Title of Invention

A DEVICE FOR MAKING SPHERICAL SHAPED FOOD PRODUCTS

Abstract

The present invention is a continuous conveyorized food product forming machine that is capable of forming food products in three dimensional or two dimensional forms on a continuous basis. The forming parts of the machine are easily changeable without completely disassembling the machine. The machine and its method of operation are capable of increasing the production of formed food products and permitting the formation of three dimensional products in a variety of forms. Other objects and features of the invention will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the appended drawings and specification illustrating a preferred embodiment

Full Text

The present invention relates to a device useful for making spherical shaped food products. The continuous forming/shaping device finds application in forming/shaping of spherical shaped food products like laddu, jaggery balls, puffed rice balls, roasted sesame balls and many other Indian traditional savories. This invention relates to a method and apparatus for forming food materials into three dimensional food products. More particularly, the method and machine are useful in forming food products into a variety of three-dimensional forms from a formable feedstock, changes in the form of the product are easily made by changing only a part of the machine. Machines for forming food products from a food base feed stock are well known. Most such machines form the products in wafers, patties or other forms that is not suitable for Indian Traditional Foods. In many cases the formed product is merely a compaction of the feed stock in a form that is most easily formed by the machine or a form that is stamped or cut from a sheet of feed stock. Various methods and machines have been developed over the years for shaping food materials to enhance their value and marketability. Some of those methods have utilized the single rotary concept with forming cavities in one roll only with another roll serving only as an applicator roll and functioning only to fill the cavities in the forming roll and to compress the feed material. In all such machines known, the forming cavities are an integral part of the roll structure and changes in the forming cavities are only effected by changing the entire forming roll. Those machines with the forming cavity as an integral part of the roll structure have had the limitation of forming only two dimensional products, and a lack of versatility in changing from one product form to another, and for those reasons those machines have been uneconomic in serving the food forming industry. It has become desirable to form food articles in three dimensional forms that resemble a part of the source of the feed stock. For instance, it is desirable to form boondi in the form of laddu, or to form jaggery powder into a jaggery ball. Food processors do not wish to have machines dedicated to the formation of a single food product and would prefer to have a machine that can be easily adapted or changed from forming one product into a machine for forming another product. Quick changes from one form to another form are desirable, not only because quick changes are less labor intensive but also because the time taken to effect the change reduces the time spent in the formation of food products. In light of these desires within the food product forming industry there has developed a need for a universal food product forming machine that may be adapted to the formation of many different food products with the changes between food products being made easily and with a minimum of equipment. The object of the present invention is a method for forming three dimensional food products from a feed stock of food materials with a machine that is adapted to form a variety of food forms and is adapted to be changed from one food form to another with a minimum of effort and time. A further object in accord with the preceding object is a food forming machine that will form three dimensional food objects from a feed stock and will take an input of compressible feed stock, form that stock into the desired product, and eject the formed product from the forming machine. A further object in accord with the preceding objects is a continuous conveyorized food product forming machine that will continuously receive feed stock, form the stock into a desired form, hold the formed product for few seconds for setting and eject the formed stock. Reference may be made to an US patent No. 4886441, dated 12-12-1989, wherein an apparatus for forming three dimensional food products is described. Basically, the system consists of two co-rotating cylinders with forming plates. The material to be formed is fed in between the rollers and is squeezed to forming the required shape. At the end of the rotation the formed product is ejected out onto a receiving conveyor. The main drawback of the above system is that there should not be gap between the rollers for the perfect forming. This makes it suitable for dough and liquid food products. This is not suitable for granular products. This differs form our present objective of making ball shape from boondi and jaggery powder. Also, this system does not have any holding time for the formed product to set, which is an important aspect in the Indian traditional food preparations. Since the feed is not dosed into the forming unit, there is a lot of wastage and recycling, which may affect the product quality. Reference may be made to a Japanese patent JP9107924 dated 28-04-1997 wherein a ball-molding device for food paste-molding machine is described. The description relates to a ball-molding device capable of automatically molding a thick or flat pre-molded food paste into a ball shape. The system consists of a ball mold for receiving pre-molded foods and subsequently roll-molds the foods into ball-like molded products and is disposed on a belt conveyer. The molding machine has a rotary drum where depressed molds are formed on the circumferential surface. The drawback of this system is that, it requires pre-moulded feed and is not suitable for Indian traditional foods. This calls for additional unit operations for pre-moulding. This is not suitable for