GB2162624A - Brine spray for frozen confection machine - Google Patents

Abstract

A machine 10 for making frozen confections comprises a plurality of mould bars 26, each having a plurality of moulds 28 for containing confection material opposite ends of the mould bars 26 are connected to chains 20 driven in a closed orbit having horizontal upper and lower reaches. When the mould bars traverse the upper reach the moulds 28 are filled with confection material, sprayed with cold brine adjacent their openings to freeze the confection material, provided with a stick and defrosted to remove a solidified confection. The spray is such that the cold brine clings to and runs down the outer surface of the moulds. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Brine spray for frozen confection machine This invention relates to freezing liquids confined in a container and more particularly to freezing by directing a stream of refrigerated liquid to the exterior surface of the container.

Prior art, relevant to the subject matter of the present invention, includes the U.S. Patent Nos.

4335583, 4352830, 4324108 and the references cited therein.

The cavity of a container for a freezable confection material takes the general configuration of an elongate truncated pyramid integral with a mould bar carrying several cavities of such a configuration. The base of each cavity is attached to the mould bar and defines an opening through which the confection material is dispensed. Accordingly, the cross-sectional area, as defined by planes normal to the height of the cavity is greatest at the mouth of each cavity and it follows that the quantity or mass of confection material near the mouth is greater. Freezing of confection material confined in each cavity may be achieved by immersion or spraying refrigerated liquid against the outer surface of the cavities. Both approaches are conventional in the art.

Whatever freezing approach is use, it is desirable to achieve complete solidification at a rate which is proportional to a cross-sectional area of the cavity.

In other words, the freezing rate at the mouth of the cavity, the region having the greatest mass or quantity of confection material, should ideally be greater than the rate at the tip of the cavity. While achieving heat transfer conditions to establish a differential rate of freezing may be impractical and possibly deviating from a theoretical ideal in commercial practice, the components comprising the disclosed system are selected and designed to achieve, to a maximum degree ideal heat transfer conditions.

Accordingly, it is a principal feature of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for freezing a liquid food product contained in a mould or cavity having an opening for receiving a measured quantity of the product, means for distributing a refrigerated liquid under pressure through nozzles having a flow area to provide a low velocity stream which impinges the exterior of the moulds or cavities adjacent the opening and flow, by gravity, along the surface of the cavity.

The rate at which heat is transferred to refrigerated liquid diminishes as it flows from the opening to the lower boundary wall of the cavity or mould.

Further in accordance with the present invention the refrigerated liquid is distributed, from a manifold, to a series of regularly spaced upwardly extending risers provided with distributing nozzles directing low velocity streams of refrigerated liquid against the upper end of a depending elongate tapering mould or cavity formed so that its crosssectional area, as projected in a plane normal to its axis of symmetry, diminishes towards its bottom or lower boundary wall. Directing the refrigerated liquid against the larger area of the cavity enhances the rate at which heat is transferred from the liquid confection material as the temperature difference is greatest at that area.

Further in accordance with the present invention misting of regrigerated liquid, as a result of projecting a low velocity stream against the surface of the mould or cavity, is obviated. The prior art, incorporated by reference herein, projects high velocity streams of refrigerated liquid between the cavities and directly against the mould bar carrying the moulds or cavities. On encountering the flat surface of the mould bar, the streams dissipate into droplets being, in part dispersed to the exterior of the depending moulds carried by the mould bars. The droplets accumulated on the exterior moulds effect freezing or solidification of the confection material contained therein. In addition to creating a mist or fog resulting from the dissipation of the high velocity absorbed by the refrigerated liquid in its excursion to the surface of the moulds.

The invention is illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional elevation of a confection making machine incorporating a freezing method and apparatus constructed in accordance with the present invention, Figure 2 is a fragmentary enlarged elevation illustrating the relationship of the refrigerated fluid dispensing risers and the moulds or cavities containing the freezable confection material.

Figure 3 is a section taken substantially along the line 3-3 of Figure 2, Figure 4 is a fragmentary plan, as viewed along the line 4-4 of Figure 1, and Figure 5 is an exploded perspective of nozzles for distributing the refrigerated liquid.

