This disclosure relates to food forming patterns for food forming systems and to their manufacture and use thereof.
Food forming systems are used to form bulk food product into formed food patterns. Some of the current food forming systems are complex, and expensive and timely to manufacture. These complex food forming systems, which are expensive and timely to manufacture, make it difficult, expensive, and timely to vary the food forming patterns to create a variety of formed food patterns. Other food forming systems have one or more differing issues.
A food forming system, and method of its manufacture and use, is needed to overcome one or more issues of one or more of the current food forming systems.
In one embodiment of the disclosure, a food forming system is disclosed. The food forming system includes a rotatable drum, an inner platen, and a first insert plate. The rotatable drum comprises an aperture. The inner platen is disposed in a fixed position within the rotatable drum. The rotatable drum is configured to rotate relative to the inner platen. When the rotatable drum is in a first rotated position the inner platen blocks the aperture, and when the rotatable drum is in a second rotated position the inner platen does not block the aperture. The first insert plate is attached to the rotatable drum directly over the aperture. The first insert plate comprises a first food forming pattern comprising at least one opening.
In another embodiment of the disclosure, a food forming system is disclosed. The food forming system includes a rotatable drum, an inner platen, a first insert plate, and a second insert plate. The rotatable drum comprises an aperture. The inner platen is disposed in a fixed position within the rotatable drum. The rotatable drum is configured to rotate relative to the inner platen. When the rotatable drum is in a first rotated position the inner platen blocks the aperture, and when the rotatable drum is in a second rotated position the inner platen does not block the aperture. The first insert plate is attached to the rotatable drum directly over the aperture. The first insert plate comprises a first food forming pattern comprising a first plurality of separate openings. The second insert plate is attachable to the rotatable drum directly over the aperture in place of the first insert plate. The second insert plate comprises a second food forming pattern having a second plurality of separate openings which are different than the first plurality of separate openings of the first food forming pattern.
In yet another embodiment of the disclosure, a method of forming a food product is disclosed. In one step, food product is pumped, while a rotatable drum is disposed in a first rotated position in which an inner platen within the rotatable drum blocks an aperture of the rotatable drum, into at least one opening of a first food forming pattern of a first insert plate attached to and within the aperture of the rotatable drum. In another step, the food product, which is being pumped into the at least one opening of the first food forming pattern of the first insert plate while the rotatable drum is disposed in the first rotated position, is blocked with the inner platen to retain the food product in the at least one opening. In an additional step, the rotatable drum is rotated to a second position in which the inner platen does not block the aperture of the rotatable drum. In another step, the food product formed by the first food forming pattern is moved out of the at least one opening of the first food forming pattern while the rotatable drum is in the second rotated position.
The scope of the present disclosure is defined solely by the appended claims and is not affected by the statements within this summary.
The disclosure can be better understood with reference to the following drawings and description. The components in the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the disclosure.
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The first and second insert plates 34 and 42 may be manufactured using 3-D printing which is also known to those of ordinary skill in the art as additive manufacturing. In 3-D printing (additive manufacturing), successive layers of material are formed under computer control to create the object. The object can be formed in virtually any shape or geometry and is produced from digital model data, such as a 3D model, or from another electronic data source such as an Additive Manufacturing File (AMF). By using 3-D printing (additive manufacturing) to manufacture the first and second insert plates 34 and 42, varied first and second food forming patterns 38 and 44 may be quickly and inexpensively manufactured in order to form varied shape, size, number, and/or configuration food products. In other embodiments, any number of insert plates may be 3-D manufactured to have varying food forming patterns in order to form varied shape, size, number, and/or configuration food products. In still other embodiments, varied manufacturing processes may be used to manufacture the differing insert plates. For instance, the differing insert plates may be manufactured from plate stock using any manufacturing process known in the art.
