HK1139009A - A method and apparatus for making centre-filled shaped food products - Google Patents

Description

Method and apparatus for making a sandwich shaped food product

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for making a sandwich shaped food product, and more particularly to a continuous process that enables the production of confectionery products with industrial efficiency and competitiveness.

Background

In a non-limiting specific embodiment of the invention, which is an example of the invention described below, the confectionery product comprises a chocolate shell filled with a semi-solid confectionery product.

Existing industrial equipment for making center-filled shaped confectionery products includes a variety of equipment described in published patents and patent applications listed below. One typical apparatus currently used in the confectionery industry is a pair of adjacent rollers known as Erikson rollers.

The Erikson rollers are formed by a pair of adjacent counter-rotating rollers. Complementary recesses are provided in the surfaces of the two rollers so that when the rollers rotate, the complementary recesses face each other at the point of contact of the two rollers, thereby forming a closed chamber. Filling means are distributed at the above-mentioned contact points between the two rollers in order to fill the not completely closed cavities with a liquid or semi-liquid confectionery product, such as chocolate. As the rollers rotate, the confectionery product solidifies in the cavity, which then opens as the respective depressions of each roller separate from each other.

Straight side shapes with indicia printed on both the top and bottom cannot be formed by Erikson rollers. Since the shape cannot be pulled out of the drum. Conventional moulds cannot print e.g. logos or the like on the top and bottom side of the confectionery product.

This can be achieved by a technique known as "book-molding", but leaves a distinct edge between the two halves of the product, which becomes a distinct disadvantage in terms of the appearance of the product. Furthermore, this technique is not suitable for mass production of small products, that is, does not satisfy industrial profitability. In addition, the stack-up type results in a product having a certain degree of taper corresponding to the draft angle of the mold.

The following are some published patents and applications relating to the manufacture of printed confectionery products.

EP 776608 a2 is a european patent application (socioet des products Nestl. 1996, 10/11) which relates to the production of an extruded fat-containing confectionery material and discloses that the surface of the cavity may be engraved or embossed with any desired pattern to be printed on the surface of the fat-containing confectionery material.

WO 02/49447a2 is an international patent application (societedes Produits Nestl, 2001, 12-14) disclosing a filled confectionery product weighing less than 3g, consisting of a moulded casing of fat-containing confectionery material and a viscous confectionery filling.

WO 01/78519a1 is an international patent application (socioedes Produits Nestl, 2001, 2.19) describing a new confectionery-based product consisting of a moulded casing and a substantially planar closed base firmly sealed to the edges of the casing.

BE 1005689B 1 is a belgian patent (SorensenMairead, 12.14.1993) which proposes a process and apparatus for making chocolate-coated confections.

EP 494384a2 is a european patent application (Meiji Seika Kaisha ltd. filed on 1991, 12/9) relating to the process of making chocolate confectionery using tiny bubbles into a fat paste base.

DE 3447245 a1 is a german patent application (Winkler & D ü nnebier, masschinenfabrik und Eisengiesserei GmbH, filed on 22.12.1984) which relates to a process for the production of hollow chocolate products preferably containing an alcoholic filling, wherein the chocolate ingredients for producing the shell are filled in a mould and shaken, tumbled, smoothed and cooled therein, and furthermore, after the introduction of the filling, the latter is sprayed and cooled, so that the shell is closed off by the chocolate ingredients.

GB 1502194(Hans Lesch, 11/9 of 1974) is a british patent which relates to a method for introducing solid fillings into confectionery pieces and to an apparatus for carrying out the method.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve the above technical problems of the current systems, the present invention proposes an apparatus for making a food product, preferably a confectionery product, comprising a solid casing with a top, a bottom and side walls, with or without an inner core filled with a liquid, semi-solid and/or solid filling, characterized in that it comprises:

(i) a holder for holding at least one substrate (matrix) which passes through the holder and has opposite openings,

(ii) two punches arranged one on each side of the base and facing the opening, the punches having a cross section corresponding to the cross section of the opening and being movable along a common axis corresponding to the longitudinal axis of the base, the base and the pair of punches defining the side and end walls of the die respectively,

(iii) filling means for filling a mould with a predetermined amount of a food product in liquid or semi-solid form,

(iv) actuating means for moving said punch and exerting a longitudinal pressure on said punch when said mould is filled with food product and closed, so as to cause said product contained in said mould to be compressed,

(v) and an ejection device for ejecting the formed food product from the mold when the mold is in the open position.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the food product is a chocolate product.

It is also preferred that the support is a horizontal turret with a plurality of dies arranged around the periphery of the turret, each die having its own punch arranged along a substantially vertical axis.