granular products. Reference may be made to an US Patent US5375509, wherein a dough ball preparation table is described. This invention relates in general to a filled dough ball shaping apparatus employed to form filled dough ball bodies of desired configuration prior to processing like freezing, drying, baking, frying, steaming, or otherwise cooking the items. The present invention relates to a filled dough ball receiving, shaping, dividing and forming machine for making filled dough ball bodies of a predetermined weight and configuration of an initially filled and encrusted, spherically-shaped dough ball into smaller shaped and sealed, filled and encrusted dough balls in a continuous manner. The drawback of the present invention is that. It needs a preformed dough sheets and is applicable to only dough like food products and is basically an encrusting machine. This differs form our present objective of making ball shape from boondi and jaggery powder. Also, this system does not have any holding time for the formed product to set, which is an important aspect in the Indian traditional food preparations. Since the feed is not dosed into the forming unit, there is a lot of wastage and recycling, which may affect the product quality. Reference may be made to an US Patent US5795610, dated 18-08-1998 wherein a Food molding apparatus and method of forming food products, is described. The invention provides a molding apparatus and process of molding formable materials, which comprises of a manifold for receiving a formable material and plungers or pistons for applying pressure to the formable material within the manifold. A mold plate including mold cavity is driven between fill and discharge positions, with the mold cavity exposed to the supply manifold when in the fill position. A clamp member is positioned adjacent the mold plate when in the fill position, and pressure is applied on the clamp member to clamp the mold plate against the supply manifold. The clamp member and associated structure apply pressure to the clamp member compensating for deflection of these structural members which maintains the mold plate in firm clamping relation relative to the supply manifold. The arrangement eliminates the need to provide the clamp plate with a thick cross section or heavy mass, which would accommodate forces normally encountered during filling of the mold cavities. A mold plate knife assembly is used to cut the formable material at a position adjacent the mold cavities subsequent to filling to facilitate formation of precise portions of the formable material, and also functions to seal off the supply manifold prior to movement of the mold plate to provide distinct advantages. The main drawback of this system is that the formable food product is forced into the cavities under pressure, and a knock out position where the contents of the cavity are removed or knocked out. This differs form our present objective of making ball shape from boondi and jaggery powder. Also, this system does not have any holding time for the formed product to set, which is an important aspect in the Indian traditional food preparations. Since the feed is not dosed into the forming unit, there is a lot of wastage and recycling, which may affect the product quality. According to the description, this system is more suitable for animal products, which can withstand pressure during forming due to the material property. The main objective of present invention is to provide continuous device for making spherical shaped food products, which obviates the drawbacks as detailed above. Another object of the present invention is to provide a continuous system for the production of spherical shaped food products. Still another objective of the present invention is to provide a hygienic system untouched by human hands for making spherical shaped food products. Yet another objective of present invention is to provide a system for mechanization of preparation / production of spherical shaped food products. The drawing accompanying this specification, fig.1 represents the individual forming units and fig.2 the assembly drawing making use of these individual forming units in multiples. Accordingly the present invention provides a device for making spherical shaped food products which comprises of a forming unit as shown in (fig. 1) characterised in that the said forming unit consists with two semi-spherical cups (1) being movably fixed inside a cylindrical/square barrel (2) with a cut open (3) to intake the material, the said cups are connected to a connecting rod (4) with spring loading (5) and a cam follower/roller (6) , the said cylindrical cut open (3) is provided with two end plates (7), the said individual units are mounted in multiples on a slat conveyor (8) which are in turn mounted on two sprockets (9) , the said sprockets are mounted on a rigid frame (10) , one of these sprockets (9) is provided with a drive mechanism (11) to move the forming units, the material is fed through a hopper (12) and dosing device (13) mounted on a frame (14) operated by a drive mechanism linked to the said slated conveyor (8) , the said cam roller (6) is operated upon by cam profile (15), a Cleaning-in-Place (CIP) system is provided in the return track of the said slated conveyor (8) consisting of a detergent wash (16) , and a water wash jet (17) , an outlet chute (18) is provided at the outlet to collect the formed products (19). In an embodiment of the present invention the capacity of the unit may be varied by varying the number of forming units. In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the device can also have the combination of all these embodiments like, different shape and size of the forming unit in one set to obtained different size and shape products. While certain preferred embodiments of the invention has been specifically disclosed and described, it should be understood that the invention is not limited thereto as many variations will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art and the invention is to be given its broadest possible interpretation within the terms of the following claims. The novelties of the present invention are: ♦ It provides a continuous system for the production of spherical shaped food