Patent Application
20080057154
Having thus described the invention in general terms, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:
The present inventions now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings in which some but not all embodiments of the inventions are shown. Indeed, these inventions may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.
The present invention is directed to the production of chewing gum pieces. A filled gum piece in accordance with the invention comprises a chewing gum composition formed into a discrete piece that defines an internal cavity. The cavity is filled with a liquid or powder filling. The chewing gum piece can also include a hard outer coating or shell. Unfilled chewing gum pieces can also be formed in accordance with the invention.
A liquid filling for gum pieces in accordance with the invention can comprise an aqueous solution containing one or more of sweeteners, flavors, cooling agents, substances to enhance production of saliva, oral care compositions, and the like. Aqueous bulk sweetener solutions such as those containing sorbitol, xylitol, lactitol, maltitol, glycerol, hydrogenated isomaltulose and other polyols, or combinations thereof, may be used in the liquid filling. Thickeners can also be included, such as gelatin, xanthan gum, guar gum, acacia gum, pectin, carrageenan, cellulose gum, or the like.
A powder filling likewise can comprise one or more of sweeteners, flavors, cooling agents, substances to enhance production of saliva, oral care compositions, and the like. One or more of the ingredients of the powder filling can be provided in the form of encapsulated material.
Powder bulk sweeteners that can be used in the powder filling may include sweeteners such as sugar alcohols, including but not limited to sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol, hydrogenated starch hydrolysates, lactitol, maltitol, hydrogenated isomaltulose, or the like, alone or in combination. High-intensity sweeteners may also be used and are commonly used with sugarless bulk sweeteners. These may include but are not limited to sucralose, aspartame, salts of acesulfame, alitame, saccharin and its salts, cyclamic acid and its salts, glycyrrhizin, dihydrochalcones, thaumatin, monellin, and the like, alone or in combination. One or more of the ingredients of the powder filling can be provided in the form of encapsulated material.
Flavoring agents that can be used in the gum composition and/or in the liquid filling and/or in the powder filling include essential oils and artificial flavors, or mixtures thereof, including natural oils derived from plants and fruits such as citrus oils, peppermint oil, spearmint oil, other mint oils, clove oil, oil of wintergreen, anise, and the like. Artificial flavorings can comprise fruit flavors such as strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, grape, apple, cherry, banana, melon, or the like.
The gum pieces in accordance with the invention can be formed in various shapes and sizes. As one example, the gum piece can have a generally rectangular shape in plan view. The gum piece can include a pair of opposite major surfaces and each of which is generally convex in a direction away from the other major surface, although each major surface can include a portion that is generally planar or flat in at least one direction. The gum piece can have two opposite first side edges that are generally parallel to each other, and two opposite second side edges that are generally parallel to each other and generally perpendicular to the first side edges. The side edges can be substantially linear in plan view, or can be concave or convex. In cross-section, the gum piece can have a generally elliptical or oval shape (although, as noted, the major surfaces can include portions that are generally flat or linear in at least one direction).
An apparatus 20 for making filled gum pieces in accordance with one embodiment of the invention is shown in diagrammatic fashion in
With reference to
The extruder assembly 30 further comprises a center filling mechanism having a filler tube 39 extending through each die orifice 38. The extruder head defines feed passages (not shown) extending through the extruder head and connecting with the filler tubes 39 for feeding a filling through the filler tubes. Accordingly, the gum rope 40 extruded through each die orifice 38 is formed to have a channel filled with the filling. When a liquid filling is employed, a modular gear pump 34 advantageously can be employed for feeding the liquid through the filler tubes 39. The modular gear pump has a plurality of gear elements 35, one for each filler tube 39. The gear pump has the advantage that the gear elements precisely meter the flow rate of liquid into each filler tube and thus ensure that all of the gum ropes receive the same amount of liquid filling.
When the apparatus is used for making liquid-filled gum pieces, the center filling mechanism can include an air tube (not shown) that extends down the middle of each filler tube 39 for blowing air under a slightly superatmospheric pressure into the liquid-filled channel of the gum rope to assist in the filling of the channel and to prevent the development of a vacuum in the liquid-filled channel that could cause the gum rope or the finished gum pieces to shrink or distort. The air tube is connected to an air feed passage (not shown) in the extruder head 32, which receives pressurized air from a suitable source (not shown). The center-filling mechanism described in commonly owned, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/392,430 (“the '430 application”) filed on Mar. 29, 2006, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, is suitable for use in the present invention, and can be suitably adapted with multiple filler tubes for use in the multiple-rope extruder of the present invention.
