Full-automatic panning system for white bread production line

• US 4,036,569 A
• Filed: 03/01/1976
• Issued: 07/19/1977
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/1972
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Oshikiri Kikai Selsaku-Sho
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Oshikiri Kikai Selsaku-Sho
• Inventors: Oshikiri, Tatsuo
• Primary Examiner(s): Husar, Francis S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Briggs, William R.
• Application Number:
  US05/662,437
• Time in Patent Office: 505 Days
• Field of Search: 425/135, 425/140, 425/145, 425/392, 425/397, 425/337
• US Class Current: 425/140
• CPC Class Codes: A21C 9/081 Charging of baking tins or forms with dough
• CPC Class Codes: A21C 9/088 Folding or bending discrete dough pieces or dough strips twisting strips of dough A21C3/08; with filling action A21C9/063; forming toroid-shaped dough pieces A21C11/002

Abstract

A panning system for a full-automatic white bread production line is composed of a cylindrical dough piece selector which detects cylindrical dough pieces in a molder which are transferred one by one intermittently and selects and removes the cylindrical dough pieces longer than a predetermined length or making a narrow pitch with a preceeding cylindrical dough piece; a centering machine which transfers the selected cylindrical dough pieces, and detects lateral deviations in the column of the detected dough pieces to correct them by the deviating amount; a bending machine which bends the cylindrical dough pieces transferred them into the determined shapes; and, a circular table panning machine for receiving the bent dough pieces one by one and moving them successively to charge simultaneously a plurality of the dough pieces into a bread pan.

Claims

1. An automatic panning system for white bread production line, including an elongated travel path having a plurality of work stations in series;

comprising;

a. dough piece-selecting device (A) first work station which detects cylindrically formed dough pieces in a molder and transfers these one by one intermittently said device having means selecting and removing cylindrical dough pieces longer than a predetermined length and making a narrow pitch with a preceeding dough piece,

b. a centering machine (B) second work station fed by said first work station operable to transfer the selected dough pieces including sensing means for sensing for lateral deviations in a column of the transferred detected dough pieces to correct them by the deviating amount,

c. a bending machine (C) third work station fed by said second work station operable to bend the cylindrical dough peices transferred from the centering machine into predetermined shapes, and,

d. a circular table panning machine (D) fourth work station fed by said third work station having means to receive the bent dough pieces one by one and moving them successively to pan a plurality of the dough pieces into a bread pan.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the dough piece-selecting device (A) is provided with a conveyor (1) installed at an outlet of the molder, a length detecting device (2) for detecting the length of the cylindrical dough piece installed above the conveyor (1), a dough pitch detecting a device (3) for detecting time-interval of the dough piece transferred on the conveyor (1), a selecting device (4) inclinably installed between said conveyor (1) and the following centering machine (B), and a controlling device (6) for communicating an actuating machanism (5) of the selecting device (4) to said detectors (2)(3) and inclining the selecting device (4) in response to a signal issued from the detectors (2)(3) to drop out faulty doughs.

3. A system according to claim 2, wherein the length detector (2) and the pitch detector (3) are respectively composed of detecting switches (30)(31)(32) provided above the conveyor (1), fingers (301)(302) of the length detecting switches (30)(31) are positioned near both ends of the conveyor (1) to contact a too lengthy dough piece only, and the pitch detecting switch (32) has a finger (321) to contact all of the cylindrical dough pieces transferred on the conveyor (1).

4. A system according to claim 2, wherein the controlling device (6) is composed of a first controller (33) and a second controller (34), the first controller (33) being connected with the length detecting switch (30) and a controlling valve (28) of an actuating cylinder (25) to incline the selecting plate (4) for opening the plate (4) with the first controller (33) when the length detecting switches (30)(31) are actuated by a too lengthy a dough piece, and the second controller (34) being connected with the pitch detecting switch (32) and the controlling valve (28) of the actuating cylinder (25) for releasing the selecting plate (4) with the second controller when a time interval is shorter than a fixed period of time when the cylindrical dough piece contacting the finger (321).

5. A system according to claim 2, wherein a fault dough pan (35) is provided under the selecting plate (4) and a dough removal detecting switch (36) having a finger (361) is provided above the faulty dough pan (35) to contact dropping fault doughs (W₁), the detecting switch (36) being connected to the controlling valve (28) via the first controller (33) for returning back the selecting plate (4) to an initial closing condition, when said faulty dough contacts the finger (361), via the controlling valve (28) by said detecting switch (36).

6. A system according to claim 1, wherein the centering machine (B) between said selecting device (A) and bending machine (C), is provided with an endless chain conveyor (9) which is so arranged that a front part thereof is inclined upwardly, a plurality of dough pocket plates (10) which are equipped on said conveyor (9) slidably in transverse thereto and each of which holds one cylindrical dough piece, a cross deviation detecting device (11) which is provided above said conveyor (9) for detecting cross deviations of the dough piece in the pocket plate (10), and controlling device (12) which is actuated by said detecting device (11) to slide the pocket plate (10) to the extent of correcting said cross deviation.

7. A system according to claim 6, wherein the endless chain conveyor (9) is composed of a lower chain wheel (39), an upper chain wheel (40) and right and left endless chains (41)(42) which are provided with a pair of cross axes (43)(43) and on which the pocket plates (10) of ship like cross section are slidable along said cross axes (43).

8. A system according to claim 7, wherein the controlling device (12) for laterally sliding the pocket plate (10) which is composed of a girdle rail (44) including a fixed rail (45) and cross movable rail (46) between said endless chains (41)(42), a pulse motor (47) for sliding the cross movable rail (46), and a roller (48) extending from the bottoms of the pocket plates (10) to engaging the girdle rail (44).

