Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Processes – Treatment or preparation of farinaceous dough – batter – or...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-25
2001-02-13
Yeung, George C. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Processes
Treatment or preparation of farinaceous dough, batter, or...
C425S308000, C425S316000, C426S516000, C426S518000, C426S557000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06187358
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of and apparatus for producing extruded elongate pasta of substantially even lengths. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus for producing pasta capable of cutting elongate pasta such as spaghetti extruded from an extruder into substantially even lengths, discretely dividing it into a specific quantity, and variously adjusting cutting length thereof.
2. Disclosure of the Related Art
There are two methods conventionally known to produce extruded elongate pasta products such as spaghetti. One of the methods includes the step of extruding pasta dough directly from a die to form elongate pasta. The other includes the steps of extruding pasta dough from a special die to form pasta sheets and then cutting the sheets into appropriate widths to form elongate pasta. More concretely, the latter method includes the steps of: extruding pasta dough by a linearly-perforated die to form pasta sheet; cutting the sheet with blades to form elongate pasta; and cutting elongate pasta into a predetermined length with a cutter. This method has an advantage of producing a predetermined quantity of pasta at a high speed, so that it is excellent in mass-producing the predetermined quantity of pasta. The methods making use of this advantage are disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 58-162230 (1983) and the Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 59-34857 (1984).
In the above-cited methods, elongate pasta is produced by cutting pasta sheet with blades, and thus each elongate pasta is formed to have a rectangular section. Therefore, completely-circular-shaped elongate pasta can not be produced. Furthermore, the low extruding pressure to form pasta sheet may result in inferior quality and taste feeling of so produced pasta to that of elongate pasta produced by a direct extrusion method.
On the other hand, by using the method of producing elongate pasta by direct extrusion from a die (the direct extrusion method), high-quality dense pasta can be produced. Generally, in the direct extrusion method, elongate pasta is produced by the steps of; extruding pasta dough prepared by mixing a variety of materials from a die to form extruded elongate pasta each having a predetermined shape of cross-section; hanging the extruded elongate pasta from a pole; aligning the tips of the extruded elongate pasta by cutting them with a cutter; cutting the pasta strings into predetermined lengths and drying; and then weighing and packing the dried pasta products.
In this method, although the diameters of die holes of a single extruder are substantially constant, the extruding speed of elongate pasta from die holes varies. For example, as shown in FIG.
19
(
a
), the substantial center portion of extruded elongate pasta
1
is extruded faster than the side portions in some cases, or as shown in FIG.
19
(
b
), both side portions of extruded elongate pasta
1
are extruded faster in other cases. Extruding speed distribution of pasta varies depending upon performance characteristic of extruder and die, and characteristic of pasta dough. Therefore, speed distribution can not be held constant. For this reason, in the direct extrusion method, the lengths of extruded pasta are always uneven, so that the tips of pasta have to be cut to be aligned. Thus, it has been difficult to mass-produce elongate pasta by using this method.
Unlike the above-described method of producing dry pasta, in the case of producing fresh pasta and discretely dividing the pasta into a specific quantity for one meal, it is essential that equal quantities of pasta be distributed in the course of producing extruded elongate pasta. However, in the direct extrusion method, pasta dough cannot be extruded at a even speed from every die hole as mentioned above, so that the tips of pasta have to be cut to be aligned after extruded elongate pasta is divided into a specific quantity. Thus, it has been difficult to mass-produce a fresh elongate pasta divided in one meal.
Recently, there has been a great demand for extruded elongate pasta divided into a specific quantity produced by the direct extrusion method. However, there has been no practical method for mass-producing elongate pasta by the direct extrusion method and dividing it into predetermined quantities.
OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
As the result of our researches to overcome the above disadvantages, we have eventually achieved the present invention after we found that although extruding speed varies depending on the holes of a single die, the speed dispersion of extruding pasta can be limited within a predetermined range in a single die.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for producing extruded elongate pasta of substantially even lengths comprising:
an extruder for forming elongate pasta;
a first cutter for cutting tip portions of bunches of elongate pasta having been extruded from and dangling from said extruder;
a second cutter for cutting the bunches of the elongate pasta, whose tip portions have been cut, into an even length; and
a sorting means for selectively sorting the bunches of elongate pasta having been cut into the even length with the second cutter from the tip portions having been cut with the first cutter,
wherein the extruder, the second cutter, the first cutter and the sorting means are disposed in this order from a top to a bottom in substantially a vertical direction.
In the apparatus for producing extruded elongate pasta of substantially even lengths, pasta dough is pushed downward from the die of an extruder, thereby bunches of elongate pasta of uneven length are extruded and dangled from the extruder. Then uneven tips are cut off by the first cutter to make the lengths of extruded elongate pasta dangling from the extruder substantially even. It is noted that all the extruded elongate pasta of “substantially even lengths” herein should not be of precisely the same length. For example, in a case where quantitative irregularity is within an allowable range of a preset reference quantitative value, even when a part of elongate pasta or bunches is shorter than others, the elongate pasta or bunches as a whole is of “substantially even lengths” and the elongate pasta or bunches as a whole can be a commercial product. The term “even lengths” can be interchangeable with “substantially even lengths” herein. If necessary, however, all the extruded elongate pasta dangling from the extruder can be cut into precisely the same lengths. It is preferable that the first cutter is continuously operated until the uneven tip portions of the extruded elongate pasta are substantially completed to be cut, and then halted. Alternatively, the first cutter can be operated only when bunches of the extruded elongate pasta dangling from the extruder reach certain lengths to complete cutting uneven tip portions of elongate pasta at once. After uneven tip portions of elongate pasta are cut by the first cutter, the extruded elongate pasta dangling from the die is cut into substantially even lengths by the second cutter disposed underneath the die of the extruder. If the extruder is operated at a constant speed, the time required for producing extruded elongate pasta of substantially even lengths is constant. In other words, if the dispersion of the extruding speed is within a predetermined range, the cutting operation is repeated at a constant time-cycle, which makes it possible to mass-produce extruded elongate pasta of substantially even lengths.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing extruded elongate pasta of substantially even lengths comprising the steps of:
cutting tip portions of bunches of elongate pasta having been successively extruded from and dangling from an extruder for forming elongate pasta; and
cutting the bunches of elongate pasta, whose tip portions have been cut, in a predetermined position,
wherein the steps are repeatedly executed, whereby bunches of elongate pasta of
Inoue Yoshiteru
Morishita Kenkichi
Moriyasu Hiroshi
Nashida Shigeki
Milde Hoffberg & Macklin, LLP
Nisshi Food Products Co., Ltd.
Yeung George C.
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