As noted, the filling can comprise either a liquid or a powder material. When the apparatus is employed for making powder-filled gum pieces, the center filling mechanism includes a powder hopper (not shown) that contains the powder filling. The hopper has a discharge tube (not shown) through which the powder filling is discharged with the aid of a feed screw (not shown) driven by a motor (not shown). The motor also drives a rotating agitator (not shown) disposed in the hopper for agitating the powder filling to prevent agglomeration, clumping, or caking of the powder filling. The powder filling is discharged from the discharge tube into a plurality of powder feed passages of the extruder head 32. The powder feed passages feed powder into the filler tubes that respectively extend through the die orifices 38 of the extruder head. A rotating agitator (not shown) can extend down the center of each powder feed passage and filler tube for agitating the powder filling to prevent agglomeration, clumping, or caking of the powder filling so that the powder filling flows smoothly and continuously through the powder filler tube. The agitator is driven by a motor (not shown). A suitable center filling mechanism for filling a gum rope with a powder filling is described in the '430 application. While the powder filling mechanism described in the '430 application is for an extruder that extrudes a single gum rope, a similar type of mechanism with multiple powder filler tubes can be employed in the multiple-rope extruder of the present invention.
After the gum ropes exit the extruder 30, they are fed through the cooling tunnel 110 to cool and dry the gum ropes prior to cutting. It is to be noted that the gum ropes undergo no sizing process between the extruder and the cooling tunnel. The cooling tunnel is shown in detail in
The cooling tunnel includes a series of vertically spaced, individual belt conveyors 118 arranged inside the enclosure 112. The belt conveyors extend parallel to the length direction of the enclosure 112 and parallel to one another, and each is substantially horizontal. The belt conveyors 118 thus lie substantially in a vertical plane. The conveyors include an uppermost belt conveyor 118a and a lowermost belt conveyor 118k, and nine intermediate belt conveyors 118b through 118j disposed between the uppermost and lowermost conveyors. Each belt conveyor comprises a belt formed in an endless loop about suitable rollers or sprockets, and each belt is driven by its own separate drive motor 120. The belt conveyors 118a, 118c, 118e, 118g, 118i, and 118k all are driven so that the upper flight of the respective belt travels in the machine direction (left to right in
The belt conveyors 118 are structured and arranged such that the gum ropes carried along the uppermost belt conveyor 118a fall off the downstream end of the upper flight of the belt onto the next belt conveyor 118b. The conveyor 118b extends slightly farther to the right in the drawings than the uppermost conveyor so that it catches the ropes falling from the uppermost conveyor. The second conveyor 118b then carries the ropes to the left and they fall down to the next conveyor 118c in the same manner, and so forth. The gum ropes are finally carried by the lowermost conveyor 118k to a discharge conveyor 122 that advances the ropes to the cutter 150.
The gum ropes are carried into the cooling tunnel 110 by an inlet conveyor 124, through an entrance opening formed in the enclosure 112. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the tunnel includes two or more alternative entrance openings. A first opening leads the gum ropes onto the uppermost conveyor 118a. A second alternative opening leads the gum ropes onto an intermediate conveyor such as conveyor 118i as shown, or onto the lowermost conveyor 118k. The first opening is used when maximum residence time and cooling of the gum ropes are required. The second opening is used when less residence time and cooling are required. The inlet conveyor 124 advantageously is configured so that it can be readily moved from one entrance to another, such as through a quick-connect coupling or the like.
Each belt conveyor 118 advantageously carries the gum ropes slightly faster than the immediately preceding conveyor, the objective being to prevent the gum ropes from “snaking” or bending in a horizontal side-to-side fashion. Such snaking could have adverse effects on the quality of the gum pieces produced, and in extreme cases could result in the ropes becoming jammed in the cooling tunnel. To prevent such snaking, the individual drive motors 120 are controlled so that a gradual increase in speed occurs through the tunnel. The cooling tunnel can include one or more sensors (not shown) for detecting the gum ropes' position on each belt conveyor 118. If the ropes move out of the desired straight position by more than a predetermined amount, then an alarm can be given to alert the machine operator that an abnormal condition may exist in the tunnel. It is also possible to control the motor speeds based on the sensor output signals so as to automatically reduce any detected snaking.
The speed increase through the cooling tunnel can be varied depending upon the requirements in each case. Generally, the ratio of the outlet speed (i.e., the speed of the lowermost conveyor 118k) to the inlet speed (i.e., the speed of the uppermost conveyor 118a) will be greater than or equal to 1.0 and less than about 1.3, more preferably less than about 1.2, still more preferably less than about 1.15, still more preferably less than about 1.1, and even more preferably less than about 1.05.
