WO2011036683A1

WO2011036683A1 - Device and method for moulding food paste

Info

Publication number: WO2011036683A1
Application number: PCT/IT2009/000436
Authority: WO
Inventors: Mario Vincenti
Original assignee: Mario Vincenti
Priority date: 2009-09-24
Filing date: 2009-09-24
Publication date: 2011-03-31
Also published as: EP2480092A1; CN102595909A

Abstract

Machine and respective method for forming - according to an entirely automated processing cycle - food paste to obtain dairy products dough for baked products and pastry products, made in various shapes, thicknesses and dimensions, depending on the intended use, already packaged and ready for use without further operations and manipulations. The respective method for forming the food dough is characterised by the direct feeding of the forming section through the overlying hopper (1), by the use of two rollers (2) horizontal and parallel rotating with opposite and converging motion for the forming operation, by the containment action performed by two packaging films (6) adherent to said rollers (2), by the deposition of the exiting product, already packaged in said films (6), on a continuous collection and transfer device (7), as well as possible winding and cutting of the product into single packagings through a winding and cutting section comprising at least one half-cylinder (8) and at least one cutter (9).

Description

DEVICE AND METHOD FOR MOULFING FOOD PASTE

DESCRIPTION

Object of the present invention is a machine and respective method for making - according to an entirely automated processing cycle - dough to obtain dairy products (such as pulled-curd cheese, milk products and the like), preparations for baked products (such as preparations for pizzas, flat breads and the like) and pastry products (base for cakes, almond pastries and the like) and other similar products, made in various forms, thicknesses and sizes, depending on the use they are intended for, already packaged and ready to be used without further processes and manipulations.

The need to construct said forming machine arises, in particular, from the need to overcome some drawbacks observed in the dairy industry. As a matter of fact, in this field, machines and methods for making pulled-curd (for the production of pulled- curd cheese, milk products and similar products) only allow obtaining certain standard forms (spherical, cylindrical and parallelepiped) and they also imply a considerable loss of moisture during the processing.

In this industry, pulled-curd products are formed mainly using two different machines and respective methods:

a) "Roller" former: such machine is based on an operation process according to which the pulled-curd is loaded into a hopper and at the output of the latter, through the continuous movement of special feed screws, pushed into a forming roller from which the dough exits in spherical or cylindrical shape. b) "Tilting" former: said machine is based on the same process, with the sole difference being that the forming section is made up of a rotating tilting former with vertical axis, made of cylindrical or parallelepiped moulds.

Substantially, the two types of machines operate in the same manner, characterised in that the dough loaded at the upper part of the hopper, when it exits at the lower part of the hopper itself, is pushed towards the forming section by the pressure exerted by opposite feed screws.

Furthermore, in such process, given that the dough is maintained constantly hot by a cavity containing hot water at a constant temperature, the products exiting from the forming section - still extremely soft and deformable - are immediately discharged by falling into a hardening vat containing cold water.

This traditional system has various disadvantages.

First and foremost, it strongly limits the possible forms that the final product may acquire, allowing exclusively obtaining spherical, cylindrical or parallelepiped-shaped products and this due to the following reasons:

The low pressure that the pulled-curd receives from the horizontal movement of the feed screws or from other pressure systems definitely allows the passage of the dough itself into spherical, cylindrical or parallelepiped forms, but it is not enough to confer them, for example, thin forms;

The system for dropping into the hardening vat containing water is not however suitable to collect products such as curd sheets, slices, discs and the like. As a matter of fact, the dropping action causing the stretching of the still warm pulled-curd, would lead both to the deformation and tearing of the product (such not being the case of the traditional forms, which remain compact during the dropping).

This hinders providing the end consumer pulled-curd products ready for given uses, such as mozzarella sheets or slices having low thickness, with variable diameter and form depending on the use, to be used as they are for preparing pizzas, sandwiches, piadinas and the like, without further cutting, breaking or mincing operations etc.

Secondly, in the traditional method, the passage of the pulled- curd through the feed screws implies consistent loss of water and considerably reduces the moisture level present in the finished product.

This type of product does neither fully meet the producer's needs, as considering the same weight the product yield increases and proportionally reduces the amount of water contained therein, nor entirely satisfies the end user, who obtains a product that, containing little water, hardens immediately, instead of a soft extending product even as it cools on the pizza. Furthermore, contact with external agents such as water in the hardening vat and the inevitable, subsequent manipulation of the product for packaging thereof, considerably reduce the preservation period of the product itself, which is limited to a few days in the case of mozzarellas.

In other fields of the food industry, different from the dairy sector, such us in the preparation of baked products and pastries, similar problems and needs arise, having not been solved by the current processing machines and methods. As a matter of fact, in such fields, any process for forming base dough (dough for pizza, cheese sheets for cakes, almond pastries etc.) is limited and conditioned by the particular consistency of said preparation, which comes in form of a soft mass, extremely pliable, deformable and often sticky, thus unsuitable for machine processes, especially in cases where the product requires to be conferred a thin form but, also simultaneously, shaped (e.g. base for pizza with external edges).

