JP2024022765A - Food dough rolling device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a food dough rolling device capable of continuously performing round forming on a dough ball sent from a dividing device even when the dough is highly hydrated dough in which a large amount of water is added to grain flour such as wheat flour and a mixture is kneaded.

SOLUTION: A food dough rolling device receives a dough ball and performs round forming on the dough ball while conveying and discharging the same, the food dough rolling device comprising a first conveying belt 3 and a second conveying belt 4 in which a rotating shaft rotates by being stretched between a pair of conveying rolls provided so as to be inclined with respect to the horizontal direction, a rolling face 30 of the first conveying belt 3 and a rolling face 40 of the second conveying belt 4 being adjacent to each other and forming a running groove 20 of a dough ball 6 in a V-shaped cross section, and the conveying belt 3 rotating in a direction of conveying the dough ball 6 received within the running groove 20 toward a discharge section, while the second conveying belt 4 rotating in an opposite direction to the first conveying belt 3 at a peripheral speed slower than that of the first conveying belt 3.

SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 4

COPYRIGHT: (C)2024,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to a rounding device used in the process of dividing food dough such as kneaded bread dough into predetermined sizes and then rolling the divided balls of irregularly shaped dough.

In the bread making process, after kneading bread dough with a mixer, it is necessary to divide the bread dough into predetermined sizes depending on the size of the baked bread. Divided bread dough (hereinafter referred to as "dough ball") has cut edges remaining, and if it continues to the fermentation process in that state, the carbon dioxide gas generated in the fermentation process will escape from the dough, resulting in the baked bread being damaged. The result will be worse. For this reason, when bread is produced in large quantities at a bread factory, the dough balls continuously discharged from the dividing machine are sent to a rounding device, which rounds the irregularly shaped dough balls after dividing them, and removes the outer skin. need to be formed.

As disclosed in Patent Document 1, this type of rolling device uses a rotating drum to form balls of dough into balls while spirally revolving around the outer circumferential surface of the drum. ing. Furthermore, as disclosed in Patent Document 2, a conveyor belt that is wrapped around a pair of driving rolls and a driven roll is used to convey the dough ball in a certain direction while shaping the dough ball into a round shape. It is also known what it does. In either rounding device, a guide member is arranged along the surface of a moving drum or conveyor belt to form a conveyance path for the dough ball, and the dough ball is dragged by the drum or conveyor belt within the conveyance path. The ball of dough is rolled and formed into a ball.

JP2020-115852 JP2021-122264

In the bread-making process, the hydration rate (ratio of water added to flour such as wheat flour) differs depending on the type of flour used and the type of bread being manufactured.Generally, the hydration rate for bread is 100% wheat flour. It is said to be 60-65%. When the hydration rate is high, the gluten film produced when bread dough is kneaded becomes softer, giving baked bread a more elastic and moist texture, and the flavor tends to last longer. Furthermore, due to global food shortages in recent years, the price of grain flours such as wheat flour has tended to rise, and in this regard, bread dough with a high water content that can reduce the consumption of flour, etc. is attracting attention.

On the other hand, bread dough with a high water content tends to become sticky due to its high water content, and there are problems in that it has poor workability in dividing the dough into predetermined portions and in subsequent rounding. In particular, when bread dough with a high water content is fed into the rounding device disclosed in Patent Document 1 or Patent Document 2, a large amount of dough balls adheres to the guide member as they travel along the conveyance path, resulting in several pieces of dough being rolled up. The guide member needs to be cleaned just by the movement of the balls, and it has been difficult to round a large number of balls of dough in a short period of time using a rounding device.

The present invention was made in view of these problems, and its purpose is to make it possible to make even highly hydrated dough, which is made by adding a large amount of water to flour such as wheat flour and kneading it, when it is sent from a dividing device. To provide a food dough rounding device capable of continuously rounding a rolled dough ball.

