JPH09103248A - Chocolate coater - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain chocolate confectionery good in fanciness also with significantly improved in productivity by efficiently coating only part of the outer peripheral surface of a confectionery of any shape. SOLUTION: A top coater section 2 and a bottom coater section 3 each capable of applying chocolate B onto part of the upper and lower portions of a confectionery product A on a net conveyor 1 are installed against each other, and the top coater section 2 consists of a tank set up on the upper part of the net conveyor and to allow molten chocolate to dividedly flow down vertically, while the bottom coater section 3 consists of a pan-shaped tank equipped with a rotating roll 30 dipped into the molten chocolate and a scraper 31 to scoop the chocolate with a necessary width through contact with the outer periphery of the roll 30. Both the tanks are each equipped with a circulating piping system 22 to feed the tanks with molten chocolate from a chocolate tank 20 via a pump 21. Thereby, part of the outer peripheral surface of a confectionery of any shape can be efficiently coated with a small amount of molten chocolate uniformly, thus affording the objective chocolate confectionery with good appearance grade.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for uniformly coating a part of the outer peripheral surface of a confectionery product having a stick shape, a cylinder shape, a disk shape, a star shape or any other shape with chocolate. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in order to coat chocolate on the outer peripheral surface of a confectionery product, it has been common to coat the entire surface with chocolate. This is because the chocolate is too much and the texture is persistent. It is required to coat chocolate on a partial portion of the product because of the problem of picking up the chocolate portion and soiling the hands. Then, chocolate is sprayed on the outer peripheral portion of the confectionery product with a nozzle, patterned with a decorator, or manually painted.

[0003]

However, in order to meet the design requirements for coating chocolate on a part of the outer peripheral surface of a confectionery, in particular, on the outer peripheral surface of a confectionery product of various shapes, only a part of the outer peripheral surface is coated with chocolate. It is difficult to coat, the amount of chocolate to be coated tends to be non-uniform, the coating process is troublesome and productivity cannot be improved, and the supplied chocolate sags or collapses and the appearance is bad. In addition, there is a problem that it becomes expensive due to the use of extra chocolate, and when the amount of chocolate is reduced, unevenness is caused depending on the shape of the confectionery and the product image is deteriorated.

The present invention is intended to eliminate these conventional drawbacks, and a part of the outer peripheral surface of various shaped confectionery is coated uniformly and evenly with a small amount of chocolate, and a chocolate confectionery of good appearance quality is obtained. It is an object of the present invention to provide a chocolate coating apparatus which can be manufactured and whose productivity can be significantly improved.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, a net conveyor for conveying a confectionery product, a top coater portion capable of coating chocolate on the upper and lower parts of the confectionery product on the net conveyor, and a bottom coater portion are opposed to each other. In the deployed chocolate coating device, the top coater unit is a tank provided on the upper portion of the net conveyor for distributing and suspending dissolved chocolate, and the bottom coater unit is a roll that is immersed in the dissolved chocolate and rotates, A tank equipped with a scraper that abuts the outer circumference of the roll and scoops chocolate,
Both tanks are equipped with a circulation piping system for supplying the melted chocolate from the chocolate tank by a pump.

[0006]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION In this chocolate coating apparatus, cylindrical stick-shaped products supplied to a stock section having a plurality of rows in a product supply stacker are moved one by one by a stopper disk when they are sent to a net conveyor. At this time, the melted chocolate is hung down from the top coater part to the upper surface of both ends of the product, and at the bottom coater part, the melted chocolate exudes on the net by the rotating roll and scraper and adheres to the lower surface of both ends of the product Then, only the outer edges of the product are coated with chocolate. The top coater section and the bottom coater section, which are arranged to face each other vertically, are equipped with a circulation piping system for supplying chocolate from a chocolate tank by a pump, and are further arranged in a hopper that communicates with the chocolate tank, which is one of the inside of the chocolate recovery mechanism. The chocolate recovery mechanism that includes this tank has a hot water jacket type configuration that is connected to a hot water circulation system that includes a hot water heater and a pipe heater, but with a scraper that abuts the rotating roll in the bottom coater section. It is a finished product that is picked up from chocolate and coated on the lower surface of the product that is conveyed on a roll through a net and coated on the net, conveyed to a fast-forwarding conveyor, and then passed through a cooling tunnel and cooled. is there.

