Plastic article or earthenware shaping or treating: apparatus – Preform severing means – Configuration of cutting implement providing shaping cavity
Reexamination Certificate
2001-04-10
2004-08-24
Mackey, James P. (Department: 1722)
Plastic article or earthenware shaping or treating: apparatus
Preform severing means
Configuration of cutting implement providing shaping cavity
C425S305100, C425S332000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06780000
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for forming ball-like or roundish products. This invention also relates to a method for making such ball-like products, e.g., meatballs involving the use of such apparatus.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
In an effort to improve quality, productivity, reduce waste and provide a compact product for cooking and serving ball-like food product, it has been a common practice to prepare such product by shaping a piece of material one by one by hand. The above method is time consuming and unacceptable in restaurants. Accordingly, apparatus have been proposed to make such method mechanical.
There are many patents which are directed to the formation, by mechanical centrifugal means, of a cylindrical food product which includes a hollow portion which is filled with a suitable filling. Among such patents are the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 1,417,446 patented May 23, 1932 to N. C. Brigham. This patent provided method of and apparatus for partially forming the coating of a confection, then filling the partially formed coating with the filling material and finally closing the coating or completing the confection. The apparatus comprises a rotatable member or mould having a suitably shaped depression therein whereby when the coating is in a semi-liquid or melted state and at a suitable temperature is introduced into the depression of the mould and rotated at a suitable speed, the coating material will be forced up the inner walls of the depression, by the combined action of gravity and centrifugal force. The member is then brought down to a suitable speed of rotation or the rotation stopped if desired, it being assumed that the coating material has then set or cooled sufficiently to receive the filling material. The filling material is now introduced, after which the remaining portion of the coating is added, and, after uniting with the previously formed partial coating thus forming the complete confection.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,492,738, patented May 6, 1924 by A. Muller, that patent provided an apparatus for making bodies in the form of shells from plastic chocolate and the like. The apparatus included a mechanically operated means for subjecting the moulds to centrifugal action around a vertical axis and simultaneously to reciprocating vertical movement.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,381,631, patented May 7, 1968 by R. Hornlein et al. That patent provides an installation for the production of hollow chocolate bodies, having an endless conveying path for a plurality of individual three-dimensionally rotatable mould frames arranged in a row endlessly one behind the other, with common conveying means for the common further conveying of the mould frames and common drive means for the three-dimensional rotation of the mould frames, also with arrangements for the halting of the mould frames in their three-dimensional rotational movements. In more specific terms, each mould frame is rotatably mounted in a carrier fork, which is arranged rotatably about its fork central spindle on a conveying trolley movable along the endless conveying path and can be set in rotation by the rotational-drive means, about a transverse spindle extending transversely of the fork central spindle through the fork heads, and is in drive communication with the same rotational drive means through at least one of the pivot bearings, the conveying path comprising a series of working stations, for example, for unlocking and opening the moulds, withdrawal of the moulded chocolate bodies, insertion of wrapping foils, filling of chocolate mass, closing and locking of the mould frames, through which the mould frames are passed, being further held and conveyed by the carrier forks which in the meantime are halted in their rotational movement about the fork central spindle and prevent a rotational movement of the mould frames about the fork transverse spindle.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,666,388 patented May 30, 1972 by H. Oberwellain et al. That patent provided a method of and apparatus for producing hollow sweetmeats by spinning an open top mould containing a measured quantity of castable confectionery material or dispensing such a quantity of material into an open top mould from a rotating dispenser so that a hollow body corresponding to the internal shape of the mould is formed by centrifugal force acting on the castable material, cooling the body until it is set, and ejecting the body from the mould.
It is therefore noted that there does not appear to be any mechanical apparatus for forming spherical objects from individual units of material.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
(a) Aims of the Invention
It is an object of this invention to provide a novel, industrially and domestically applicable method and apparatus for reshaping deformable material to provide a ball-like product, which can be applied both to food and non-food materials.
(b) Statement of Invention
The present invention provides an apparatus for making a plurality of spherical products, the apparatus comprising a base, a tray support platform mounted on the base for tethered buffetted motion with respect to the base, a tray having an upper non-stick surface, for mounting on, and being held to, the tray support platform, and a grid comprising a plurality of compartments defined by a plurality of intersecting walls, the grid having an open bottom which is supported on the tray.
The present invention also provides a method for forming a plurality of spherical products from a deformable material comprising the steps of providing a base, providing a tethered support which is movable in a buffetted motion, providing a tray having an upper non-stick surface on the tethered support, placing a sheet of deformable material on the tray, pressing an open grid comprising a plurality of compartments defined by a plurality of intersecting walls into the sheet of deformable material until the bottom thereof contacts the upper surface of tray and inducing a buffetted motion of the tray on the tethered support until the deformable material is transformed into a plurality of spherical articles.
(c) Other Features of the Invention
By a first feature of the apparatus, the tray support platform is of general “H”-shape with two arms and a connecting body, the ends of the arms preferably including upright flanges thereon.
By a second feature of the apparatus, the body is pivotally-secured near each end thereof adjacent the arms to a bearing assembly, thereby to provide the tethering.
By a third feature of the apparatus, each bearing assembly comprises a pair of transversely-spaced-apart bearings, one of the bearings being rotationally mounted on the base, and the other of the bearings being floating, the bearing assemblies being connected to one another by a pair of connecting rods, the body being pivotally-secured to an associated one of the floating bearings by means of a pivot shaft.
By a fourth feature of the apparatus, the tray is a rectangular tray including a perimetral upstanding flange.
By a fifth feature of the apparatus, the grid is of a complementary shape to fit on the rectangular tray, and comprises an array of rectangular compartments.
By a sixth feature of the apparatus, the array of compartment is defined by respective four walls of equal heights, e.g., where the walls are tapered, i.e., where the tapered walls provide a larger area at the bottom of the grid than at the top of the grid.
By a seventh feature of the apparatus, the upstanding flanges of the tray are adjustable in height, thereby to control the thickness of a sheet of deformable material placed therein, which in turn controls the diameter of the spherical bodies.
By a first feature of the method, the method includes selecting the deformable material from the group consisting of ground meat, minced meat, minced fish paste, vegetable pastes, mashed potatoes, ragout, ground beef, ground port, ground turkey, ground chicken and dough, thereby to provide a plurality of ball-like such material, e.g., by providing the deformable material as a sheet of grou
Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
Kinsman L. Anne
Mackey James P.
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