That is, the present invention is a food dough rounding device that receives a ball of dough, carries it out while rounding it, and discharges it, the device comprising a pair of conveyor rolls whose rotating shafts are inclined with respect to the horizontal direction. It has a first conveyor belt and a second conveyor belt which are stretched between and rotate and form a rolling surface for balls of dough that is inclined with respect to the horizontal direction, and the rolling surface of these first conveyor belts The rolling surfaces of the second conveyor belt are adjacent to each other to form a running groove for dough balls having a V-shaped cross section, and the first conveyor belt transports the dough balls received in the running groove toward a discharge section. The second conveyor belt rotates in a direction opposite to that of the first conveyor belt, while the second conveyor belt rotates at a peripheral speed slower than that of the first conveyor belt.

According to the present invention, the rolling surfaces of the first conveying belt and the rolling surfaces of the second conveying belt move in opposite directions, and the ball of dough is relative to the rolling surface of each conveying belt. Since the moving speed is fast, even if balls of dough made by adding and kneading a large amount of water into small portions are fed into the running groove, it is difficult to prevent the balls of dough from adhering to the rolling surface. This makes it possible to form balls of dough that are continuously fed from the dividing device into balls.

1 is a front view showing an example of an embodiment of a food dough rounding device to which the present invention is applied. FIG. 2 is a plan view of the food dough rounding device shown in FIG. 1; FIG. 2 is a left side view of the food dough rounding device shown in FIG. 1; 2 is a sectional view taken along the line IV-IV in FIG. 1. FIG.

Hereinafter, embodiments of a food dough rounding device to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 to 3 show an example of an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a bread dough rolling device. In these figures, the rounding device 1 of the present invention is connected to the subsequent stage of a dividing device D that divides bread dough into dough balls of a predetermined amount. The dividing device D has a hopper 10 that receives a large amount of kneaded bread dough. After the bread dough is introduced from the hopper 10 into a cylinder 11 of a predetermined volume, it is pushed out from the cylinder 11 by a piston 12 that reciprocates within the cylinder 11, and is divided into dough balls of a predetermined amount. The balls of dough pushed out from the cylinder 11 fall onto the conveyor belt 13, and are conveyed by the conveyor belt 13 to the rounding device 1 connected to the subsequent stage.

The rounding device 1 receives balls of dough discharged one after another from the dividing device D, performs a rounding process while linearly conveying these balls of dough, and discharges them for the next process. This rounding device 1 has a belt conveying unit 2 that performs rounding while linearly conveying a dough ball. A running groove 20 having a substantially V-shaped cross section is provided in the belt conveying unit 2 along the longitudinal direction of the belt conveying unit 2, and the conveyor belt 13 of the dividing device D moves the dough balls into the running groove 20. Drop it at one end. The ball of dough received in the running groove 20 moves in the direction of the arrow X (see FIGS. 1 and 2) within the running groove 20, and is discharged from the other end of the belt conveying unit 2 to the next process. That is, one end of the belt conveying unit 2 on the side of the dividing device D serves as a dough ball receiving section, and the other end on the opposite side serves as a dough ball discharge section.

The belt conveyance unit 2 is composed of a first conveyance belt 3 and a second conveyance belt 4 which are provided adjacent to each other. Each of these conveyor belts 3 and 4 has an endless shape, and each conveyor belt 3 and 4 is wound around a pair of conveyor rolls (not shown), and rolls on rolling surfaces 30 and 40 that the balls of dough come into contact with. is forming. In order to suppress the adhesion of balls of dough to the first conveyor belt 3 and the second conveyor belt 4, countless fine irregularities are formed on the surfaces of these conveyor belts 3 and 4 by embossing, and to prevent the balls of dough from peeling off. It has a coating that enhances its properties.

A pair of transport rolls around which each transport belt 3, 4 is stretched is rotatably held relative to the device frame 5, and the interval between the pair of transport rolls can be finely adjusted by an adjustment mechanism (not shown). Thereby, the tension acting on each conveyor belt 3, 4 can be adjusted. Furthermore, the rotational output of the motor is transmitted to one of the pair of transport rolls, thereby causing the first transport belt 3 and the second transport belt 4 to circulate endlessly.

