IE922882A1 - A continuous baking process - Google Patents

Abstract

A baking process using a production plant (1) involves 5 final proving of the dough at a prover (7) and transferral of the proven dough in a U -shaped conveyor circuit (9) through seeding and splitting stations before delivery to an oven (13). Parameters of the final prover (7) and of the oven (13) are controlled in a manner which accounts 10 for the distance between the two stations in a manner 'which minimises the reject rate. De-panning at a station (14) takes place within 45 seconds of outfeed from the oven (13). Seeding of the dough products at the station (10) ensures that there is minimum wastage of the seed and 15 the appearance of the product is improved considerably.

Description

dough products generally, including hamburger buns, bread rolls, and bread pans.

Such a process is described in British Patent 5 Specification No. GB 2,210,768 (Spooner). One aspect of this process and other processes presently available is that there is little versatility because there is a small number of different types of dough products which may be produced using the process. It is thus, an object of the invention to provide a process which is versatile for maximum utilisation of equipment.

Another object of the invention is to provide a process which improves throughput by reducing the reject rate. In existing baking processes, the reject rate for the dough products is often caused by difficulty in control of the final prover and the oven. This is because there are a large number of parameters which must be controlled for both the prover and the oven as baking in the oven is carried out immediately after proving.

Finally, another object of the invention is that the process provides a good aesthetic appearance of the final product to help sale of the product.

According to the invention, there is provided a continuous baking process comprising the steps of :25 mixing of the ingredients to produce dough; rolling, shaping, panning and carrying out initial proving of ~| OPEN TO PUSU ' ··''· ’ SECTION 26 AND SOU- 23 /“73 of ./5. b I.iNL No r 92288? - 2 shaking the panned dough; carrying out final proving of the dough for a time duration of 46-50 minutes at 80% - 85% humidity, and at a temperature of 40°C to 43°C at a final proving station. seeding the dough at a station spaced-apart from the final proving station; splitting the upper surface of the proved and seeded dough; baking the dough in an oven for a time period in the range of 10.5 - 12.5 mins, and at a temperature in the range of 195-205°C; de-panning the baked bread and subsequently cleaning and returning the cleaned pans to a roll station; cooling the bread; and packing the bread.

Preferably, the final proven dough is transferred in a Ushaped conveyor circuit from the outfeed of the final proving station through a seeding station, through a splitting station and into the oven.

Ideally, the dough is loaded into the oven by a mobile feeding station forming part of the U-shaped conveyor circuit. r 922882 - 3 In one embodiment, the mobile feeding station comprises a pair of guides mounted on a chain drive for urging of pans from a conveyor into the oven.

Preferably, the the U-shaped conveyor circuit comprises a 5 tilt bar mounted between parallel conveyor members to ensure smooth delivery of a pan unto the conveyor, the tilt bar being automatically controlled in synchronism with outfeed equipment of the final proving station.

In another embodiment, temperature and humidity of the 10 final prover, and temperature of the oven is modulated continuously.

Preferably, the upper surface of the dough is split by a fine jet of water.

In a further embodiment, de-panning takes place within 45 15 secs of the baked dough being fed out from the oven.

Ideally, the baked dough is cooled in a pair of spiral coolers . - 4 The invention will be more clearly understood from the following description of some preferred embodiments thereof, given by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:Fig. 1 is an overview schematic diagram showing a plant for the carrying out of a continuous baking process of the invention; Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a prover outfeed station; Fig 3(a) and 3(b) are front views showing the prover outfeed station in more detail; Fig. 4 is a perspective view from above showing an oven feeding unit; and Fig. 5 is a more detailed side view of the oven feed unit.

Referring to the drawings, and initially to Fig. 1 there is shown a production plant 1 for the continuous baking of dough products. The plant 1 comprises a dough mixer 2 for the mixing of flour, salt, yeast, water, vegetable fat and bread improver products. The dough hopper 3 delivers the mixed dough to a roll station 4. The roll station 4 carries out the operations of cutting the dough to size, shaping the dough, delivering it to empty pans and also carrying out initial proving of the dough. The empty pans are delivered from a return conveyor 16.

