Bake Form for Manufacturing a Food Product
First Claim
1. A food product forming unit which comprises:
- a bake form, wherein the bake form is shaped as a hollow, right circular cone defined by a vertex, and a base, and an axis, and wherein a portion of the cone at the vertex is removed to form a vent on the bake form and the base of the cone remains open to provide access into the hollow of the bake form, and further wherein a detent is formed along a periphery around the open base;
a conically-shaped mandrel having an outer surface, wherein the mandrel is dimensioned to be coaxially received into the hollow of the bake form to juxtapose the outer surface of the mandrel with an internal surface of the bake form in the hollow of the bake form; and
a mechanism for rotating the mandrel, together with the bake form, while a strip of bread dough is deposited along a spiral pathway on an external surface of the bake form to prepare the food product for baking.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An automated system and method for manufacturing a cone-shaped food product holder requires the coordinated use of a forming unit, a conveyor unit and a control unit. In their combination, the forming unit rotates a conically-shaped bake form at a constant angular velocity ω. Simultaneously, the conveyor unit advances a bread dough strip on a conveyor belt at a constant linear velocity v, for deposit of the bread dough strip onto the bake form. In order to account for the conical configuration of the bake form, the actions of the forming unit and the conveyor unit are coordinated by the control unit. Specifically, the control unit moves the conveyor unit with a predetermined rotation relative to the forming unit to form the food product holder on the forming unit for subsequent baking.
11 Citations
11 Claims
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1. A food product forming unit which comprises:
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a bake form, wherein the bake form is shaped as a hollow, right circular cone defined by a vertex, and a base, and an axis, and wherein a portion of the cone at the vertex is removed to form a vent on the bake form and the base of the cone remains open to provide access into the hollow of the bake form, and further wherein a detent is formed along a periphery around the open base; a conically-shaped mandrel having an outer surface, wherein the mandrel is dimensioned to be coaxially received into the hollow of the bake form to juxtapose the outer surface of the mandrel with an internal surface of the bake form in the hollow of the bake form; and a mechanism for rotating the mandrel, together with the bake form, while a strip of bread dough is deposited along a spiral pathway on an external surface of the bake form to prepare the food product for baking. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. An apparatus for preparing a food product which comprises:
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a product forming unit for shaping and supporting the food product during a baking process; a conveyor unit for delivering a bread dough strip to the forming unit prior to the baking process; and a control unit for coordinating the delivery of bread dough from the conveyor unit to the forming unit during a shaping of the food product. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10)
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11. A method for manufacturing a food product holder which comprises the steps of:
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orienting a conical-shaped mandrel with its axis inclined in a vertical plane at an angle α
relative to a coplanar horizontal line;engaging a conical-shaped bake form onto the mandrel in coaxial alignment therewith to orient a portion of the bake form parallel to the horizontal line defined by the mandrel; providing a conveyor channel having a proximal end and a distal end, with the proximal end mounted at a pivot point for rotation of the conveyor channel through an angle θ
in a horizontal plane around the pivot point, to move the distal end of the conveyor channel along an arc length larc relative to the bake form;rotating the bake form on the mandrel at a constant angular velocity ω
;controlling a cyclical rotation of the conveyor channel through the angle θ
, and a consequent cyclical translation of the distal end of the conveyor belt through the arc length larc, to coordinate the translation of the distal end of the conveyor channel with the rotation of the conical-shaped bake form; andadvancing a bread dough strip along the conveyor channel to deposit the bread dough strip from the distal end of the conveyor channel onto the rotating bake form to form the food product holder in a predetermined pattern on the bake form for subsequent baking.
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Specification