Plastic article or earthenware shaping or treating: apparatus – Hand manipulable shaping couple
Reexamination Certificate
2002-09-17
2004-08-10
Davis, Robert (Department: 1722)
Plastic article or earthenware shaping or treating: apparatus
Hand manipulable shaping couple
C425S394000, C425S404000, C425S412000, C099S349000, C426S496000, C426S512000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06773254
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Not Applicable
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not Applicable
REFERENCE TO A SEQUENCE LISTING, A TABLE, OR A COMPUTER PROGRAM LISTING COMPACT DISK APPENDIX
Not Applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to restaurant equipment, more particularly, to manual presses for producing shaped shells of dough for pizzas and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Dough presses, both manual and automatic, for the purpose of producing pizza shells and the like have been around for a number of years. Examples of such presses are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,417,867, 5,074,778, and 5,469,779. As can be seen from these examples, a typical press for such a purpose has two horizontal platens with opposing working surfaces. One of the platens has an annular groove to form the raised rim of the shell. In the '867 and '778 patents, the annular groove is in the upper platen, and in the '779 patent, the annular groove is in the lower platen. In operation, a ball of dough is placed on the lower platen, and the platens are forced together, causing the dough to flatten and fill in the annular groove. The result is a flat sheet with a raised rim.
One problem with these designs is that, when the platens separate, the elastic nature of dough causes the newly-shaped pizza shell to shrink. If the amount and nature of the shrinkage was predictable, the parameters of the groove could be adjusted to compensate for the shrinkage. However, because the shrinkage is unpredictable, the final shell may not be round. In other case, the shell may be round but of a different size, and that different size is not consistent and repeatable from one shell to the next. Consequently, using a groove that forms a larger shell in anticipation of shrinkage is not a practical solution.
To solve the shrinkage problem, some devices use heat to partially bake the shell before releasing the platens. Unfortunately, some yeasted doughs raise quickly, so this method is not practical. In other cases, the heat creates a crust, which can be undesirable.
Another aspect of presses for making pizza shells and the like is the difficulty and/or expense of being capable of producing shells of different sizes from the same press. Several solutions have been proposed for this problem. Disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,469,779 is a lower platen that is reversible. Each side of the platen produces a shell of a different size. To change sizes, the platen is turned over. If more than two sizes are desired, then two or more platens are needed.
Another solution is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,417,149, in which pins releasably retain molds of different sizes to the lower platen. The pins are linearly adjustable along the face of the lower platen for different size molds. The upper platen is exchangeable for different size molds. In order to produce shells of a different size, the lower platen pins must be adjusted for the new size and the upper platen must be replaced, both time-consuming tasks.
A third solution is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,332,768, in which a solid mold is removably latched to the lower platen, where the size of the mold determines the size of the shell inside the raised rim. The dough is pressed onto the mold and flows over the side of the mold to the lower platen. In order to produce shells of a different size, the old mold must be unlatched and removed and a new one installed and latched.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a simple way to prevent dough that has been shaped from shrinking due to elasticity.
Another object is to provide a pizza shell mold that is easily changeable or replaceable.
Yet another object is to provide a relatively inexpensive system giving the ability to produce pizza shell of various sizes from a single dough press.
The present invention is a dough shell mold for use as a component of a dough press. A typical dough press includes lower and upper platens with opposed working surfaces and a drive mechanism to drive the platens toward and away from the each other.
One embodiment of the shell mold has two components, a hub and a ring. The hub is secured to or is an integral part of the lower platen and protrudes upwardly therefrom. The ring rests on the lower platen working surface and has a central hole that mates snugly with the hub. Optionally, the hub/hole is keyed so that the ring cannot rotate on the hub or so that it must be installed in a particular orientation. Optionally, the hub is slightly conical so that the ring can be installed more easily.
An annular groove for producing the raised rim of the shell is adjacent to the perimeter of the mold. The shape of the raised rim will depend upon the cross-sectional shape of the annular groove. The groove may be round, as for a round pizza shell, or it may be any other shape.
The second ring embodiment has two concentric rings, an inner ring that mates with the hub and an outer ring that fits around the inner ring. The junction of the rings is the annular groove that forms the raised rim of the shell. By using different outer rings with a standard inner ring, various raised rim configurations can be produced at minimal cost.
Another aspect of the present invention is a notch in the top surface of the ring between the perimeter and the annular groove. The notch allows a spatula or other flat utensil to be inserted between the dough and the upper platen. It has been discovered through experimentation that if pressure downward pressure is put on the dough, prior to and during moving the upper platen away from the shell mold, the tendency of the dough to shrink is overcome, and the shell retains its desired shape and size. The notch is adaptable to other shell molds with a similar configuration
Other objects of the present invention will become apparent in light of the following drawings and detailed description of the invention.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3697036 (1972-10-01), Kanbar et al.
patent: 3814005 (1974-06-01), Widdel
patent: 3863020 (1975-01-01), Robinson
patent: 4417867 (1983-11-01), Bauer
patent: 4511324 (1985-04-01), Bauer
patent: 5074778 (1991-12-01), Betts, Jr. et al.
patent: 5417149 (1995-05-01), Raio et al.
patent: 5417989 (1995-05-01), Atwood et al.
patent: 5469779 (1995-11-01), Amore et al.
patent: 6048191 (2000-04-01), Beltrami
patent: 6332768 (2001-12-01), Raio et al.
Anthanasiadis George
Voyatzakis Andrew D.
Altman & Martin
Davis Robert
Nguyen Tru Khanh T.
Somerset Industries, Inc.
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