An outer platen 48 is disposed in a fixed position outside of the rotatable drum 18. The rotatable drum 18 adapted to rotate relative to the outer platen 48. The outer platen 48 comprises a slot 50. A pump box insert 52 is fixedly attached within and to the pump box 17 over the slot 50 of the outer platen 48. The connecting pipe 16, connected to the pump 15, is connected through a hole 55 of the pump box 17 to a hole 56 of the pump box insert 52 with the connecting pipe 16 being aligned with the hole 55 of the pump box 17, the hole 56 of the pump box insert 52, and the slot 50 of the outer platen 48. A slot-fill member 58 is attached to and within the outer platen 48. A second slot 60 of the slot-fill member 58 is aligned with the slot 50 of the outer platen 48. At least one wiper member 62 is attached to the second slot 60 of the slot-fill member 58. The at least one wiper member 62 is disposed against the first insert plate 34 directly over the at least one opening 40 of the first food forming pattern 38 when the rotatable drum 18 is in a first rotated position in which the inner platen 30 blocks the aperture 32 of the rotatable drum 18. Spring-and-sealing member 64 is attached between the slot-fill member 58 and the outer platen 48. The spring-and-sealing member 64 comprises an O-ring or other force inducing component such as a wave spring. In other embodiments, the spring-and-sealing member 64 may vary in quantity, type, configuration, or size. The spring-and-sealing member 64 is adapted to allow the slot-fill member 58 and the attached at least one wiper member 62 to have some springiness.
In step 78, while the rotatable drum is disposed in a first rotated position, a pump of the food forming system pumps the bulk food product through a connecting pipe, through a hole of a pump box, through a hole of a pump box insert, through a slot of an outer platen, through a second slot of a slot-fill member, and into the least one opening of the first food forming pattern of the first insert plate. In step 80, an inner platen blocks the pumped food product, which is pumped into the at least one opening of the first food forming pattern of the first insert plate, from going completely through the at least one opening into the aperture of the rotatable drum thereby retaining the pumped food product in the at least one opening. In step 82, at least one wiper member, connected to the second slot of the slot-fill member, wipes excess food product away from the at least opening of the first food forming pattern of the first insert plate as the rotatable drum rotates from the first rotated position to a second rotated position. In the second rotated position, the inner platen no longer blocks the aperture of the rotatable drum and both the slot of the outer platen and the second slot of the slot-fill member are no longer disposed in alignment with the at least one opening of the first food forming pattern.
In step 84, while the rotatable drum is disposed in the second rotated position, a knock-out device is aligned with the at least one opening of the first food forming pattern and moves from a retracted position within the rotatable drum retracted away from the at least one opening of the first food forming pattern to an extended position outside the rotatable drum extended within the at least one opening of the first food forming pattern to knock the formed patterned food product out of the at least one opening of the first food forming pattern onto a moving member which moves the formed patterned food product out of the food forming system. In other embodiments, any number or type of knock-out devices may be used simultaneously or separately to knock the formed patterned food product out of a plurality of openings of the first food forming pattern onto the moving member. In step 86, the second insert plate having the second food forming pattern comprising at least one different opening than the at least one opening of the first food forming pattern is attached to the rotatable drum of the food forming system in place of the first insert plate. Subsequently, steps 76-84 are repeated using the second insert plate instead of the first insert plate to form food product having a varied pattern than that formed using the first insert plate.
In other embodiments, one or more steps of the method 70 may be modified in substance or in order, one or more steps of the method 70 may not be followed, or one or more additional steps may be added.
The food forming systems and methods of the instant disclosure save cost, expense, and time of manufacture over one or more of the current food forming systems and methods of use or manufacture. These food forming systems and methods may have further benefits over one or more of the current food forming systems and methods of use or manufacture.
The Abstract is provided to allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in various embodiments for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separately claimed subject matter.
While particular aspects of the present subject matter described herein have been shown and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that, based upon the teachings herein, changes and modifications may be made without departing from the subject matter described herein and its broader aspects and, therefore, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope all such changes and modifications as are within the true scope of the subject matter described herein. Furthermore, it is to be understood that the disclosure is defined by the appended claims. Accordingly, the disclosure is not to be restricted except in light of the appended claims and their equivalents.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/400,180, filed Sep. 27, 2016, entitled “PATTERNED INSERT FOR A FOOD FORMING MACHINE”, reference of which is hereby incorporated in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62400180 | Sep 2016 | US |