Method and apparatus for producing pastilles
AssigneeSantrade Ltd.
InventorReinhard Froeschke
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Pastilles are formed by passing small quantities of a viscous material through small openings and onto a moving conveyor surface located therebeneath. The viscous material is contacted by the conveyor surface after the material protrudes from the openings, but before the material becomes sufficiently large to break free and fall. Instead, the conveyor surface forcefully extracts the material from the openings, thereby resulting in the formation of pastilles which are of smaller size than would have been the case had the material been allowed to break free and fall on its own accord.
Claims15
In a method of forming pastilles wherein small quantities of a liquid viscous material are passed through small openings and onto a moving conveyor surface upon which said quantities of material are cooled and solidified, the improvement wherein said liquid viscous material is contacted by said moving conveyor surface after said liquid viscous material protrudes from said openings and while such protruding liquid viscous material is in a stable state, whereby said moving conveyor surface forcefully extracts said quantities of liquid viscous material from said openings.
Apparatus for producing pastilles from a liquid viscous material comprising:
- inner and outer telescopingly and coaxially arranged hollow cylindrical bodies, a first of said bodies having a plurality of first openings distributed over its periphery, a second of said bodies having a plurality of second openings at a lower region thereof, said inner body containing said liquid viscous material,
- means for rotating said first body relative to said second body to bring said first openings cyclically into alignment with said second openings, whereupon said liquid viscous material enters said aligned openings and protrudes therefrom, and
- a moving conveyor surface arranged beneath said outer body at a distance from said outer periphery thereof, said distance being shorter than a distance in which said protruding liquid viscous material becomes unstable, such that said moving conveyor surface contacts said protruding liquid viscous material while said protruding liquid viscous material is in a stable state and forcefully extracts small quantities of said liquid viscous material from said openings.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.