Foods and beverages: apparatus – Edible laminated product making apparatus – Means forming or reshaping plural sheets or webs
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-06
2001-08-14
Simone, Timothy F. (Department: 1761)
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Edible laminated product making apparatus
Means forming or reshaping plural sheets or webs
C099S353000, C099S450100, C425S092000, C425S321000, C425S325000, C425S335000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06272979
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention relates to an apparatus for supplying food dough such as bread dough. Particularly, it relates to one whose entire structure is compact and which can be easily cleaned and assembled.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. Hei 11-155464 discloses a prior-art apparatus. It includes a cutter that is located at a lower opening of a hopper that can receive a large block of dough. The cutter cuts the large block of dough into dough pieces that have a predetermined length and a constant volume. The dough pieces are fed, by a conveyor that is positioned below the cutter, to a forming hopper. Then the dough pieces are supplied downward to a dough-feeder section. It has a plurality of rollers that are positioned like a V. The dough pieces are formed by the dough-feeder section as a sheet. Then the dough sheet is fed by a conveyor that is positioned below the dough-feeder section to the next step.
The prior-art apparatus can advantageously and continuously form large blocks of dough into a sheet. However, it has a disadvantage in that it cannot but be relatively large. This disadvantage should be overcome. Also, the prior-art apparatus has another disadvantage in that it is difficult to clean it when it is stopped or to assemble it. Also, such a prior-art apparatus has a metering conveyor It measures the part of the weight of dough that is on it. The cutter cuts part of the dough when its weight reaches a predetermined value. If flour adheres to the surface of the metering conveyor, the accuracy of the measurement can decrease.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To overcome the above disadvantages of the prior-art apparatus, this invention was conceived. One object of it is to provide an apparatus for supplying food dough. It comprises a hopper that receives a large block of dough, a first cutter located at a lower opening of the hopper to cut the large block to dough pieces that have a predetermined length and a volume, a transmitting conveyor for transmitting the dough pieces, which are cut out by the cutter, to a dough feeder, said dough feeder having a plurality of rollers that are positioned like a V to form a dough sheet that has a constant thickness, a feeding conveyor for feeding the dough sheet, which is formed by the dough feeder to have the constant thickness, a metering conveyor for measuring the weight of a part of the dough sheet, which is supplied by the feeding conveyor while the metering conveyor feeds the dough sheet, and a second cutter for cutting out the part of the dough sheet when its weight that is measured by the metering conveyor reaches a predetermined value, characterized ill that the first cutter and the dough feeder are arranged so that a part of the first cutter overlaps a part of an inlet of the dough feeder such when the dough piece is cut out by the first cutter, the lower end of the dough piece falls into an inlet of the dough feeder.
The belt of the transmitting conveyor is wound around the uppermost roller of the dough feeder.
Any one of the hopper, the first cutter, the feeding conveyor, and the metering conveyor can easily be combined with and separated from the apparatus.
An apparatus for supplying food dough is also provided. It comprises a hopper that receives a large block of dough, a first cutter located at a lower opening of the hopper to cut the large block to dough pieces that have a predetermined length and volume, a dough feeder for forming a dough sheet from the dough pieces, which are cut by the first cutter, a feeding conveyor for feeding the dough sheet, which is formed by the dough feeder to have a constant thickness, a first metering conveyor for measuring the weight of a part of the dough sheet, which is supplied by the feeding conveyor, while the metering conveyor feeds the dough sheet, and a second cutter for cutting out the part of the dough sheet when its weight that has been measured by the first metering conveyor reaches a predetermined value, characterized in that a second metering conveyor or a relative speed controlling conveyor is located near the first metering conveyor such that the relative speed between the feeding speed of the first metering conveyor and that of the second metering conveyor or the relative speed controlling conveyor is controllable, and in that the thickness and length of the part of the dough sheet that is cut by the second cutter can be controlled when the part of the dough sheet is transmitted from the first metering conveyor or the relative speed controlling conveyor.
The feeding speed of at least one of the first and second metering conveyors can be controlled, or the feeding speed of at least one of the first metering conveyor and the relative speed controlling conveyor can be controlled.
Also, an apparatus for supplying food dough is provided. It comprises a hopper that receives a large block of dough, a first cutter located at a lower opening of the hopper to cut the large block to dough pieces that have a predetermined length and a volume, a dough feeder for forming a dough sheet from the dough pieces, which are cut by the fast cutter, a feeding conveyor for feeding the dough sheet, which is formed by the dough feeder to have a constant thickness, a metering conveyor for measuring weight of a part of the dough sheet, which is supplied by the feeding conveyor, while the metering conveyor feeds the dough sheet, and a second cutter for cutting out the part of the dough sheet when its weight that is measured by the first metering conveyor reaches a predetermined value, characterized in that a zero adjustment is carried out for the metering conveyor without putting the dough sheet on it when the metering conveyor measures parts of the dough sheet a predetermined numbers of times or when a predetermined time passes.
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Morikawa Michio
Takao Kenji
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner L.L.P.
Rheon Automatic Machinery Co.
Simone Timothy F.
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