The cooled gum ropes exit from the cooling tunnel 110 and are then simultaneously cut into discrete gum pieces in the cutter 150. The cutter is illustrated diagrammatically in
The size and shape of the channels 158 defined between the calibrating rollers 152 determine the size and shape of the gum ropes fed into the cutting rollers 160. As noted, the calibrating rollers do not make dramatic changes in the size or shape of the gum ropes, but only impart small “fine-tuning” adjustments to the size and/or shape so the gum ropes will be in appropriate condition for cutting in the cutting rollers. For example, the gum ropes may be reduced in height or thickness by about 0.5 mm or less in passing through the calibrating rollers. Although the channels 158 are illustrated as being generally semi-circular in
As shown in
The cutting rollers 160 are now described with reference to
The particular structure of the cutting rollers 160 and their cutting teeth 162 will depend in each case on the shape of the gum pieces to be produced. In general, the cutting teeth are structured to cut each gum rope along cut lines that are transversely extending (i.e., perpendicular to the longitudinal axes of the gum ropes, the gum ropes being conveyed in a direction parallel to their longitudinal axes and perpendicular to the axes of the cutting rollers). In a preferred embodiment, the gum pieces to be produced have a rectangular shape in plan view, with the two shorter end edges of each piece being the edges cut by the cutting teeth 162, the two longer edges being perpendicular to the shorter end edges and being formed by the side walls of the gum rope. Accordingly, the cutting teeth 162 for producing such rectangular gum pieces are linear and parallel to the rotational axes of the cutting rollers 160.
The gum pieces produced by the cutter 150 are conveyed by a suitable conveyor to the final cooling unit 190 for further cooling. The final cooling unit 190 can comprise any suitable type of cooling unit for cooling the gum pieces. In one embodiment, the final cooling unit comprises a cooling tunnel of the type described for the cooling tunnel 110 above. The gum pieces travel on the various conveyor belts through the cooling tunnel and are discharged into receptacles for transfer to further operations.
Such further operations can include, for example, a coating process 200 (
In the hard coating panning procedure, the coating syrup is generally added to the gum pieces at a temperature of from about 10° C. to about 90° C., and more preferably from about 30° C. to about 70° C. The coating on the gum pieces may be applied in a single hard layer or in a plurality of hard layers.
In general, applying a plurality of layers involves applying a single coat, allowing the coat to dry, and then repeating the process obtains a plurality of layers. Any number of coats may be applied to the gum pieces. Preferably, the gum pieces are coated with about 30 to 70 layers.
Once a portion of syrup is applied to the gum pieces, the wet syrup coating is dispersing on the pieces and dried; such drying is done by forced-air drying in a temperature range of from about 15° C. to about 45° C. The drying air should have relative humidity below 50% RH. Each application of a wet syrup coating to the gum pieces is followed by a distribution period without air and then a forced-air drying of the coating, and the coating and drying steps are alternated until the desired numbers of coating layers have been deposited on the gum pieces.
A protective and polishing layer of food-grade wax (e.g., carnauba wax or the like) or shellac resin may be applied over the hard coating, if desired, in order to protect the coating from exposure to atmospheric moisture and to impart a glossy finish to the gum pieces.
After coating, the gum pieces are subjected to a packaging operation 210 (
The apparatus and method of the invention can be used for producing gum pieces (filled or unfilled) of various shapes. The shape of the gum pieces is a function primarily of the shape of the extruder die orifices 38, the shape of the grooves 154 in the calibrating rollers, and the configuration of the cutting rollers 160.
Many modifications and other embodiments of the inventions set forth herein will come to mind to one skilled in the art to which these inventions pertain having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. For example, while the apparatus and method described in connection with the drawings entail simultaneously extruding, cooling, and cutting a plurality of filled gum ropes, the invention is also applicable to apparatus and methods in which a single filled gum rope is extruded, cooled, and cut. For single-rope production, the calibrating rollers can be configured with a single calibrating passage and the cutting rollers likewise can be configured with a single set of cutting teeth. Advantageously, however, for increased production rates and efficiency, the multiple-rope apparatus and method are preferred. Furthermore, although the invention is particularly advantageous for producing filled gum pieces, the invention is not limited to filled gums, but is also applicable to unfilled gums. Therefore, it is to be understood that the inventions are not to be limited to the specific embodiments disclosed and that modifications and other embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.