After the roll station 4 the plant 1 comprises a dust collector 5 for collection of flour dust. The dust collector 5 comprises a combination of a dust blower and a vacuum unit. A pan shaker unit 6 is connected beyond the dust collector 5 and this is constructed to shake the pans in such a way that the dough is centred at the various locations in the pans.

A conveyor connects the pan shaker 6 with a final prover 7. The prover 7 has an outfeed 8 which is mounted in a Ushaped intermediate conveyor circuit 9 which is 13.5 meters in length. The conveyor circuit 9 comprises the prover outfeed 8, a seeding station 10, a splitting station 11 and an oven feeding unit 12. The prover outfeed 8 is described in more detail below. The seeding station 10 delivers seed to the top of the dough and the splitting station 11 comprises a water splitter for delivery of a very fine jet of water to cut the top surface of the dough. The over feeding unit 12 is described in more detail below.

The oven 13 is of the continuous type having a recirculation unit for the heated air. Control of the final prover 7 and of the oven 13 is carried out by a central processor which modulates humidity and temperature of the final prover 7 and temperature of the oven 13 in a continuous manner, and thus, the inaccuracies associated with on/off switching are avoided. Immediately beyond the outfeed of the oven there is a de-panner 14 which delivers empty pans to a pan cleaning station 15 in the return conveyor 16. The baked dough product is delivered by a conveyor to a pair of spiral coolers 17 which deliver the baked and cooled dough product to a packing machine 18.

The bakery production plant 1 is operated to carry out a continuous baking process. This process involves control of the final prover 7 so that the dough is within the prover for a time period of forty-six to fifty minutes at a relative humidity of 80% to 85%, and at a temperature of - 6 40°C to 43°C. The manner in which the dough is delivered from the final prover 7 to the conveyor circuit 9 is shown in detail in Fig. 2, 3(a) and 3(b). At the outlet of the final prover 7 the pans are mounted on parallel bars 30 and are pushed out by a push bar 31. On being pushed out, the pans are delivered to the top of a pair of metal conveyors 32, operation of which is synchronised by controller with operation of the push bar 31 and of the final prover generally. A very important aspect of the prover outfeed is operation of control devices 33 which comprise a tilt bar 35 to assist in delivery of a pan 34 onto the conveyors 32. When the push bar 31 pushes a pan 34 outwardly towards the conveyors 32, the tilt bar 35 is inclined in the clockwise direction on a bearing 39 controlled by a rod 37, activated by a pneumatic cylinder 38. Activation of the cylinder 38 is caused by sensing of the pan 34 by a photodetector 39. As shown in Fig. 3(b) the tilt bar 35 ensures that the leading edge of the pan 34 does not get caught between the two conveyors 32 and is delivered smoothly onto the conveyors. This is extremely important because it prevents disruption of the flow of the dough products at this important stage of the baking process .

By feeding the dough after outfeeding from the final prover 7, it has been found that there is a larger surface area for the seed to be located and it has been found that the product at this stage is particularly receptive to the seed and there is very little wastage. By splitting the upper surface of the product using a water splitter, the splitting operation is much more accurate and hygienic. The combination of the seeding and splitting at the stations 10 and 11 at this stage leads to a considerably improved aesthetic appearance of the end product and also reduces the discard rate. - 7 Because the dough travels on the circuit 9 between the final prover 7 and the oven 13, control of parameters in either of these two devices does not affect parameters in the other device as much as it has heretofore. Delivery of the dough after splitting to the oven 13 is carried out by the oven feeding unit 12, which is shown in more detail in Figs. 4 and 5. The feeding unit 12 comprises a mobile frame 40 mounted on wheels 41. There is a pair of conveyors 42 which form the end of the conveyor circuit 9. A pair of guides 43 are mounted in mutually opposed directions about a chain drive 44. The guides 43 are mounted directly on the chain and run in the direction shown by the arrow A in Fig. 5. In the lower position the guides 43 urges a pan 34 in the direction indicated by the arrow B unto the oven conveyor. It will be appreciated that by simple control of the chain drive 44, operation of the guides 4 3 may be easily synchronised with the oven conveyor and smooth delivery of pans from the circuit 9 into the oven 13 is ensured. Another important aspect of the invention is the fact that the feeding unit 12 is mobile and thus, where small batches of other types of dough products such as soda bread are to be baked in the oven 13, they may be manually loaded after removal of the feeding unit 12. The conveyors 42 are driven by a motor 45, which is synchronised by a controller with a motor driving the chain drive 44.