The rotation axis of the pair of conveyor rolls around which the first conveyor belt 3 is stretched is inclined with respect to the vertical direction, and as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the dough balls 6 on the first conveyor belt 3 are The rolling surface 30 is obliquely inclined at a predetermined angle α. Further, the rotational axis direction of the pair of conveyor rolls around which the second conveyor belt 4 is wound is inclined with respect to the vertical direction, and the rolling surface 40 of the balls of dough 6 on the second conveyor belt 4 is at a predetermined angle β. It is slanted diagonally. As a result, the rolling surface 30 of the first conveyor belt 3 and the rolling surface 40 of the second conveyor belt 4 form a running groove 20 having a substantially V-shaped cross section, and the rolling groove 20 is received from the dividing device D into the rounding device 1. The dough ball 6 travels through the deepest part of the traveling groove 20 from the receiving section to the discharging section.

The rotation direction of the first conveyor belt 3 is set in the direction (X direction) in which the rolling surface 30 of the first conveyor belt 3 conveys the dough balls 6 received in the running groove 20 toward the discharge section. There is. On the other hand, the rotational direction of the second conveyor belt 4 is set such that the rolling surface 40 of the second conveyor belt 4 returns the balls of dough 6 in the running groove 20 to the receiving section (reverse X direction). ing. That is, the rolling surface 30 of the first conveyor belt 3 and the rolling surface 40 of the second conveyor belt 4, which face each other with the running groove 20 in between, are moving in opposite directions. Further, the circumferential speed of the second conveyor belt 4 is set to be slower than the circumferential speed of the first conveyor belt 3.

The circumferential speed of the first conveyor belt 3 may be arbitrarily adjusted depending on the number of dough balls to be rounded per unit time, the size of the dough balls, the water addition rate to the dough, and the quality of the dough balls being rolled. Can be done. Further, the circumferential speed of the second conveyor belt 4 can be arbitrarily set within a range slower than the circumferential speed of the first conveyor belt 3, and can be adjusted depending on the quality of the rounding of the dough balls 6.

Further, the height of the belt conveying unit 2 on the discharge section side can be adjusted with respect to the height on the receiving section side, and the running groove 20 is normally set to have an upward slope from the receiving section to the discharge section. has been done. That is, the ball of dough 6 does not roll in the running groove 20 under its own weight toward the discharge section, but is configured to move within the running groove 20 toward the discharge section only by the rotation of the first conveyor belt 3. ing. The inclination angle of the belt conveying unit 2 is arbitrary depending on the size of the dough ball, the rate of water addition to the dough, the rotational speed of the first conveyor belt 3 and the second conveyor belt 4, and the quality of the rounding of the dough ball 6. can be adjusted to

A powder shaker 7 is provided above the receiving portion of the belt conveyance unit 2, and is configured to continuously apply dust to the rolling surface 30 of the first conveying belt 3 and the rolling surface 40 of the second conveying belt 4. The flour is shaken off at random or intermittently.

In the dough ball rounding device 1 configured as described above, when the dough ball 6 is dropped from the conveyor belt 13 of the dividing device D into the running groove 20 of the belt conveyance unit 2 in the receiving section, the dough ball 6 is rolled. 6 is in contact with the rolling surface 30 of the first conveyor belt 3 and the rolling surface 40 of the second conveyor belt 4. The rolling surface 30 of the first conveyor belt 3 advances in the X direction, and the rolling surface 40 of the second conveyor belt 4 advances in the reverse X direction, thereby causing the balls of dough that have fallen into the running groove 20 to is given a rotation in a certain direction. Further, since the circumferential speed of the first conveyor belt 3 is faster than that of the second conveyor belt 4, as a result, the dough balls 6 roll in the running groove 20 in the X direction, and the belt conveyor unit 2 It is transported from the receiving section to the discharging section.

In the rounding device 1 of this embodiment, the rolling surface 30 of the first conveyor belt 3 and the rolling surface 40 of the second conveyor belt 4 form a running groove 20 with a substantially V-shaped cross section, as shown in FIG. As shown in , the dough ball 6 contacts both the rolling surface 30 of the first conveyor belt 3 and the rolling surface 40 of the second conveyor belt 4, which intersect at a predetermined angle, and rotates within the running groove 20. It is given. For this reason, the dough ball 6 is given rotational force in different directions from the first conveyor belt 3 and the second conveyor belt 4, and the dough ball 6 rolls in the running groove 20 while being twisted. , slipping occurs on the rolling surface 30 of the first conveyor belt 3 and the rolling surface 40 of the second conveyor belt 4. As a result, the surface of the ball of dough 6 is smoothed, and the ball of dough 6 is formed into a round shape.

