"A Dough Shaping Machine" This invention relates to a dough shaping machine.

Bread, or steamed bread (mantou in Chinese) is made of a dough of flour with added liquid, shortening and leavening agent, such as yeast, baking powder, and the dough is kneaded, cut, shaped, allowed to rise and finally baked. As these manual processes require quite a lot oftime, a machine has been made to make dough, utilizing of two screws in transporting it under pre ssurized condition. But the dough thus made is often short of viscosity because of the heat generated by friction in the making process of the machine, so the bread baked from the dough becomes herod, instead of soft and porous.

This invention supplies a kind of machine which can autotratc-lly SLa-YG dough fol food such as baked bread, steamed bread, etc., at a fast speed and the dough turned out by this machine has an excellent quality.

A preferred embodiment of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a general view of the roller system, the filling system, the left winding system and the right winding system combined together in this invention.

Figure 2 is an explosive perspective of the roller system in this invention.

Figure 3 is a view of the filling system in this invention.

Figure 4 is an explosive perspective of the left winding system in this invention.

Figure 5 is a view of the left winding system combined together in this invention.

Figure 6 is a view of the moving action of the left winding system in this invention.

Figure 7 is an explosive perspective of the right winding system in this invention.

Figure 8 is a view of the moving action of the right winding system in this invention.

Figure 9 is a view of the bar shaping system, the cutting system and the piece shaping system assembled together in this invention.

Figure 10 is an explosive perspective of the bar shaping system in this invention.

Figure 11 is an explosive perspective of the cutting system in this invention.

Figure 12 is a view of the cutting system assembled together in this invention.

Figure 13 is an explosive perspective of the piece shaping system in this invention.

Figure 14 is a view cf the arranging system assem- bled together in this invention.

Figure 15 is a view of the upper frame of the arr2n,Cin,= system assembled together in this invention.

Figure 16 is a view of the lower frame of the arranging system assembled together in this invention.

Figure 17 is a view of the structure of the shaft of the lower frame in this invention.

Figure 18 is a view of the action of the arranging system in this invention.

Preparing dough is usually accomplished by a roller machine, which repeatedly kneads dough to even condition, presses it in the form of a flat narrow band and sends it out to another process unit. This invention receives a band dough previously made, first feeds it to conveying roller 11 showed in figure 1, second to roller system 1, third to filling system 2, fourth to left winding system 3, fifth to right winding system 4 making the band dough into a round bar, sixth to bar shaving system 5, showed in figure 9, seventh to cutting system C, eighth to piece shaping system 7 and finally to arrangin, system 8.

Roller system 1, as figures 1, 2 show, includes conveying roller set 11 for smooth transporting a band dough and two pairs of two rolloers 12, 13 for the band dough to pass through between them pressing it into a thinner band. The space, or the distance, between two pairs of two rollers 12, 13 can be adjusted by the construction described below in order to press the band dough into the thickness needed. The lower rollers are fixed steady on the main frame, but the upper rollers are supported by shaft supporters 14, which can move up and down along the groove rail of the main frame by means of screw holes combined with screw rod 15, which can be turned around by bevel gear set 16 that is to be turned by chain 17 together with chain wheel 18.The chain wheel 18 can be turned around by handle 19, so turning handle 19 can adjust the space between the two pairs of rollers 12, 13.

exit, filling system 2 is positioned behind roller system 1, but can be saved if the bread to be made does not include filling material. This system 2 has motor 21, which turns worm wheel 22 around. Worm wheel 22 then turns worm 23 that is connected with gear wheel 24 at its end and chain 25 moves screw rod 26 and churning bar 27. The filling material put in churning bucket 28 is churned by churning bar 27 preventing the material from sticking together and sealing the exit; when the material is dropped to screw rod 26, it is pushed out by the turning of screw rod 26 and falls on the band dough.

Figures 4, 5 show left winding system 3 including sliding base 31 which moves on the main frame by means of dovetail hole 311 at its bottom. In sliding base 31 are bored bolt holes 312, 313 for bolt 314 to fix com- bining plate 2 in hole 312 and for two adjusting bolts 315 to go through crescent hole 321 and then to screw in two holes 313 so that the angle between combining plate 32 and sliding base 31 may be adjusted.

Sliding base 31 also has two vertical rails 316 for sliding plate 33 to slide along up and down; sliding plate has screw hole 331 for screw rod 332 to screw in, whose end is connected with bevel gear 333 engaging with bevel gear 335 set at the end of handle 334 for adjusting. Screw 332 is restricted to turn through lid 336 which is set on the top end of rail 316 with bolt 337 se that sliding plate 33 cannot go up beyond lid 336. Therefore, turning handle 334 can control sliding up or down of sliding plate 35, which has bolt holes 338 for bolts 341 to lock supporting base 34 on.