The dough is baked in the oven 13 for a time period in the range of 10.5 - 12.5 mins at a temperature in the range of 195-205°C, depending on the nature of the dough product. It has been found that these parameters are particularly suitable in combination with the parameters for the final prover 7 and construction of the conveyor circuit 9 to ensure that any deviations from these parameters has a minimum effect on the quality of the product. - 8 Another important aspect of the invention is the proximity of the de-panning station 14 to the outfeed from the oven 13. The distance is less than 2 m and thus, will suitable control of the conveyor speed the dough product is depanned within 45 seconds of being delivered from the oven 13. This time period is preferably of the order of 30 secs. The pans are cleaned at the cleaning station 15 by a vacuum unit and are subsequently delivered by the conveyor 16 back to the roll station 4. It has been found that cooling the dough products at ambient temperature in a pair of spiral coolers 17 is particularly efficient. Finally, the process involves packaging of the product at the station 18.

It will be appreciated that the invention provides a baking process which operates with little or no disruption in conveying of the pans between the various stations, and in particular between the final prover 7 and the oven 13. It will also be appreciated that the configuration of the stations 7, 8, 10, 11, 12 and 13 leads to a large degree of control of the process. For example, a deviation from at the prover 7 should not in the the correct temperature adversely affect baking oven 13 unless the deviation is particularly large.

The invention is not limited to the hereinbefore described, but may be varied in and detail.

Claims (3)

CLAIMS.

1. A continuous baking process comprising the steps of :mixing of the ingredients to produce dough;

2. 5 rolling, shaping, panning and carrying out initial proving of the mixed dough; shaking the panned dough; carrying out final proving of the dough for a time duration of 46-50 minutes at 80% - 85%

3. 10 humidity, and at a temperature of 40°C to 43°C at a final proving station; seeding the dough at a station spaced-apart from the final proving station; splitting the upper surface of the proved and 15 seeded dough; baking the dough in an oven for a time period in the range of 10.5 - 12.5 mins, and at a temperature in the range of 195-205°C; de-panning the baked bread and subsequently 20 cleaning and returning the cleaned pans to a roll station; cooling the bread; and packing the bread. - 10 A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the final proven dough is transferred in a U-shaped conveyor circuit from the outfeed of the final proving station through a seeding station, through a splitting station and into the oven. A process as claimed in claim 2, wherein the dough is loaded into the oven by a mobile feeding station forming part of the U-shaped conveyor circuit. A process as claimed in claim 3, wherein the mobile feeding station comprises a pair of guides mounted on a chain drive for urging of pans from a conveyor into the oven. A process as claimed in any of claims 2 to 4, wherein the U-shaped conveyor circuit comprises a tilt bar mounted between parallel conveyor members to ensure smooth delivery of a pan unto the conveyor, the tilt bar being automatically controlled in synchronism with outfeed equipment of the final proving station. A process as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein temperature and humidity of the final prover, and temperature of the oven is modulated continuously. A process as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein the upper surface of the dough is split by a fine jet of water. A process as claimed in any proceeding claim, wherein de-panning takes place within 45 secs of the baked dough being fed out from the oven. - 11 10. A process as claimed in any proceeding claim wherein, the baked dough is cooled in a pair of spiral coolers . A process substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in accompanying drawings .