 of the drawings, then flanges of tins in adjacent rows will overlap: if preferred, the flanges may be reduced in length so that no such overlapping occurs.

The filling device 11 comprises a conveyor 110 which is transverse in relation to the main conveyor 10 and extends out over the same. On this transverse conveyor is transported the dough which is to be portioned into the tins 38 on the main conveyor 10. At that part of the transverse conveyor 110 extending over the main conveyor there is arranged a device 111 which can portion out the dough at one and the same time into all tins 38 which are positioned in the same transverse line in the section of the main conveyor 10. When the tins in this line have been filled with dough the main conveyor is fed forwardly one step, whereafter the portioning device 111 can fill all tins in the transverse line behind and so on. Due to this fact a quick filling of dough into the tins 38 is achieved.

After the tins 38 have been filled with dough, the filled tins are furnished with lids in a conventional way with the aid of the device 12, which lids prevent the dough from swelling out of the tins during the fermentation and baking period.

Then the tins 38 enter the fermentation chamber 1 3 which is specially designed so that it only occupies about one quarter of the space in the longitudinal direction of a conventional fermentation chamber having the same capacity.

This is done by arranging that the sections of the main convenor 10 with the tins therein move so that rows of sections 30 move vertically, one above the other.

The chamber 1 3 comprises two compartments A and B, each compartment comprising rows above each other, each row containing a number of sections of the main conveyor. In this connection the rows with the sections in compartment A move upwards, while the rows in compartment B move downwards. The chamber 13 functions in the following way: When a sufficient number of sections 30 of the main conveyor, for example five sections, have entered the deivce 13, they are transported upwardly by a vertical conveyor in the compartment A, this conveyor straddling the main conveyor 10 and being provided with lifting elements which contact the under surfaces of the frame parts 33 and 37.

On reacing the top of compartment A, the sections 30 at this level are transferred by rack and pinion, or rams or the like, to the top of compartment B and so to a similar conveyor which moves the sections downwardly until they are again deposited on the main conveyor. Alternatively a single conveyor in the device 13 may control both the upward and downward movement of the sections 30. The fermentation or rising of the dough takes, as known, a certain time but, due to the novel circulation system of the sections within the chamber 13, this fermentation time can be maintained with a considerable quantity of dough in the chamber, whilst the space occupied by the chamber in the longitudinal direction of the apparatus is minimal.

It ought to be observed that the movement into and from the fermentation chamber occurs uninterruptedly, i.e. at the same time as the lowest row in compartment B is fed out of the chamber 13 a number of sections outside the chamber 1 3 are fed into the same and take their place on the lowest row in compartment A, whereafter the circulation continues such that the sections on the different rows are moved one step at the same time as sections with tins containing finishedfermented dough are fed out of the chamber 1 3 and new sections are fed into compartment A.

After the fermentation the sections with the tins containing finished-fermented dough are fed into the oven 14 that can be of conventional "forced convection" type.

The great advantage in this case, however, is that due to the special design of the main conveyor 10 and the tins 38, the latter are abie to come very close to the heating device of the oven, the heat transfer being radically improved. This improved heat transfer can be utilized in two ways: either the oven can be made shorter than is normal or the energy supply can be reduced. In both cases, however, there will be a radical reduction of the energy consumption of the oven.

After the baking in the oven 14 the sections with the tins containing the bread go to a device 1 5 at which the lids on the tins are lifted off. These lids are then carried away by a transverse conveyor 151, and are collected together, whereafter they are transported by a longitudinal conveyor 1 52 to the device 12, where they are put on the tins again.

After the station 1 5 where the lids are removed, the sections with the tins containing the finished bread go to a device 1 6 where the bread is taken away from the tins and is fed away for cooling and packeting. Then the sections with the empty tins go back to the station 11, where dough is once again filled into the tins.

The stations 1 5 and 1 6 are based on conventional equipment that can be found on the market today.

The invention is, of course, not limited to the described embodiment. Thus, there may be different variations in the size of the sections of the main conveyor and also different numbers of sections in the rows of the fermentation chamber.

Further, instead of having lids on the tins 38 a special, endless conveyor 21 (see Fig. 2) can be arranged in the oven 14, which conveyor rests against the projections 41, 42 of the tins 38, whereby the bread is prevented from swelling out of the tin during the baking. In this connection the lower part of the conveyor 21 moves in the same direction as does the upper part of the conveyor 10 and preferably with the same speed. By having this device 21 the apparatus can be made cheaper and simpler, because then the station 12 where the lids are put on, the station 1 5 where the lids are taken off, the unit for collecting together the lids, and the two conveyors 151, 152 can be abolished.

Further, it is possible to modify the sections of the main conveyor 10 such that instead of having frame parts 34-36 extending in the longitudinal direction of the conveyor each section is provided with frame parts extending between the frame parts 33 and 37 and thus parailel to the frame parts 31 and 32. In such a case the tins 38 are suitably suspended in the sections 30 such that the longitudinal axis of the tins is parallel with the moving direction of the main conveyor 10. In this connection it ought to be pointed out that the number of tins that are contained in each section 30 can of course be varied depending on the size of the sections and the tins.

Claims

1. Apparatus for making bread comprising a main conveyor to carry tins through a fermentation chamber and an oven characterised in that the main conveyor carries sections each comprising at least two transverse frame parts and at least two other frame parts connecting the transverse frame parts.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 where the sections are subdivided by further frame parts, so that baking tins with opposed flanges can be carried thereon.

3. Apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the further frame parts are arranged parallel to the said other frame parts.

4. Apparatus according to claim 3 in conjunction with oblong baking tins having flanges at their shorter ends, these being carried on the other frame parts and the further frame parts.

5. Apparatus according to any preceding claim wherein the sections, having passed into the bottom of the fermentation chamber, are then carried firstly in an upward direction and then in a downward direction in the fermentation chamber.

6. Apparatus according to claim 5 wherein the sections are conveyed in batches vertically upwardly then across the chamber, then vertically downwardly in the fermentation chamber.

7. Apparatus according to claim 5 or claim 6 wherein the fermentation chamber has two compartments in one of which the sections are moving upwardly and in the other of which the sections are moving downwardly.

8. Apparatus according to any preceding claim including also a device for automatically filling baking tins with dough and a device for removing bread from the tins.

9. Apparatus according to claim 8 wherein the tin filling device comprises a transverse conveyor which simultaneously deposits equal lumps of dough in the tins underneath.

10. Apparatus according to any preceding claim incorporating a device for putting lids on baking tins containing dough and a device for removing lids from baking tins containing bread.

11. Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the oven is provided with an endless conveyor belt, positioned to lie closely over open topped tins on the main conveyor belt, and adapted to operate so that its lower run moves in the same direction as the upper run of the main conveyor belt.

1 2. Apparatus according to claim 1 substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.