WO2023209406A2

WO2023209406A2 - Industrial equipment for shaping dough into a cone

Info

Publication number: WO2023209406A2
Application number: PCT/GR2023/000010
Authority: WO
Inventors: Eleftherios SPARTALIS; Pantazis CHOULIS
Original assignee: Spartalis Eleftherios; Choulis Pantazis
Priority date: 2022-04-29
Filing date: 2023-03-31
Publication date: 2023-11-02
Also published as: WO2023209406A3; GR1010441B

Abstract

Cone-shaped dough forming system by means of molds (6) which have a half-cone-shaped hole and metal sheets with integrated cones (1). The molds are moved horizontally (4) and vertically (3) by means of pistons. The molds, which are fixed and in contact with moving plates (5) during their vertical downward movement, enter the cones located at specific points on a metal sheet (1), which carry the dough. Then, they move horizontally apart before moving vertically upwards to their original position. The metal sheet is moved by means of hooks (8) through rectangular holes (14) by a piston (10) located under the base. Molds and cones are centered and secured by means of shutters (9). The process is repeated with the result that a large volume of production is achieved in a short period of time. The end result is a single piece of dough without a hole at the bottom edge, engraved with a desired design on its surface.

Description

INDUSTRIAL

The invention refers to systems in the bakery industry which shape dough into a cone.

Cone-shaped dough products are particularly popular and serve 5 specific purposes depending on the nature of the product. Forming the dough in such a way as to make bread in the shape of a cone is also known from the documents US Pat. No. 5626897, US Pat. No. 3410691. Other cone-shaped dough products are also the Sweet Cornet, the Sweet Chimney Cake (or Kurtos Calacs), the Pizza Cone, the Ice Cream Cone, the Sandwich Bread, (Conewich) etc.

The commercial exploitation and success of each product is related, of course, to the product itself and to the process used to produce it. The criteria that influence the final result are the quality characteristics of the final product, the ease of mass production and the operational cost of the process. Various methods and mechanisms have been presented in the past which succeed in forming cone-shaped dough products. Each, however, is limited to specific applications and presents fundamental disadvantages in the sector of mass, automated industrial production.

The present invention refers to a system for shaping dough in a cone in an automatic way for industrial or small-scale industrial production needs. We are aware of systems which solve the problem of shaping dough into a cone through a non-manual process and in particular those mentioned in the documents US Pat. No 4795652, US Pat. No. 10440964B2 and KR100793731B1.

In the documents US Pat. 4795652 and US Pat. No. 10440964B2, two related systems are described, where the dough is pressed through a machine and it is formed into strips by means of special equipment that precedes the final formation and which by means of a conveyor belt is transferred to a rotating axis, which carries a cone-shaped mold where it is rolled to proceed into baking. The specific method is characterized by particular complexity; it requires spraying the dough with a special interval, in order to weld the dough together, it requires special arrangements to prepare products of different sizes, it cannot be used in cases where the dough has increased fluidity, the transfer of the cone-shaped dough for baking presents difficulties in terms of its automation, while in general it cannot be used in a fully automated and productive way in an industrial production line, so as to achieve in an economical way large volumes of the final product, while, ultimately, the dough has a small hole at the bottom edge. In document KK100793731B1, where an alternative method is approached, an arrangement is presented which consists of a female-type and a male-type conical mold. The dough is placed in the female mold with the male one entering to give the desired conical shape. This particular method requires a long preparation time, the mold cannot be removed if the dough has not been baked and several times, even if it has been baked, the result can vary. The dough must have a smooth texture on the outside, since otherwise it cannot be detached from the mold, while there are also difficulties in further processing and, of course, in the use of an automated industrial production line of high productivity, and finally, it cannot form the dough and remain on the conical mold for further processing.

