Apparatus and method for quantitatively delivering food materials

An apparatus for quantitatively delivering food materials comprising:

• a hopper for said materials, said hopper having a bottom and a rear end,
• a first and second drive means,
• at least one screw means, disposed on the bottom of said hopper for axially conveying said material, having a rear end connected to the first drive means, and having a forward end portion,
• delivering means for quantitatively delivering said material disposed in the proximity of the forward end portion of said screw means including a cylinder having a plurality of pairs of slots diagonally formed on the periphery thereof, and a plurality of vanes, each longer than the diameter of said cylinder and inserted for slideable movement in a corresponding pair of slots, each vane having two ends,
• a housing for enclosing said delivering means having a side wall, an inner surface of said side wall, two end walls, an entrance port formed in one of said walls through which said food material is introduced from said hopper to said delivering means, and an exit port positioned away from said entrance port,
• a shaft passing through one end wall of said housing and extending along the axis of said cylinder, one end thereof connected to said cylinder and the other end thereof operatively connected to the second drive means, and
• a control means to control said first and second drive means to adjust the ratio of the rotational speeds between said screw means and said shaft,
• said cylinder being positioned in said housing so that it comes in sliding contact with the inner surface of said side wall of said housing at an area downstream of said exit port in the direction of rotation of said cylinder and is spaced apart from said inner surface at other area, said inner surface of said side wall being configured so that the two ends of each vane are made to slide along it, protruding from said cylinder, at an area ranging from said entrance port of said housing to said exit port in the direction of rotation of said cylinder, to form a compartment between an adjacent pair of said vanes, together with said two end walls of said housing, the outer surface of said cylinder and said inner surface of said side wall, while one end of said vane facing said exit port recedes to the periphery of said cylinder at the area downstream of said exit port in the direction of rotation of said cylinder.