Patent Application
20240324607
The present invention relates to a device for providing a dough sheet with a layer of fat. Such device may be used in a dough line for creating puff pastry, which comprises a laminate formed of alternated dough and fat layers. In order to obtain the highest quality of puff pastry, the amount of dough and fat that the layers comprise is to be determined very precisely. Although modern dough processing techniques have become predictable and reproducible to a very high level, dough and fat may still have fluctuating properties and/or compositions when produced or processed in an industrial environment. Additionally, circumstances like temperature and humidity may be influenced in an unforeseen manner and also have their impact on the dough and fat or the processing thereof. Even time may be of influence, as the fat, for instance formed by butter or margarine or other fatty substances, may be provided in large blocks, which stacked on pallets need a week to have a constant temperature in all butter blocks in a conditioned space. If this time is not there, this is often a cause of inconsistency caused by temperature differences.
Especially in those cases where puff pastry is made in a continuous way, by means of a processing method referred to as sheeting in the art, a continuous quality and reproducibility of the dough and fat amounts and their ratio may be of importance.
Therefore, there remains a need for a device for providing a dough sheet with a layer of fat with a precisely determined composition and quality.
It is a goal of the present invention to provide such device, or at least to provide a useful alternative for the prior art.
The invention thereto proposes a device for providing a dough sheet provided with a layer of fat, comprising a conveyor, such as a conveyor belt, with a conveying surface extending in a longitudinal direction (or length direction) and a transverse direction (or width direction) perpendicular thereto, adapted for displacing goods placed on the conveyor in a conveying direction parallel to the longitudinal direction, a dough-dispensing device for applying a continuous dough sheet on the conveyor, a fat dispensing device for applying a layer of fat wherein the fat is applied on the dough sheet or the dough sheet is applied on the layer of fat and at least one measuring device placed above or along the conveyor for the continuous or random measurement of the local height of the dough sheet at a dough measurement location; and the local height of the layer of fat at a fat measurement location, processing means for determining a measured height of the dough sheet at a position on the dough sheet and a height of the layer of fat at the same position on the dough sheet; and determining the dough-fat height ratio and thus the dough-fat volume ratio.
In order to dispense a layer of fat on a dough sheet, the fat dispensing device may be positioned downstream of the dough dispensing device. Evidently, this order can be the other way round if the dough sheet is to be provided on the layer of fat, and also configurations wherein layers of dough and fat are subsequently placed on top of each other, for instance dough-fat-dough or fat-dough-fat, form part of the present invention.
Where in the following examples are given for a layer of fat disposed on a dough sheet, all configurations where dough is disposed on a layer of fat are also to be comprised.
By measuring the height, a volume can be calculated for a certain width of the dough sheet and the layer of fat, when the speed of the conveyor is known. As will be explained below, the height measurement can take place in various ways, wherein the thickness of the dough sheet and the layer of fat may be measured together, and the thickness of the dough separately, wherein the thickness of the layer of fat is determined based on the difference between both measurements. The conveyor may comprise one or more sections, for instance formed by one or more conveyor belts.
The device may comprise a single measuring device, for measuring at a dough measurement location in the direction of transport the local height of the dough sheet at the dough measurement location and the local height of the layer of fat at the fat measurement location, wherein the measuring device is configured for measuring the local height of the dough sheet and the local height of the layer of fat at a mutual distance in a direction with at least a directional component in the width direction.
Such configuration is applicable in those situations wherein the layer of fat applied on the dough sheet is smaller than the dough sheet, so that at least on one side of the layer of fat a part of the dough sheet extends, that can be measured. The measuring device may in that case take various samples of the height of the combination of the dough sheet with the layer of fat, or perform a continuous height measurement over its measurement range extending in the transverse direction.
Alternatively, the device according to the invention comprises at least two measuring devices, for measuring the local height of the dough sheet at a dough measurement location and the local height of the layer of fat at a fat measurement location at at least two locations located at a distance from each other in the direction of transport, relative to the conveyor.
The one or more measuring devices may extend in a transversal direction but it may also extend above or cross the conveyor under an angle.
In such configuration, the first measuring device for measuring the dough height may be placed in between the dough dispensing device and the fat dispensing device, and the second measuring device for measuring the height of the fat layer may be placed downstream of the fat dispensing device in a direction of conveyance of the conveyor. The height of the layer of fat can only be determined indirectly this way, since both the dough sheet and the layer of fat are measured together, and the height of the dough sheet determined by the first measuring device has to be subtracted.
Since the height of the dough sheet is measured on a different location from the location of the layer of fat, in these calculations, the distance between the measuring devices in the direction of conveyance as well as the speed of the conveyor may be taken into account, to relate both measurements to each other. Alternatively, positions on the conveyor may be encoded in order to be related to each other at various locations.
In a further embodiment, the at least one measuring device or both measuring devices are configured for determining the dough sheet height and/or the layer of fat height at several locations in the width direction. This either allows to take an average value of heights in case there are fluctuations between the heights in the width direction, or to use the system in those cases where there is an intentional height difference in the transversal direction, in the dough sheet and/or layer of fat.
In a preferred embodiment, the at least one measuring device comprises a line scanner, which extends across the conveyor in a transversal of width direction. Such scanner can both be used in case where there is one measuring device applied and in case where there are multiple measurement devices applied. The line scanner may in particular embodied by a series of analog (laser) photocells, a laser line scanner, an ultrasonic scanner, or a ccd distance cam, which extends across the conveyor in a width direction.
The device according to the invention may further comprise a control device for controlling the dough-dispensing device and the fat-dispensing device, on the basis of the determined dough-fat-height ratio and a desired dough-fat-height ratio. In order to obtain a fast-responding feedback-loop, the measuring device or measuring devices are preferably placed as close to the dispensing devices as possible, in particular less than 500 mm after a dispensing device for the dough or fat to be measured.
In a further embodiment, there may be an additional weighing device for measuring the weight of the dough sheet and/or the layer of fat per area unit.
Typically, a dough-dispensing device for use with the present invention may comprise a funnel followed by at least one pair of rollers, and the fat-dispensing device comprises a butter pump.
In a common puff-pastry dough line, the dough-dispensing device and the fat-dispensing device may be adapted for applying a layer of fat with a width that is smaller than the width of the dough layer, wherein the device furthermore comprises a folding device for folding the layer of fat over the dough sheet that extends width-wise beyond the layer of fat. Such device may be followed by a laminating device for forming puff pastry.
In general, the device according to the invention may be adapted for determining the dough-fat height ratio during transport of the dough sheet with the layer of fat in the direction of transport. In a further embodiment, the device comprises an additional sample measuring device placed downstream in the direction of transport relative to the at least one measuring device for taking samples from the dough sheet at manually determined occasions, wherein the actual volumes or weights are measured, for instance for calibrating purposes. Alternatively, this sampling may be done manually.
The invention will now be elucidated into more detail with reference to the following figures. Herein:
The above described embodiments are examples only and do not limit the scope of protection of the present application, as defined in the following claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2034479 | Mar 2023 | NL | national |