The description of the machine 10 as shown in Figure 1 will be confined to that which is necessary for an understanding of the present invention. Although the subject matter of the present invention will be described in the environment of the machine shown in Figure 1 it is to be appreciated that it can be used in any environment where a refrigerated liquid may be used to effect freezing of a product contained in a mould or cavity. The frozen confection machine 10 has mounted, on a suitable supporting structure (not shown), sprockets 12 and 14 secured on longitudinally spaced transversely extending shafts 16 and 18 and the sprockets drive the chains 20 in a closed path including an upper reach 22 and a lower reach 24. The chains carry, at regularly spaced intervals, transversely extending mould bars 26 each of which carry a plurality of mould or cavities 28.

Mounted below and extending substantially for the entire length of the machine is a trough structure 30 serving to collect and distribute, by means of a pump 32, brine at an elevated temperature to a series of manifolds 34 to effect defrosting of the moulds to allow removal of a completed confection C therefrom. In addition, mould bars, which may have inadvertently retained one or more confections in their moulds, are inverted by inverting mechanism 36 being operative to turn the mould bar 180 so that the entry mouths of the associated cavities face downwardly. Thereafter a cleaning fluid of any suitable composition is pumped, by a pump 38, through spray bars 40 directing high velocity jets of the cleaning liquid to the cavities.The washed-out confection material is collected in a depressed portion 42 of the trough structure 30 and inverted mould bars retained in their inverted position. The cavities are thereafter subjected to a sanitizing liquid issuing from the spray bars 44.

The mould bars are again inverted, by an inverting mechanism 46 similar in construction and mode of operation to the inverting mechanism 36, to re-establish the orientation whereby the mouth of each cavity faces upwardly.

As successive mould bars 26 progress along the upper reach 22, a conventional filling or dispensing mechanism 48 discharges a measured quantity of confection material into each cavity of a mould bar. It should be observed that the spacing between the respective mould bars 26 in traversing the upper reach 22 is substantially closer than the lower return reach 24 and in fact they are positioned in close proximity to each other (Figure 2).

The bars may be formed with a ledge, such as ledge 50, to produce, in effect, a solid wall serving to diminish the tendency of brine to infiltrate the respective cavities 28 and thus obviate or diminish the possibility of contamination.

A brine collecting tank 52 extends beneath and for substantially the entire length of the upper reach 22 and it has disposed therein a plurality of interconnected tubes 54 constituting a manifold structure to which cold brine from a refrigerating unit is introduced by a conduit 56 and returned to the refrigerating unit by a suction pipe (not shown) connected to a channel 58 where the brine collects.

Brine supplied to the tubes 54 is supplied to a plurality of risers 60 that distribute or project cold brine against the outer surface of the cavities 28 as they progress along the upper reach 22 of the chain 20.

As a mould bar progresss from the dispensing mechanism 48, in the direction of the arrow R, that is, right to left as viewed in Figure 1, the confection material becomes progressively solidified. Successive mould bars are momentarily positioned below a stick inserting mechanism 62. Each cavity containing partially solidified confection material is supplied with the stick 64 which is partially embedded in the confection material and has a projecting portion providing a handle to facilitate consumption.

The successive mould bars 26, with sticks inserted in each cavity 28, progress toward an extraction station 66 operating, in conjunction with the defrosting liquid suppied to the manifolds 34, to concurrently remove an entire row of frozen confection C from the mould and transport them to a bagging mechanism.

In accordance with a feature of the present invention means are provided for distributing refrigerated brine by defining a plurality of low velocity streams directed to the exterior surface of the cavities 28 at an area near of adjacent the mould bars 26, since that is the area where the greatest quantity of confection material resides. Although the preferred configuration of the various moulds 28 are elongate tapering bodies it is to be appreciated that moulds of various configurations may be used and the brine spraying system of the present invention can be rearranged to direct the stream of brine to make initial contact with that area of the mould having the greatest mass of freezable material.

Figures 2 and 4 illustrate a preferred approach for distributing refrigerated liquid to the upper portion of the moulds or cavities 28. As mentioned above, refrigerated brine is supplied to the tubes 54 by a supply line 56. Refrigerated liquid from the tubes 54 enters risers 60, which are rectangular conduits, and is discharged laterally by relatively large flow area nozzles formed in a cap 68 releasably connected to the risers 60 by fasteners 70. The directional flow of the refrigerated liquid is illustrated by the vectors 72 shown in elevation and plan in Figures 2 and 4 respectively.

