GB632988A - Improvements in and relating to the manufacture of chocolate in divided form - Google Patents

Abstract

632,988. Chocolate-moulding machines. SHUTTLEWORTH & CO., Ltd., W. S., STANCLIFFE, G. B., and THOMAS, A. March 22, 1946, No. 8953. [Class 87 (ii)] Chocolate divided into small pieces, particularly for use as couverture chocolate, is produced by heating chocolate to a fluid state in a pan 1 having a stirrer 1a driven by a motor 2, feeding it, e.g. by a worm also driven by the motor 2, through a pipe 4 to a hopper 5 from which it passes in one or more streams onto a conveyer 11, the streams when cooled sufficiently being broken into short lengths. The worm, pipe 4 and hopper 5 have jackets 6, 7 through which hot water is circulated. A pipe 41 returns overflow to the pan 1. The chocolate may be sufficiently liquid to flow from the hopper 5 which has a bottom perforated with one or a row of holes to provide one or more streams. Alternatively the chocolate may viscous and extruded from the hopper by a piston or a worm 44, Fig. 13. This reduces or eliminates the cooling required. The hopper 5 may have a stirrer and a vibrator and its height above the conveyer may be adjustable. It is readily detachable from the rest of the apparatus for cleaning. The hopper bottom may be readily removable, e.g. by sliding in guides on the hopper, so as to be replaceable by a different one. Instead of thin streams, a broad stream may be fed from the hopper onto the conveyor, this broad stream being later subdivided by fixed knives 42, Fig. 12, or freely rotating disc knives. The conveyer belt (of fabric coated with plastic) may run through a long cooling chamber 25 in which a cold draught is maintained for cooling purposes. The streams of chocolate are broken by being bent by a roller 30a beyond the end of the conveyer against a knife edge 29. Instead of a roller a sloping plate may be used. Alternatively, reciprocating breaker 32, Fig. 8, may be used, set just beyond the knife edge 29 and raised and allowed to drop suddenly by a double cam 38 rotated by gears 36, 37. A roller 31 may be provided to hold down the strips of chocolate just before the knife edge 29. In a modification, a rotating cutter engages the strips of chocolate and cuts them sufficiently deeply to ensure that they will break up in leaving the conveyer or on subsequent handling. After delivering the chocolate to the breaker the return part of the conveyer may pass round an idler roller and then pass forward beyond the breaker, to feed broken chocolate, dropping down a chute from the breaker, to a receptacle. The conveyer may slope upwardly to the breaker. Tension adjusting means 16 for the conveyer 12 are provided. Instead of a belt conveyer, a cylindrical drum may be used.