In such cases, obtaining the desired final form necessarily implies the intervention of one or more manual operation steps. Therefore, this type of process, implies long operation times and considerable need of manpower, hence heavily weighing on the production costs.

The outlined disadvantages may be overcome due to the present finding, which meets the need to provide a machine based on an entirely automated process for forming pulled-curd products, but also food preparations for baked products, pastries and the like, obtained in several forms, thicknesses and dimensions, depending on the use they are intended for, already packaged and ready for use without further operations and manipulations.

Furthermore, in the specific case of dairy products, the present finding meets the need to maintain the level of moisture present in the curd almost intact, in such a manner to improve the quality and taste of the product.

Lastly, the complete absence of manipulation and contact with external agents increases the preservation period of the product itself.

These and other advantages shall be apparent from the detailed description of the invention, with particular reference to a preferred embodiment indicated in drawings 1/4, 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4, such drawings not being restrictive in any way whatsoever. In particular, in the abovementioned drawings:

- Fig. 1 represents the front view of the machine according to the invention;

- Fig. 2 shows the rear view of the machine of Fig. 1 ;

- Fig. 3 is a side view of the machine according to the invention;

- Lastly, Fig. 4 shows some details of the forming rollers and the respective gears.

With reference to the abovementioned figures, the machine in question comprises a hopper (1) for loading the dough, arranged at the upper part of the machine, accommodated beneath which are two forming rollers (2) arranged horizontally, adjacent and parallel to each other and rotating in opposite and converging direction, actuated by at least two toothed wheels (3) arranged at the ends of said rollers and power supplied by an electric motor (4); two bobbin holder rollers (5) for the packaging films (6), which are unwound in such a manner to slide both films (6) into said forming rollers (2), in such a manner that each film slides adhering to one of them; a conveyor belt (7) positioned immediately beneath said forming rollers (2), at whose end the shaped dough, exiting from said forming rollers (2) in the form imparted by the same, protected and held between the two upper and lower packaging films (6), is deposited ready-packaged; at least one hollow half-cylindrical element (8) arranged at the opposite end with respect to said conveyor belt (7), which allows rolling the already packaged product; a cutter (9) for cutting the single packaging at the end of the winding; electric control panel (10).

In its preferred embodiment, through the machine described in drawings 1/1, the method subject of the invention, 1, 2, 3 and 4, therefore comprises the following steps:

• feeding the dough through the loading hopper (1) towards the forming rollers (2);

• feeding the packaging films (6) from the bobbin holder rollers (5) to the forming rollers (2) in such a manner that each film (6) slides adhering to one of said forming rollers (2) and into the space present therebetween;

• rolling and shaping the dough by passing through the forming rollers (2), as well as simultaneous packaging thereof between the films (6);

· depositing and transporting the dough as packaged by means of a conveyor belt (7) or equivalent means of transfer;

• possible rolling of the product packaged by means of a hollow half-cylindrical element (8) or similar device and cutting into single packagings at the end of the winding by means of a cutter (9) or similar device.

As observable, said method has some essential and innovative characteristics that allow overcoming the problems observed in the processing methods of the prior art, to obtain, depending on the end product, the advantages described above for the producers, operators and consumers of the food industry.

The first clear advantage lies in the fact that the amount of moisture present in the finished product is considerably greater with respect to that present in the products obtained through the traditional method.

This due to the fact that:

a) Due to the method subject of the present invention, a pulled- curd with greater "maturation" degree may be used as raw material, hence implying greater percentage of water, given that during the forming, the dough - regardless of the greater maturation level - does not stick against the forming rollers (as would be the case using a traditional machine): this due to the particular forming method and simultaneous packaging between two films, to be addressed further ahead,

b) In the method subject of the present invention, contrary to the traditional methods, the hopper (1) is arranged above the forming section (2), thus its lower part, from which the dough loaded at the upper part exits, is directly connected to the forming rollers (2), without using feeding screws.

This system for loading the pulled-curd from above allows the same to be pushed into the machine through vertical dropping, or due to the effect of its own weight, making the presence of feed screws superfluous and hence avoiding the squeezing action that the same exert on the dough.

On the contrary, in the traditional methods the movement of the feed screws, required to push the dough along the compartment for accommodating the feed screws up to the forming section, exerts a squeezing pressure on the dough itself, eliminating a greater amount of water with respect to the method subject of the present invention, hence reducing the moisture level remaining in the end product.

The second and more clear advantage is that of being able to obtain forms with low thickness and extended diameter, as well as other and different shapes, due to the presence of a forming section made up of two adjacent and parallel rollers (2) which rotate in opposite and converging directions, one of which bears the form (1 1) to be conferred to the product, like a concave mould obtained by scooping the surface of the roller itself.

The replacement of the traditional drum or tilting roller with said two rollers is also enabled by the described mechanism according to which the dough, loaded in the hopper (1) arranged above the forming section, is "forced" to drop vertically from above, due to its own weight, into the opening between the two forming rollers (2)·

As a matter of fact, considering the dough loaded from above, the converging rotation of the two forming rollers (2) pulling the dough into the opening between the rollers themselves - one of which bears the form (1 1) to be conferred to the product - is all that is required.