0cm Dining plate 32 has long are 332 protruding out to the right side, and watered long roller 323 is set between the right end of lon arm 322 and the left end of combining plate ,; tapered long roller 323 is turned around anticlockwise as Ine arrow in figure 4 shows by belt 325 pulled by motor 324. adhered long rcller 7 has straight lengthwise grooves on its surface, and is hung under sliding base 31 keeping 2mm space from the conveyer belt carrying the band dough and 10-15 degree angle toward the moving direction of the belt.

Auxiliary base 34 is locked with sliding plate 33 with bolts 341, and has tapered short roller 343 which is turned by motor 342; tapered short roller 343 is usually located at the right side of long roller 323 of combined plate 32, turning in the same direction as long roller 323 does. Short roller 343 also has straight grooves on its surface: at the left front of this roller 343 there is 2 pressing bar 344 which can tilt down with its front tip cownwc,r: by means of bolt 345 functioning as a fulcrum and spring 346 pulling the back end of the bar 344 in order that the bar 344 may press own on tne surface of the cend dough moving on and turn around naturally by the moving of the band dough; the pressure vith which te bar 344 is pressed down depends on the pulling force of spring 346, but should not be too strong to break the dough.

Besides, several micro switches 347 are attached with auxiliary base 34, and under each micro switch 347 stretches down a touching needle to touch the dough in order to activate the switches 347 which start a special motor (not showed on the figures) to move chain 351 that turns around chain wheel 352 connected with adjusting handle 35.

Adjusting handle 35 has its end cut with thread 353 that can engages with screw hole 317 of sliding base 31, so the handle is kept solid with the main frame and can be turned around. Consequently turning adjusting handle 35 can move sliding be 31 and the position of long roller 323 can be accordingly changed.

Then as figure 6 shows, long roller 323 is kept 2mm higher than the conveyer belt and the band dough passed through between rollers 12, 13 (as figure 12 shows) is supposed to have the thickness of more than 2mm. As the left front end of the band dough moving on the conveyer belt comes to touch roller 323, the band dough can be rolled up and then touches roller 343 whose turning can force the rolled-up band dough to roll downward; these actions make up the movement of its left winding of the band dough. At the moment the left front end of the dough is to be rolled upward by roller 323, pressing bar 344 is useful in preventing the dough from sticking on roller 323, pushing it down.

Besides, in order to get the band dough rolled and wound up to a desired density, changing the angle between roller 323 and the conveyer belt and the height of roller 343 can attain the purpose. Changing the width of the band dough can be effected by changing the position of sliding base 31 and adjusting roller 323 to the most proper position by means of turning adjusting handle 35.

exit, right winding system t is set behind left winding system to correct the moving direction of the rolled and wound dough (now bar-shaped) that is continously moving on the conveyer belt into a straight line; as figure shows, right winding system includes rollers 41, 42 which have the same lengthwise grooves on their surfaces; both ends of rollers 41, 42 are fixed in supporters 43, 44 so that rollers 41, 42 can revolve freely and supporters 43, 44 are locked on the main frame of this machine; as roller 42 is located about 2mm higher than the conveyer belt and just at the right front of left winding system 3, this system 4 can correct the moving-to-right-side direction of the bar dough coming out of left winding system, as figure 8 shows.

Now, figure 9 shows bar shaping system 5, cutting system 6 and piece shaping system 7. The rolled and wound dough coming out of left and right winding sys tems 3, 4 becomes a round bar and is to be sent into this bar shaping system 7 to give it a shape wanted.

Bar shaping system includes, as figures 9, 10 show, wheels 51, 52, 53 and wheel 51 is positioned at the upper side and wheels 52, 53 at the lower right and left sides in order to place their round sides close together to form an empty space through which the bar dough can pass.

Wheel 51 is fixed on sliding plate 55, which is connected with screw rod 56 and bevel gear set 57 is fixed at the top end of screw rod 56; bevel gear set 57 is to be turned by revolving handle 58 so when screw rod 56 gets turned sliding plate 55 can be moved up or down and then the height of wheel 51 can be adjusted accordingly. meanwhile, sliding plate 55 depend, for its movement, on rails 5 set on the main frame.

Fach of wheels 51, 52, 55 has one sorsping plate 50 which is located at the rear side of the surface of wheels 51, 52, 53 touching the dough so as to prevent it from sticking on them. The bar dough will become nearly square shaped after it passes through pressed by these wheels 51, 52, 53.

Next, figures 9, 11, 12 show cutting system 6 set behind bar shaping system 5; cutting system 6-includes two disks 61, 62, around whose circular edges are cut several notches for inserting blades 63 with their both ends in the notches; at each center of disks 61, 62 is bored shaft hole for shaft 64 to penetrate thr ough and disk 62 is locked on the shaft 64 with a fixing bolt 60; besides, disk 61 has a protruding tube with an outside thread for nut 612 to screw with, and nut 612 has a small hole for the small-diameter end of the shaft 64 to go through so that disk 61 is able to be drawn to the left side by nut 612 when shaft 64 is turned around, causing the distance between disks 61 and 62 to be lengthened to steady blades 63; in addi tion, blades 63 can also be taken off for changing by means of nut 612.