Figure 5 shows further details of the risers 60 and the cap 68 associated therewith. The risers are provided with the passageway 74 for conducting brine from the tubes 54 upwardly toward the cap 68. The cap 68 is undercut to form a central partition 76 and generally semicircular bosses 78. In this way refrigerated fluid from the passageway 74 is divided into two streams each of which is further divided into two streams to produce a flow pattern indicated by the vectors 72 in Figure 4.

As the mould bars 26 are transported by the chains 20 in the direction R the cavities 28 of each mould bar encounter, as they progress along the upper reach 22, the streams of refrigerated fluid as represented by the vectors 72 and, as will be evident from inspection of Figure 4, all areas of the exterior surfaces of the moulds 28 are wetted by streams of refrigerated liquid. The orientation of the moulds 28, whose major dimension is transverse to the direction of travel, is chosen so that the residence time of refrigerated liquid projected against the exterior surfaces of the moulds 28 is maximized as the individual streams 72 make initial contact with the leading surface 28a and, as the mould is advanced, with the surface 28b. Further movement of the mould crosses the path of another stream of refrigerated liquid which also wets the surface 28b and the trailing surface 28c. As will be realized, in view of the geometry and relationship of the risers 60 with respect to the moulds of the individual mould bars, the four streams of refrigerated liquid discharged by each riser 60 co-operate successively to wet and establish a film of refrigerated liquid on the exterior surface of each individual mould 28 along the upper reach 22 of the chain 20. As mentioned above, the velocity of the individual streams of refrigerated liquid is kept sufficiently low so that the creation of droplets does not occur.

Claims (8)

1. An apparatus for freezing a liquid product contained in a mould having an opening for filling the mould with the liquid comprising a supply of refrigerated liquid, means for distributing the refrigerated liquid, means including the distributing means for directing at least one stream of refrigerated liquid to the exterior surface of the mould, said stream of refrigerated liquid issuing from a nozzle positioned adjacent said mould and impinging the exterior surface of the mould in the region of its opening.

2. The freezing apparatus according to Claim 1 wherein the stream of refrigerated liquid issues from the nozzle at a velocity that substantially disperses the entire stream to a film over the surface of the mould.

3. The freezing apparatus according to Claim 2 wherein the mould is in the form of an elongate truncated tapering body and said opening constitutes the base of said body, said stream of refrigerated fluid being directed to the base of said tapering body such that the entire stream substantially deploys as a layer of liquid covering and flowing over the mould.

4. A mould of freezing a liquid contained in a mould taking the form of an elongate tapering truncated body having a central axis of symmetry, said method comprising the steps of supplying a refrigerated liquid to a nozzle located in close proximity to the base of the mould, establishing and maintaining a continuous stream of refrigerated liquid issuing from the nozzle, directing the stream against the base of the mould to convert substantially the entire stream into a layer of refrigerated liquid covering the exterior of the mould, orientating the mould so that the layer of liquid flows, by gravity, toward the end remote from the base, said refrigerated liquid in flowing from the base to the end remote therefrom withdraws heat from the contained liquid at a rate proportional to the decreasing mass of contained liquid as the refrigerated liquid flows towards the remote end.

5. A method of refrigerating a product in a mould having an inlet mouth through which the mould is filled with the product, the cross-sectional area of the mould decreasing along an axis away from a location of maximum cross- sectional area adjacent an upper end of the mould, the method comprising initially contacting the exterior of the mould around the area of maximum cross-sectional area with a stream or streams of liquid refrigerant at such low velocity that a layer of the liquid refrigerant is formed on the surface of mould and flows downward in the direction of decreasing cross-sectional area of the mould.

6. A method according to Claim 5, wherein the mould inlet mouth is at the location of maximum cross-sectional area, is arranged uppermost and is guarded against entry of refrigerant so as to avoid contamination of the product.

7. A method according to Claim 5 or 6, wherein moulds are arranged in parallel rows and moved relatively past nozzles located between the rows and directing streams of liquid refrigerant at the moulds in several directions.

8. A method and apparatus for refrigerating a product in moulds substantially as described and as shown by the accompanying drawings.