9. A system according to claim 6, wherein the cross deviation detector (11) is composed of a left deviation detecting switch (54), a right deviation detecting switch (55) provided above the endless chains (41)(42), and a cross shifting controller (56) connecting said pulse motor (47) to said both switches (54)(55) on which the same number of fingers (541)(542)(543) and (551)(552)(553) are equidistantly provided to positions in the center of the pocket plate (10) at conveying paths of both ends of the cylindrical dough piece.

10. A system according to claim 1, wherein the bending machine (C) is installed between said centering machine (B) and circular table panning machine (D), and provided with a conveyor (13) which conveys the cylindrical dough piece (W) to a right angle direction with its length, a stopping mechanism (14) which temporarily stops movement of the center of said dough piece, a guiding mechanism (15) which guides movements of both ends of the dough piece, a bending mechanism (16) which pushes predetermined portions between the center and ends of the dough piece to the conveying direction while said two mechansim are working on the dough piece, and a compressing mechanism (17) which sandwiches the bent dough (W'"'"' ) while conveying it.

11. A system according to claim 1, wherein a rotating drum (62) is provided above the center of the conveyor (13), fixed with a sprocket wheel (60) and a cam plate (61) on its outer circumference, connected with rotating axes (63)(63) at both ends via a universal joints (64), provided with an arm (14) at its center part in such that an upper roller (66) always presses the outer circumference of the cam plate (61) by a spring (67), arranged radially with bending arms (16a)(16a) of the same number as cams (611) around said rotating axes (63), and furnished with plates or rollers (15a)(15b) above the conveyor (13) outsides of the bending arms (16a)(16a).

12. A system according to claim 10, wherein the compressing mechanism (17) is composed of conveyors (17a)(17a) which are furnished on the conveyor (13) and become narrow in space therebetween along the conveying direction.

13. A system according to claim 1, wherein the circular table panning machine (D) is provided with a circular table (18) swiveling horizontally in front of the conveyor (13), the dough pocket plate (20) having a plurality of pockets (19) formed equidistantly on the circumference (18) for receiving one bent dough per one pocket, a table swiveling mechanism (21) swiveling said table (18) intermittently to one direction evey time when said pocket (19) receives one bent dough, and a pocket plate-dropping-out mechanism (22) opening the bottom of the pocket plate (20) to drop the bent doughs (W'"'"')(W'"'"')(W'"'"') simultaneously.

14. A system according to claim 13, wherein the pocket plate (20) is composed of wall ribs (71)(71) extending radially from the center of the circular table (18) to a circular rim (70), an outer base plate (72) and an inner base plate (73) which both plates are pivoted to hinge down with axes (74a)(74b) near said rim (70) between the ribs (71)(71), the plates (72)(73) and the ribs (71)(71) defining dough receiving pockets plates (20a)(20b)(20c)(20d)(20e)(20f).

15. A system according to claim 13, wherein pockets (19) of the pocket plates (20a) to (20f) are half concave portions (75) defined with the outer base plates (72) and the inner base plates (73).

16. A system according to claim 13, wherein the pocket (19) is formed with an arm (77) pivoted by pins (76)(76) on the circular table (18) and a plurality of space plates (78)(78) extended from the arm (77) at inner end of which a roller (79) is equipped for engaging with an arc cam (81) formed in a cam plate (80) supported on a vertical pivot axis (69) of the circular table (18).

17. A system according to claim 13, wherein the pocket plate-dropping-out mechanism (22) is composed of the outer base plate (72) of the pocket plates (20a) to (20f), rollers (86a)(86b) equipped on reverse side of the inner base plate (73), and a large rail cam (87), the rail cam (87) being a flat plate cam (871) in front of the conveyor (13) and at a position where the pocket plate is opened, which cam (871) is terminated at an end (872) and is branched at another end into an outer inclined cam (873) and an inner inclined cam (874) said cams being twisted to increase inclination and stand vertically under the position where the plate is opened.

18. A system according to claim 1, wherein the circular table panning machine (D) is provided with the circular table (18) swiveling horizontally in front of the conveyor (13), the dough pocket plate (20) having a plurality of pockets (19) formed equidistantly on the circumference (18) for receiving one bent dough per one pocket, a table swiveling mechanism swiveling said table (18) intermittently to one direction every time when said pocket (19) receives one bent dough, a pocket plate-dropping-out mechanism (22) opening the bottom of the pocket plate (20) to drop the bent doughs (W'"'"')(W'"'"')(W'"'"') simultaneously, and the dough compressing mechansim (E) compressing the dropped bent doughs and panning them into the bread pan (5).

19. A system according to claim 18, wherein the dough compressing mechanism (E) is provided with a dough compressing portion (89) composed of openable bottom plates (90a)(90b) equipped under the pocket plate (22) and four side plates (91a)(91b)(91c)(91d) surrounding the bottom plates (90a)(90b), a dough compressing mechanism (92) pushing said side plates (91a) to (91b) inwardly, and a compressor opening mechanism (93) opening the bottom plates (90a)(90b) of said dough compressing portion (89) after completing compression to drop it out.

20. A system according to claim 18, wherein said bottom plates (90a)(90b) and side plates (91a) to (91d) are composed of inner wall plates (96) contacting with the dough and outer plates (97) surrounding said wall plates (96), between which plates (97) and plates (96) an air chamber (98) is formed, the outer plate (97) being connected to an air inlet pipe (99) communicating to the air chamber (98), and the wall plate (96) being composed of porous material.

21. A system according to claim 20, wherein the wall plate (96) is composed of porous metal.