The present invention aims to create a system which can automatically shape, without special processing, a single piece of dough of any desired size into a cone, with the possibility of engraving the external surface in various desired forms such as the characteristic winding or the logo of a company, in a way that can be integrated either in an existing bakery production line or in businesses such as bakeries and pastry shops, thus achieving high productivity with maximum economy. After shaping, the dough is formed raw on a conical mold which is integrated on a baking sheet, which makes further processing and baking easy.

According to the present invention, this is achieved thanks to the use of two molds which have a hole in the shape of a half-cone at the ends of which rubber is placed, having as a frame of reference the diameter of the base and the upper end of the cone, which have the ability to move both forward and backward, as well as up and down. The molds are fixed on movable metal plates placed opposite to each other and which have the ability to move in and out of each other by means of pistons. These metal plates, on which the molds are fixed, can be moved by means of fixed metal rollers located near their ends and connected to two plates, which are also fixed and oppositely placed to each other, on which the pistons are fixed. The material used to make the molds is Polyacetal, which can be used to shape dough without leaving any residue after contact. The maximum distance in which one moving plate moves from another is 40 cm. The minimum distance of the two moving metal plates is that at which the two opposing molds fixed to them come into tight contact with each other. Multiple pairs of opposing molds can be placed on the moving plate. The two opposing fixed plates are also joined together by four fixed metal tiles, placed in pairs at different heights at their ends. The arrangement described so far is called the "Upper Part of the Construction". The Upper Part is constructed in such a way that by means of pistons perpendicular to it, which are located in the centers of the metal plates, it moves up and down by means of also vertical and fixed metal rollers, which are fixed to the upper plates and to the lower part of the structure and in a path where the maximum height is determined by the size of the final desired product. Usually, this height does not exceed 30 cm. The lowest point at which the plates can be lowered is where the base of the molds contacts the top of the base of the structure. The base is fixed to the Upper Part of the Construction by means of tiles placed to the right and left of the base, onto which the metal cylinders are screwed, which are also screwed to the upper tiles. The upper part of the base of the structure consists of a frame on which baking sheets are placed, which have cones at certain points on which the dough is fixed. In addition, there are two rectangular holes on the base, where four hooks move at specific times, perfectly synchronized with each other, also through a piston located at the bottom of the base, which are used so as to move the metal sheet through their holes automatically and stop it accurately through sensors in the desired position. The position in which the hooks stop the metal sheet is that in which the centers of the cones on it are perfectly centered with the center of the cone formed by the holes of the molds when they are in contact with each other. In addition, at the bottom of the base there may be guides which serve so that the whole arrangement can be placed on a table of a suitable type, so that it can be part of a wider bakery production line. Thus, on the basis of what was described above, the molds can enter tangentially and perpendicularly to each other in the cones that carry the fixed dough on them, which are on the sheet and move away from them horizontally, leaving the dough raw and exactly shaped, with no alterations in the shape, as was the case when they were vertically removed without the dough having been baked first. In addition, the dough does not need to undergo any special processing to be placed in the cones, only to be separated into equally weighted pieces, exactly as it happens in the classic dough cutters widely used in the bread industry, bakeries and pastry shops, while the separation can also be easily done manually as well, in cases where large production volumes are not required or there is no dough cutter. In addition, the fact that the dough is formed as a single piece and not as a strip that is rolled, does not create a hole at the bottom edge of the product that is inevitably present in the case of the rolling method, while there is no limitation in its handling, regarding the fluidity of the dough, which allows it to be used for any kind of desired product. In addition, thanks to the engraving that the molds can have on their inner surface, the external surface of the dough can have any desired shape such as winding, a logo or any other engraving. Furthermore, thanks to the geometry of the molds, the cones and the metal sheet, many cones are formed at the same time, while the hooks allow the entire metal sheet to be automatically, quickly, uniformly and safely formed, which is thus ready for further processing or baking in a convenient way, automatic or manual, either in an oven that bakes bakery carts or through its path in a tunnel oven and indeed in any size, simply by changing the molds in the Upper Part of the Construction. Finally, thanks to the drivers of the base, the system can be part of a wider industrial line and achieve high production volumes, corresponding to the well- known bakery products.