Advantageously, the filling device comprises another adjacent turret located above and operating synchronously with the first turret. Alternatively, the filling device can move along a path that is concentric with the motion of the substrate for a given percentage of a revolution or machine cycle.

Also advantageously, the actuation means comprise:

-a drive motor for rotating the carriage in a horizontal plane, and a cam system for controlling the movement of the punch member when rotating.

Furthermore, the present invention relates to a food product, in particular a confectionery product, made with the apparatus defined above, comprising a solid casing made of one food product and a solid, semi-solid or liquid core made of a food product of the same or different kind than the casing, the casing comprising at least a top surface and a bottom surface with prints and/or engravings.

Preferably, at least the outer shell of the food product is made of chocolate.

It will be appreciated that the present invention has a number of advantages over systems known in the art. For example, the shape of the food product (e.g., confectionery product) produced can be better defined and of better quality than food products made with Erikson rollers.

Furthermore, there is no loss of product during the manufacturing process compared to processes using, for example, a layer of food product. The need to recycle excess product during the use of a layer of food product makes the process and machine more complex and therefore more expensive.

Above all, the invention makes it particularly simple to change the shape of the print, since only the punches provided on the machine have to be replaced.

Finally, the invention relates to a process for making a food product with the apparatus described above, comprising, in sequence, the following steps:

(i) a first quantity of molten food product is placed into the open cooled mold,

(ii) moving a lower punch of a mold downward to form a shell of the food product,

(iii) optionally placing a food filling in the casing of the food product,

(iv) optionally placing a second small quantity of molten food product into the open cooled mold,

(v) moving the upper punch downward so as to close the mold and maintain pressure to form embossments on the top and bottom sides of the food product made therefrom,

(vi) the upper and lower punches are moved out of the plane of the base and the food product is discharged.

Drawings

Other features and advantages of the present invention will be described in, and apparent from, the following description of the preferred embodiments, which refers to the accompanying drawings, in which:

fig. 1 to 7 are schematic perspective views of the apparatus according to the invention, respectively showing different steps of the manufacturing process;

figure 8 is a schematic perspective view of the turret, showing the different successive steps of the chocolate making process according to the invention.

Detailed Description

As shown in the figures, the present invention relates to an apparatus 1 for making confectionery products 2. The product comprises an outer shell 3 of solid chocolate having a top 4, a bottom 5 and a sidewall 6 and an inner core 7 filled with a semi-solid filling.

According to the invention and as shown in fig. 1 to 7, the apparatus 1 comprises:

a support 8 holding at least one substrate 9, the substrate 9 passing through said support 8 and having opposite openings, the substrate having a built-in channel 10 for circulating a cooling fluid for cooling said substrate,

an upper punch 11a and a lower punch 11b, respectively arranged on each side of the base body 9 and facing the opening, said punches being cylindrical, having a diameter corresponding to the diameter of the opening and being vertically movable along a common axis corresponding to the longitudinal axis of the base body, the base body and the pair of punches defining the side walls and the end walls, respectively, of the die 12,

filling means for filling the mould 12 with a predetermined amount of liquid or semi-solid confectionery product,

actuating means for moving and applying longitudinal pressure to the punches 11a, 11b when the mould 12 is filled with confectionery product and closed, so as to cause the product contained in the mould to be compressed,

-discharge means for discharging the shaped confectionery product 2 therefrom when the mould 12 is in the open position.

The punches 11a, 11b comprise a working surface printed with patterns or information such as logos or the like to be symmetrically printed on the upper and lower sides of the final product 2.

The punch embossing can be made on a removable portion of the punch, thereby simplifying the replacement of the embossing on the production line.

As shown in fig. 8, the support 8 is a horizontal turret having a plurality of dies 12 arranged around its periphery, each die having its own punch arranged along a substantially vertical axis.

When rotating, the filling device may have a dispensing device for the food product by means of a further adjacent turret operating synchronously with and above the first turret.

The device according to the invention operates automatically, the function of which is explained below:

in all the manufacturing steps described below, the matrix 9 and the two punches 11a, 11b are cooled at a temperature between-20 ° and 10 °, preferably at a temperature of about 4 °.

The cooling means are not shown in the figures but comprise a system of pipes located in the body of the basic body through the channel 10 and in the body of the ram, in which the cooling fluid circulates in a closed circuit to and from a cooling unit arranged remote from the rest of the apparatus 1.

As shown in fig. 1, the process of making the product with the apparatus according to the invention starts when the apparatus is in an open configuration. At this stage, the upper punch is in a position away from the substrate. A filling device is arranged at the open side of the base body (not shown in the figures), which filling device enables filling of the mould with a predetermined quantity of, for example, molten chocolate.

