Dough cut-off and positioning method and apparatus
AssigneeCummins Eagle, Inc.
InventorsChris M. Cummins, Sam Seiling
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for cutting a continuous dough extrudate into pieces of uniform weight and accurately positioning the pieces on a moving belt includes a knife blade having a flat upper surface bounded in part by two opposed cutting edges, and a bottom surface having a double taper formed by flat facets downwardly angled from the cutting edges and meeting in an apex. An elongated dough positioning guide is downwardly directed from the bottom surface. The knife blade is caused to undergo reciprocating motion at a frequency dependent upon the velocity of the extrudate and the speed of the moving belt.
Claims13
A dough cutting and positioning apparatus for use in close adjacency to a nozzle from which a continuous stream of bakery dough is emergent, said apparatus comprising:
- a) a knife blade elongated between two lateral extremities upon a center plane of symmetry and having a flat upper surface bounded in part by two opposed cutting edges equally spaced from said plane of symmetry, and a bottom surface having a double taper by virtue of opposing flat facets downwardly angled from said cutting edges and meeting in an apex disposed within said plane of symmetry,
- b) elongated dough positioning means downwardly directed from said bottom surface at a site mid-way between said lateral extremities and centered upon said plane of symmetry,
- c) support means associated with said lateral extremities, and
- d) means for producing reciprocating movement of said blade in a manner causing said knife blade to traverse the entire diameter of said nozzle in close adjacency thereto.
A method for producing two lines of dough pieces on an underlying moving belt from a single dough-extruding nozzle, said method comprising:
- a) positioning beneath said nozzle an assembly comprised of a knife blade having two opposed cutting edges and a doubly tapered bottom surface, and dough positioning means downwardly directed from said bottom surface,
- b) oscillating said assembly in traversing movement across said nozzle such as to cause alternating cutting edges of said knife blade to cut through the dough emergent from said nozzle,
- c) causing each resultant piece of dough to be contacted by and momentarily held by said dough positioning means,
- d) transporting the held piece of dough to different lateral sites above said moving belt, and
- e) dropping the held piece of dough onto the underlying moving belt in a manner to produce two straight lines of successive pieces of dough.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.