On the contrary, and i.e. according to the traditional feed-screw- based method, the low pressure that the pulled-curd receives from the horizontal movement of the feed screws exclusively allows the passage of the dough itself into the circular section forms (spherical, cylindrical) or rectangular (parallelepiped), while forcing it to penetrate into the opening is not enough to obtain the thin forms.

Inside the forming section, the two packaging films (6) that slide adhering to each roller (2) "hold" the dough therein, facilitating their penetration into the two forming rollers (2) and preventing the dough from breaking or sticking against the rollers themselves during the forming operations. Furthermore, the two films (6) further contain the product exiting from the forming section, maintaining the form intact regardless the fact that the product itself is still hot, soft and deformable. Lastly, the direct connection of the forming section with a conveyor belt (7) allows, accommodated between the two packaging films and lying on the horizontal surface of the belt, the product to cool and harden sliding on the belt and without being subjected to deformation (as would be the case following the traditional method, with the hot product dropping into the hardening vat).

Due to all the characteristics described, the machine - and the respective method - is suitable to be used even in sectors different from the dairy industry, for processing other food dough products, such as, for exemplifying and non-limiting purposes, flour-based dough for baked products and dough for pastry products.

As a matter of fact, in these other cases, in the absence of a machine and method like the ones described, the particular consistency of the dough (soft, deformable and sticky) prevents the operators from providing an entirely automated forming, implying the requirement of some manual operation steps to avoid the risk of damage or deformation of the dough.

The described machine and method instead allow obtaining the desired form in an entirely automatic manner: while the forming rollers (2) impart the required form, the two packaging films (6) hold the dough, prevent the dough from sticking against the rollers during the forming and ensure that it is deposited on the conveyor belt (7) maintaining the same form.

A further advantage lies in the fact that the described machine and method allow, by replacing one or both forming rollers (2), obtaining various forms, ranging from the thin ones such as dough sheets, slices, disc-shaped and the like, as well as the bigger ones such as spherical-shaped, up to obtaining animal- shaped products such as fish, sheep and the like.

Lastly, as a further advantage, the replacement of one or both forming rollers (2) allows adjusting the product grammage in advance, as well as the size and/or thickness of the same.

Claims

Method for forming food dough, entirely automated, characterized in that the forming of the dough simultaneously occurs with the packaging of the same and the product resulting from the processing comes in various shapes, thicknesses and dimensions, already packaged and ready for use without requiring further operations and manipulations, and characterized by the following steps:

• feeding the dough through a loading hopper (1) towards two forming rollers (2);

• feeding two packaging films (6) from two bobbin holder rollers (5) towards said two forming rollers (2), in such a manner that each of said films slides adhering to one of said two forming rollers and inside the space present between the same two;

• rolling and shaping the dough by means of passage through said two forming rollers (2), as well as simultaneous packaging thereof between said two films (6) when passing and shaping through said rollers;

• depositing the finished product as packaged on a continuous collection and transfer device (7).

Method according to claim 1, further characterised by a step for winding and cutting the product into single packagings. Machine for forming food dough comprising an electric control panel (10), a hopper (1) for loading the dough, two forming rollers (2), two bobbin holder rollers (5), a device (7) for constant collection and transfer of the packaged product, possibly a system (8, 9) for winding and cutting into single packagings, to implement a method according to claim 1. 4) Machine according to claim 3, further comprising a system (8, 9) for winding and cutting into single packagings to implement a method according to claim 2.

5) Machine according to claim 3 or 4, characterised in that the loading hopper (1) is arranged immediately above the forming rollers (2).

6) Machine according to claims 3 - 5, where the rolling of the dough by passing through two forming rollers (2) is enabled by the fact that said rollers, horizontal, adjacent and parallel to each other, rotate in the opposite and converging direction. 7) Machine according to claims 3 - 6, where the shaping of the dough is obtained due to the fact that one of said rollers (2) has at least one shape (1 1) scooped on its surface, which models the dough into the desired form during the passage of the same inside the space present between the two rollers. 8) Machine according to claim 6, where the rotation and converging movement of the two forming rollers (2) is imparted by an electric motor (4) through at least two toothed wheels (3) arranged at the end of said rollers (2).

9) Machine according to claim 7, characterised in that the replacement of one of said rollers (2), on whose surface there is scooped at least one shape (1 1), with another roller on whose surface there is scooped at least another shape, allows obtaining finished products of several and varied forms, different in terms of shape, dimension, thickness and amount of dough contained in the product itself.

10) Machine according to claim 3, where the device for continuous collection and transfer of the packaged product is the conveyor belt (7) arranged immediately beneath the forming section (2).

1 1) Machine according to claim 4, where the winding and cutting the product into single packagings is obtained by means of a winding section (8, 9) arranged at the end of the conveyor belt (7) opposite with respect to the product deposit section , comprising at least one hollow half-cylinder element (8) for rolling the product on itself and at least one cutter (9) for cutting into single packagings at the end of the winding.