By a mould is meant a hollow cast delimited by a base body and at least one punch inserted at least partially into said base body.

As shown in fig. 2, once the first small amount of molten product, desirably a fat-based product, preferably chocolate, is placed in the open mold, the lower punch is pulled downward, but not so far as to fully open the mold. The downward movement of the lower punch causes the product, which is thus almost liquid, to start solidifying along the cooled side walls of the mould and thus form a cup-shaped solid product.

Turning now to figure 3, a small filling is made, which is placed into the previously made solid chocolate shell. In this step, the ram remains in the same position.

As shown in figure 4, a second small quantity of hot chocolate is then placed on top of the existing filled solid chocolate shell so that the entire surface of the shell is covered.

The upper plunger is then moved downwards as shown in figure 5 to close the mould and compress the filled chocolate shell to create a print on the top and bottom sides of the final product. Upon contacting the cooled surfaces of the mold, i.e., the base and the plunger, the chocolate covering the previously formed filled shell begins to solidify. Furthermore, due to the deformability of the chocolate, which is not too cold, of the currently filled and sealed shell, it is still possible to print the print under pressure.

As shown in fig. 6, the pair of punches moves upward from the base. In this step, the distance between the upper and lower plungers is kept constant.

Finally, as shown in figure 7, the upper and lower punches are separated from each other so that the finished filled and printed chocolate can be ejected from the apparatus and directed to the next process.

As shown in fig. 8, the apparatus comprises a rotating frame provided with a series of dies, each die comprising its own base and a pair of punches. The multiple molds allow the various manufacturing steps described above to be performed as a continuous process around the turntable with rotation of the turntable. (this is not a limiting feature as the number of substrates may also be arranged in a straight line)

It should be understood that various changes and modifications to the presently preferred embodiments described herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention and without diminishing its attendant advantages. It is therefore intended that such changes and modifications be covered by the appended claims. For example, a filling described above as "liquid, semi-solid, or solid" may also include aerated food products or gelatinous products.

Claims (7)

1. An apparatus (1) for making a food product (2), said product (2) comprising a solid housing having a top, a bottom and side walls, characterized in that said apparatus comprises:

(i) a support (8) holding at least one substrate (9), the substrate (9) passing through the support (8) and having opposite openings;

(ii) two punches (11a, 11b) arranged respectively on each side of the base body (9) and facing the opening, the punches having a cross section corresponding to the cross section of the opening and being movable along a common axis corresponding to the longitudinal axis of the base body (9), the base body and the pair of punches defining respectively a side wall and an end wall of a die (12);

(iii) filling means for filling the mould (12) with a predetermined amount of food product in liquid or semi-solid form;

(iv) actuating means for moving said punches (11a, 11b) and exerting a longitudinal pressure thereon when said mould is filled with food product and closed, so as to cause compression of said product contained in said mould;

(v) -ejection means for ejecting the shaped food product (2) from the mould (12) when it is in the open position.

2. The apparatus (1) according to claim 1, wherein the food product (2) further comprises an inner core (7) filled with a liquid, semi-solid and/or solid filling.

3. The apparatus (1) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the food product (2) is a chocolate product.

4. Apparatus (1) according to claims 1 to 3, characterized in that said support (8) is a horizontal turret on the periphery of which a plurality of dies (12) is arranged, each die (12) having its own punch (11a, 11b) arranged along a substantially vertical axis.

5. Food product (2) made by means of the apparatus (1) according to any one of the preceding claims 1 to 4, characterized in that it comprises a solid outer shell (3) made of one product and optionally a solid, semi-solid or liquid inner core (7) made of a food product of the same or different kind than the outer shell (3), the outer shell (3) comprising at least a top face (4) and a bottom face (5) with printing.

6. Food product (2) according to claim 5, characterized in that at least the outer shell (3) is made of chocolate.

7. Process for making a food product according to claims 5 to 6 in an apparatus (1) according to claims 1 to 4, characterized in that it comprises, in sequence, the following steps:

(i) a first small quantity of molten food product is placed into the open cooled mold,

(ii) moving a lower punch of a mold downward to form a shell of the food product,

(iii) optionally placing a food filling in the casing of the food product,

(iv) optionally placing a second small quantity of molten food product into the open cooled mold,

(v) moving the upper punch downward so as to close the mold and maintain pressure to form embossments on the top and bottom sides of the food product made therefrom,

(vi) the upper and lower punches are moved out of the plane of the base and the food product is discharged.