In addition, between two disks 61, 62 there is fixing ring 65 fixed on shaft 64 with ball bearing 66, and on the outside surface of fixing ring 65 are welded two U-shaped arms with which one column 68 is connected separately.

Gear wheel 69 is set on shaft 64 at the side of disk 62, and when disk 62 is turned, not only shaft 64 is turned around but also disks 61, 62 are turned synchronously at the same time so that blades 63 set between disks 61, 62 can cut the bar dough into small pieces. In order to prevent the dough from adhering to the blades, two columns 68 set near the inside of blades 63 can push down the dough niece cut if it should adhere to the blades.

Piece shaping system 7 in figures , 13 is located behind cutting system 6. every piece of the dough coming out of cutting system 6 may look like irregu larly shale owing to cutting, so it should be shaped again by piece shaping system 7 to give it a good re gular shape for baking.Piece shaping system 7 includes table 71 on which are set two crosswise shaft tube 72 combined with shaft 73 by means of ball bearings; gear wheel 74 set on shaft 73 transits revolving to bevel gear set 75 on the end of shaft 73, and roller 76 can be turned around, as it is connected with the same shaft of one of the bevel gear set 75; besides, another roller 77 is to be turned around in the same direction as roller 76 by transmission of gear wheels; roller 77 is combined with sliding base 79 by means of screw rod 7, and sliding base 79 that can be adjusted by adjusting bolt 701 moves along rail 7D so that tie distance between roller 76 and roller 77 can be changed.

The outside surface of rollers 76, 77 can be designed to have an form, such as arcked, etc., in accordance with the shape of the bread wanted. And scraping plate 702 is fixed at the rear side of rollers 76, 77 to scrape a dough piece off the rollers if it should adhere to them. Then dough pieces get shaped to the form previously designed coming out of the piece shaping system 7 and are carried on the conveyer belt and transported to arranging system 8 passing tilted section 703 of the conveyer belt.

Figure 14 shows arranging system 8, which includes upper frame 81 at the upper side and lower frame 82 at the lower side.

Upper frame 81 shown in figure 15 includes conveyer belt 311 on which crosswise rods 812 are set at an equal distance between to allow one plate 813 to be put between two crosswise rods 812; conveyer belt 811 is moved by snaft 815; which is turned by motor 814 that is controlled by an electric circuit so that conveyer belt may be moved on for a certain distance at one tle. t the bottom of upper frame 81 are set four sliding whee's 816, which car, mDve or. rail 321 of lower frame 82.

Tower frame 82 shown in figure 16 has two rails 821 for sliding wheels 816 to lie and slide on crosswise; at the four corners of lower frame 82 are set limiting protrusions 822 which having spring 823 which acts as a buffer to alleviate the bumping shock of upper frame 81 when the frame 81 moves crosswise.

Besides, there is direction-changing bar 824 set on lower frame 82, and micro switches 817 set at the lower part of upper frame 81 symmetrically s figure 15 shows (only one switch is drawn on the figure).

When upper frame 81 moving crosswise to the right or left touches micro switch 817, this switch makes motor 814 start to turn, so conveyer belt 811 is to be moved on for 2 certain distance at one time.

Figure 17 shows that shaft 825 is cut with a leftwinding thread and a right-winding thread blended together and there is a round groove at the starting point and the ending point of both threads: socket 826 is combined with shaft d25, engaging with one of the thread, and bolted at the bottom of upper frame 82 with four bolt holes 827. Besides, in the socket is bored screw hole 828 for cap 829 to match in, and a key protruding out of the bottom of cap 829 can engage with the right or left thread of shaft 825 so that socket 826 can be moved by either of both threads when shaft 825 is turned around, and when the socket reaches the ending point of the thread, socket 826 begins to move in the opposite direction by means of the round groove set at the ending point, being led by the opposite thread i.e. right to left or left to right.

Figure 18 shows that pieces of doughs are finally carried on conveyer belt 811 of upper frame 81 and are dropped one by one on plate 813 which is automatically moved crosswise at first and ten to the front: therefore, dough pieces are regularly put on the plate 813, which is then to be carried away for baking when it becomes full.

As described above, this invention, a dough shaping machine can automatically treat a band dough shaping it into small pieces of dough ready for baking by feeding it orderly into roller system 1, filling system 2, left winding system 3, right winding system 4, bar shaping system 5, cutting system 6, piece shaping system 7 and arranging system. Pieces of dough are made passing through rolling, winding, cutting and shaping processes of this machine, so they become bread of excellent cuality, soft and porous as sponge after being baked. That quality can not only satisfy bakeries but consumers as well.