[0007]

EXAMPLE An example of coating the both ends of the stick-shaped confectionery of FIGS. 1 to 9 will be described with reference to FIG.
Such as the stick product A in the form of a hollow rod whose both ends are coated with chocolate B, the chocolate B is applied to the net conveyor 1 that conveys the product A and to the upper and lower parts of the confectionery product A on the net conveyor 1. Uru top coater section 2 and bottom coater section 3 are arranged opposite to each other, the top coater section 2 is provided on the upper part of the net conveyor, and it is composed of a tank for distributing and hanging down melted chocolate, and the bottom coater section 3 is used for melted chocolate. It is composed of a bread-shaped tank equipped with a roll 30 that is immersed and rotated, and a scraper 31 that comes into contact with the outer periphery of the roll 30 and scoops chocolate to a desired width. Is a chocolate coating apparatus equipped with a circulation piping system 22 for supplying melted chocolate.

In this case, the net conveyor 1 is used by being connected to a product supply stacker 10, and the product supply stacker 10 manually or manually supplies the products A to a plurality of rows of stock sections 11 connected to the conveyor. It is supplied by a conveyor (not shown). The products A supplied to the stock section 11 are supplied to the net conveyor 1 one by one by a continuously rotating stopper disk 12.

The net conveyor 1 is one in which both ends of each product A are placed in a line on the net conveyor 1 and aligned and conveyed in the horizontal direction. The top coater 2 is provided on the upper surface side of the product A. From the melted chocolate which is supplied by hanging a few strips at a required width at a distance from the product A, and the lower surface side of the product A is a scraper 31 on the net running the melted chocolate which is lifted by the rotation of the rotating roll 30 in the bottom coater 3. The outer circumference of the product A is coated with chocolate by raising the width of the product A (width in which the scraper 31 is in contact with the rotating roll 3). If there are, for example, three rows of the product A on the net conveyor 1, the chocolate supply width is selected for each row, that is, the chocolate hanging slit width of the top coater section 2 and the bottom coater section 3 are selected. The scraper width may be selected so that it can be arbitrarily adapted.

Further, as the top coater section 2,
Slits 4, 5 are formed in the front and rear of the traveling direction of the net conveyor 1.
A shutter 6 is slidably provided on the side wall opened by the variable opening area, and a mountain-shaped bottom wall 7 distributed and slanted on both sides is used. The openings 4 and 5 may be formed so that they can be hung with a predetermined width only at a portion to be coated in the conveying row of the product A conveyed by the net conveyor 1, for example, both ends of the product A or only a central portion or one side portion. Can be easily adjusted by replacement.

As the bread of the bottom coater section 3, a shutter 32 which can be opened and closed is provided at the bottom, a chocolate coater for adjusting the amount of chocolate to be accommodated, and a chocolate layer on the outer periphery of the rotary roll 30 has a predetermined thickness. A chocolate material 33 is provided to automatically adjust the amount of chocolate that rises on the net conveyor 1, that is, a stick-shaped product A, for example, an outer diameter of 13φ, an inner diameter of 6φ and a length of 130 mm. Adjust the thickness and outer diameter of the chocolate applied to the
6 g, preferably 4 to 5 g) can be applied. This bottom coater section 3 is provided with a circulation piping system 22 for supplying chocolate from a chocolate tank 20 by a pump 21, and is arranged in a hopper 23 communicating with the chocolate tank 20 so that it can be used as a part of a chocolate recovery mechanism. I am doing it.

Further, on the product discharge side of the net conveyer 1, a vibrating mechanism (not shown) vibrates the net to evenly distribute the chocolate on the product, and the chocolate attached to the net is also peeled off from the net. Then, the chocolate is received by the hopper 23 and collected in the chocolate tank 20.