The invention is described below by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings:

FIGURE 1 shows the top diagonal view of the entire assembly including a plate with cones located on the top of the base of the system. The arrangement consists of 6 pairs of molds and a metal sheet which carries 3 arrays of 6 cones, i.e. a total of 18 cones on the metal sheet.

FIGURE 2 shows the bottom lateral diagonal view of the entire assembly.

FIGURE 3 shows the top lateral diagonal view of the system. FIGURES 4, 5 and 6 are the views of a mold, namely the front, the upper, the diagonal and the botom view respectively.

FIGURE 7 shows the top view of the metal sheet without the cones on top.

Finally, FIGURE 8 shows the upper lateral diagonal view of a metal sheet with the cones on it.

At the beginning of the production cycle, pieces of dough having the same weight are placed and solidified either manually or automatically on the upper part of the cones (2) located on the metal sheet (1). The metal sheet is then guided onto the upper part of the base where the first two hooks (8) enter the front rectangular holes (14) of the metal sheet. In this phase, the hooks pull the sheet and bring it to the position where the cones are perfectly centered in the middle of the distance of the two molds (6) through the movement caused by the piston (10) located at the bottom of the base through the guides (7). In order to stabilize the metal sheet in this position, the two shuters (9) located on each side are activated. The molds in the first stage are spaced apart. Once the first row of cones is in this desired position, they are sealed thanks to the rubbers (16) that surround the holes with the motion caused by the horizontal pistons (4) on the moving plates (5), which are screwed on the fixed plates (15). Then, the Upper Part of the Construction descends towards the upper part of the Lower Part of the construction, where the metal sheet is immobilized with the cones that carry the dough through the movements caused by the vertical pistons (3), until the point where the molds come into contact with the base. At this stage, the horizontal pistons (10) push the moving sheet where the molds are located, so that they move away from each other at a distance of 40 cm and the dough now remains shaped on the first array of 6 cones, thanks to the holes of the molds (11) and with the winding on its outside, due to the engraving (12) inside the holes. As soon as the molds cover the distance of 40 cm the horizontal pistons drive the Upper Part of the Construction upwards returning them to the position they were, at the beginning of the cycle. As soon as the Upper Part of the Construction is in this position, the shuters are released and the hooks move the metal sheet to bring the second set of cones on the metal sheet absolutely centered with the center of the molds. The process is repeated, exactly as described for the first array, for each subsequent array and therefore for each subsequent metal sheet. The duration of each cycle for each array lasts for 8 seconds. The automated movements can be implemented electrically through relays or they can be fully automatic and fully configurable via PLC in the known methods.

Claims

C L A I M S - Cone-shaped dough forming system capable of engraving its outer surface in a desired pattern (12), characterized by pairs of molds placed cater-cornered to each other (6), each of which has a half-cone hole (11), having as a frame reference the diameter of the base and the upper edge of the cone. The pairs of molds can be moved horizontally via pistons (4) towards each other and opposite to each other, vertically, also via pistons (3), up and down. During the vertical movement and while the molds are in contact with each other, they are inserted into arrays of cones (2) which are fixed on a metal sheet (1) and at their tops a certain amount of dough is fixed, resulting in the dough being formed on the cone with the corresponding shape. The molds can be moved first horizontally and then upwards, so that after shaping, they move away from each other leaving the shaped and raw dough on the cone unaltered. The above arrangement is characterized by the automatic movement of a bakery sheet (1) which carries cones (2) with the fixed dough at specific points. These points have as centers the centers that form the pairs of molds and which are at a height above the metal sheet. Its movement is carried out precisely by means of a piston (10) which moves hooks (8) that fit into rectangular holes (14) of the metal sheet (10), the position of which is secured at the desired point by means of sensors and shutters (9) and is such that the centers of a row of cones to be directly below the centers of the pairs of molds above.