The rolling surface 30 of the first conveying belt 3 and the rolling surface 40 of the second conveying belt 4 advance in opposite directions, and the fabric Since the relative moving speed of the balls 6 is fast, even if dough balls made by dividing bread dough with a high water content are fed into the running groove 20, the dough balls 6 will not adhere to the rolling surfaces 30, 40. It is possible to suppress it. Therefore, even if the dough is highly hydrated dough that has been kneaded by adding a large amount of water, the balls of dough 6 sent from the dividing device D can be continuously rolled into balls, and the rounding can be automated. becomes possible.

The angle α that the rolling surface 30 of the first conveyor belt 3 makes with the vertical direction, and the angle β that the rolling surface 40 of the second conveyor belt 4 makes with the vertical direction are the same as the dough balls 6 thrown into the running groove 20. It can be arbitrarily adjusted depending on the size of the ball of dough and the quality of rounding of the ball of dough 6 discharged from the running groove 20. At this time, if the angle β is set larger than the angle α, the area where the ball of dough 6 contacts the second conveyor belt 4 will be larger than the area where the dough ball 6 contacts the first conveyor belt 3. It is possible to suppress the conveying speed of the dough ball 6 in the running groove 20 while increasing the circumferential speed, thereby promoting the rounding of the dough ball 6 and ensuring that the dough ball 6 is not flat against each of the conveyor belts 3 and 4. This makes it possible to prevent sticking.

The angle α that the rolling surface 30 of the first conveyor belt 3 makes with the vertical direction and the angle β that the rolling surface 40 of the second conveyor belt 4 makes with the vertical direction are It can be arbitrarily adjusted depending on the size of the ball 6 and the quality of rounding of the ball of dough 6 discharged from the running groove 20. However, from the viewpoint of applying sufficient torsional force to the dough ball 6 rolling in the running groove 20 to promote skin formation on the dough ball 6, the rolling surface 30 of the first conveyor belt 3 and It is preferable that the angle (α+β) formed by the rolling surface 40 of the second conveyor belt 4 is smaller than 90 degrees.

As described above, in the rounding device 1 to which the present invention is applied, it is possible to prevent the ball of dough 6 from sticking to the belt conveyance unit 2 while promoting the rounding of the ball of dough 6, and to prevent the ball of dough 6 from sticking to the belt conveying unit 2. Even if the dough is highly hydrated dough that has been kneaded with the addition of water, it is possible to form balls of dough continuously fed from the dividing device D into balls.

In the above-described embodiment, bread dough kneaded as food dough was explained as an example, but the rounding device of the present invention may be applied to other food dough.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Rounding device, 2... Belt conveyance unit, 3... First conveyance belt, 4... Second conveyance belt, 6... Dough ball, 20... Running groove, 30... First conveyance belt rolling surface, 40... Second conveyance belt rolling surface

Claims (3)

A food dough rounding device that receives a ball of dough, performs rounding on it, conveys it, and discharges it, the device comprising:
A first conveyor belt that rotates while being stretched between a pair of conveyor rolls whose rotating shaft is inclined with respect to the horizontal direction, and forms a rolling surface for the dough balls that is inclined with respect to the horizontal direction. and a second conveyor belt,
The rolling surface of the first conveying belt and the rolling surface of the second conveying belt are adjacent to each other to form a running groove for the dough ball having a V-shaped cross section,
The first conveyor belt rotates in the direction of conveying the balls of dough received in the running groove toward the discharge section, while the second conveyor belt rotates in the direction opposite to the first conveyor belt. A food dough rounding device that rotates at a peripheral speed slower than a belt. 2. The food dough rounding device according to claim 1, wherein the angle between the rolling surface of the second conveying belt and the vertical direction is larger than that of the rolling surface of the first conveying belt. 3. The food dough rounding device according to claim 2, wherein the angle formed by the first conveyor belt and the second conveyor belt is less than 90 degrees.

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