In addition, in the chocolate coater portion of the net conveyor 1, a portion not coated with chocolate so that the product is not displaced during transportation,
The product holding round belt 13 that comes into contact with the product and is transported is endlessly mounted so as to run parallel to the moving direction of the net conveyor 1, and further, the bucket holder 15 of the fast-forwarding conveyor 14 as a joint conveyor to the next process. The product A can be inserted into. In other words, it is those that are deployed on the fast-forward conveyor 14 provided continuously to the discharge end 1 ₁ of the net conveyor 1 to the cleaning tunnel,
The product part not coated with chocolate is supplied to the holder 15 provided on the fast-forwarding conveyor.

In the figure, 24 is a cooling tunnel, 25 is a cooling facility, 26 is a fan, 27 is a product carrying-out end portion, and 28 is a melting facility.

[0015]

According to the present invention, the top coater section is provided on the upper portion of the net conveyor and is composed of a tank for distributing and suspending the dissolved chocolate, and the bottom coater section is a roll which is immersed in the dissolved chocolate and rotates.
Consists of a tank provided with a scraper that abuts the outer circumference of the roll and scoops chocolate, and a confectionery of various shapes is provided with a circulation pipe system for supplying melted chocolate by a pump from the chocolate tank to both tanks. Efficiently coating a small amount of chocolate evenly and evenly on a part of the outer peripheral surface of the chocolate can make it a chocolate candy with good appearance and greatly improve productivity, and the coating is simple and the chocolate consumption is high. Also, there is an effect that it is possible to easily manufacture low cost chocolate confectionery.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cut side view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the example of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a part of the top coater unit of the example of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a front view showing a part of the circulation piping system of the example of FIG.

5 is an enlarged cutaway side view of the bottom coater portion of FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 6 is a side view of a fast-forwarding conveyor used in the production line of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a system explanatory plan view of a usage state of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a side view of the example of FIG.

FIG. 9 is a product manufactured by the device of the present invention, in which (a) is a side view and (b) is a longitudinal sectional view thereof.

[Explanation of Codes] A Product B Chocolate 1 Net Conveyor 2 Top Coater Part 3 Bottom Coater Part 4, 5 Slit 6 Shutter 7 Sloping Bottom Wall 8, 9 Guide Piece 10 Product Supply Stacker 11 Stock Part 12 Stopper Disc 13 Round Belt 14 Fast Forward Conveyor 15 Holder 20 Chocolate tank 21 Pump 22 Circulating piping system 23 Hopper 24 Cooling tunnel 25 Cooling equipment 26 Fan 27 Product carry-out end 30 Rotating roll 31 Scraper 32 Shutter 33 Leveling member

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A chocolate coating apparatus in which a net conveyor for conveying a confectionery product, a top coater unit capable of coating chocolate on the upper and lower parts of the confectionery product on the net conveyor, and a bottom coater unit are arranged to face each other,
The top coater section is provided at the upper portion of the net conveyor and is composed of a tank for distributing and suspending dissolved chocolate, and the bottom coater section is a roller that is immersed in the melted chocolate and rotates, and abuts on the outer circumference of the roll. A chocolate coating apparatus comprising a tank equipped with a scraper for scooping chocolate, wherein both tanks are provided with a circulation pipe system for supplying melted chocolate from the chocolate tank by a pump. 2. The top coater part is provided with a shutter slidably on a side wall opening in the front and rear of the traveling direction of the net conveyor so that the opening area can be varied, and a bottom wall inclined to both sides guides both openings. The chocolate coating apparatus according to claim 1, comprising a tank in which pieces are extended. 3. The bottom coater section is a pan-shaped tank having a shutter that can be opened and closed on the bottom surface, and is a chocolate coater for adjusting the amount of chocolate to be stored, and the chocolate layer on the outer circumference of the rotary roll is made to have a predetermined thickness. The chocolate coating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the chocolate coating apparatus is provided with a member and is provided in a hopper that communicates with the chocolate tank. 4. The net conveyor according to claim 1, wherein said net conveyor is endlessly mounted so as to travel in a moving direction of the net conveyor so as to travel a product pressing round belt which comes into contact with the product and is transferred. Chocolate coating equipment. 5. The net conveyor is arranged on a fast-forwarding conveyor, the discharge end of which is connected to a cooling tunnel, and a product portion not coated with chocolate is supplied to a holder provided on the fast-forwarding conveyor. The chocolate coating apparatus according to claim 1, 2, 3, or 4, which is for