products. ♦ It is a continuous device to produce spherical shaped food products under hygienic conditions untouched by hands to handle hot (70°C) products, which is otherwise difficult manually. CIP system as part of invention maintains hygiene of system at all stages. ♦ Metered input facilities uniform size, weight and shape of the product, with minimum wastage. ♦ The capacity can be easily varied by varying the number of individual forming units. The shape of the product can be easily varied by altering the individual forming units. ♦ The present invention relates generally to the apparatus for food processing in making/shaping/forming spherical shaped food products. ♦ As a variation, the device can also be used both three and two dimensional products. The following examples are given by way of illustration of the present invention and therefore should not be construed to limit the scope of the present invention. The working of the continuous device for making spherical shaped food products is explained below with particular reference to laddu (hot sugar syrup dipped deep fat fried beads of bengal gram flour, formed into spherical shape at hot condition) and jaggery powder. EXAMPLE 1 The spherical beads made out of bengal gram flour, deep fat fried and dipped in sugar syrup at hot condition (60°C) known as boondi is fed to the hopper. From hopper a metered quantity is fed to the forming units mounted on the moving conveyor. Holder plates on the forming units holds desired quantity to form particular diameter (75mm) spherical shaped laddu. While the forming units move on the conveyor, the follower connected to one end of connecting rod follows the path defined by the cam plate, which results in inward movement of hemi-spherical cups. This results in forming spherical shaped food products from the feed. After forming the product, it needs to be held in this position for few seconds for setting/binding of sugar material, for this a retention period is provided on the cam plate profile. After setting, the laddus are slowly ejected out from hemi-spherical cups by last stage of cam profile. So ejected laddu lie on the forming barrel and then transfers it to the collecting chute, at the end of the slatted conveyor. On return phase of conveyor the forming units passes through CIP system, wherein detergent jet and water jet ensures cleanliness of forming unit. A variable speed motor drives the conveyor and also drives the metered feeding system with suitable reduction. The speed of motor can be varied to suit proper setting time. EXAMPLE 2 The crystallized powder of cane sugar (jaggery) at hot condition (60-70°C) is fed to the hopper. From hopper a metered quantity is fed to the forming units mounted on moving conveyor. Holder plates on the forming units holds desired quantity to form particular diameter (75mm) spherical shaped jaggery ball. While the forming units move on the conveyor, the follower connected to one end of connecting rod follows the path defined by the cam plate, which results in inward movement of hemi-spherical cups. This results in forming spherical shaped food products from the feed. After forming the product, it needs to be held in this position for few seconds for setting/binding of sugar material, for this a retention period is provided on the cam plate profile. After setting, the jaggery balls are slowly ejected out from hemi-spherical cups by last stage of cam profile. So ejected jaggery ball lie on the forming barrel and then transfers it to the collecting chute, at the end of the slatted conveyor. On return phase of conveyor the forming units passes through CIP system, wherein detergent jet and water jet ensures cleanliness of forming unit. A variable speed motor drives the conveyor and also drives the metered feeding system with suitable reduction. The speed of motor can be varied to suit proper setting time. The main advantages of the present invention are: • Spherical shaped food products can automatically be formed from hot input • Uniformity in size, shape and weight of the product can easily be attained • By replacing the forming units any shape, size and weight of the formed product can be achieved in the existing system • The complete operation of forming of spherical shaped food products are done hygienically • CIP system ensures cleanliness and sanitation of the device. We claim: 1. A device for making spherical shaped food products which comprises of a forming unit as shown in (fig.1) characterised in that the said forming unit consists with two semi-spherical cups (1) being movably fixed inside a cylindrical/square barrel (2) with a cut open (3) to intake the material, the said cups are connected to a connecting rod (4) with spring loading (5) and a cam follower/roller (6), the said cylindrical cut open (3) is provided with two end plates (7), the said individual units are mounted in multiples on a slat conveyor (8) which are in turn mounted on two sprockets (9), the said sprockets are mounted on a rigid frame (10) , one of these sprockets (9) is provided with a drive mechanism (11) to move the forming units, the material is fed through a hopper (12) and dosing device (13) mounted on a frame (14) operated by a drive mechanism linked to the said slated conveyor (8) , the said cam roller (6) is operated upon by cam profile (15), a Cleaning-in-Place (CIP) system is provided in the return track of the said slated conveyor (8) consisting of a detergent wash (16), and a water wash jet (17) , an outlet chute (18) is provided at the outlet to collect the formed products (19). 2. A device useful for making spherical shaped food products substantially as herein described with reference to the figures 1 & 2 of the drawing accompanying this specification.

Documents:

422-del-2003-abstract.pdf

422-DEL-2003-Claims-(18-07-2008).pdf

422-del-2003-claims.pdf

422-DEL-2003-Correspondence-Others-(18-07-2008).pdf

422-del-2003-correspondence-others.pdf

422-del-2003-correspondence-po.pdf

422-DEL-2003-Description (Complete)-(18-07-2008).pdf

422-del-2003-description (complete).pdf

422-del-2003-drawings.pdf

422-DEL-2003-Form-1-(18-07-2008).pdf

422-del-2003-form-1.pdf

422-del-2003-form-18.pdf

422-del-2003-form-2.pdf

422-DEL-2003-Form-3-(18-07-2008).pdf

422-del-2003-form-3.pdf