Apparatus for quantitatively extruding food material

An apparatus for quantitatively extruding food material, comprising:

• (a) a hopper for food material,
• (b) an eccentrically formed cylindrical housing mounted on the bottom of said hopper, having a cylindrical side wall, which is open at the top part that faces the hopper, and two end walls, said housing being provided with a plurality of exit ports positioned away from said hopper and arranged on said cylindrical side wall in the axial direction of said housing,
• (c) a rotating hollow cylindrical drum disposed in said housing, operatively connected to an axis, said axis in turn being connected to a motor, said drum having a plurality of slits formed radially through the peripheral body thereof and extending in the axial direction of said peripheral body, said side wall of said housing so formed that the periphery of said drum and the inner surface of said side wall of said housing downstream of said hopper in the direction of rotation of said drum defining a space progressively narrowing in its cross-section toward said exit ports, and slidably engaging each other downstream of said exit parts in the direction of rotation of said drum, said drum further having a plurality of flanges formed on the peripheral body thereof, and extending to engage the inner surface of said housing to divide said space into as many sections as the number of said exit ports, said sections communicating with the respective exit ports,
• (d) a plurality of blades, inserted into each of said slits, and of cross-sectional dimensions defined such that they slidably fit in said slits, each said blade being provided with a recess on its trailing surface extending in the radial direction over a distance slightly greater than thickness of the peripheral body of said drum,
• (e) an eccentric cylindrical cam mounted on said axis of said drum, the periphery thereof being radially spaced apart from the inner surface of said side wall of said housing by a distance equal to the radial width of said blades, engaging said peripheral body of said drum at the top portion of said drum and being progressively separated from said peripheral body in the direction of rotation of the drum defining an inner chamber together with the end walls of the housing, and enlarging in its cross-section toward said exit ports,
• (f) an exit path connecting said inner chamber to said hopper,
• wherein each of said blades is slidably movable as said drum rotates along said periphery of said eccentric cam and said inner surface of said side wall of said housing, so that when the rotation brings said blade to face the bottom of said hopper the outward part of said blade is arranged to protrude into said hopper to introduce said food material into each of said sections of said space to said inner chamber for releasing into said inner chamber the air trapped in a compartment formed by said two adjacent blades and the drum, an adjacent pair of said flanges or one said flange and an end wall and the inner wall of said housing, and to retract to a point where the outward end of said blade becomes flush with the periphery of said drum when said blade has moved past said exit ports.