Abstract: An apparatus and method is provided, whereby chocolate or other confection may be hardened by coming into contact with one or more confectionary rolls that have a cooling fluid supplied to the interior of the rolls. The cooling fluid causes the rolls to operate at a higher temperature than that of the confectionary medium being treated. Generally the rolls have depressions in their periphery for forming the shape of the confectionary. Inside the roll or rolls, there are provided a plurality of cooling zones at different locations preferably spaced axially along the roll from the cooling fluid inlet end of the roll. These zones may vary so as to be progressively smaller in an axial direction, as measured axially from the cooling fluid inlet end of the roll. Valving or other means are provided for controlling the flow of cooling fluid to each of the zones, preferably individually for each zone.

Abstract: A conveyor passes across the exit end of a dryer through which strips of lasagna have passed carried on a succession of stick feeders. The conveyor is divided into a succession of narrow flights defined by upstanding push fingers. Mounted above the flight conveyor at the exit end of the dryer are a series of parallel tiltable shelves or flippers each having a width corresponding to a conveyor flight. Each of the stick feeders as it emerges from the dryer lays a group, for example, twenty-four U-shaped lasagna strips in parallel across the series of flippers. The stick feeder is then withdrawn through the open end of the U-shaped lasagna strip and the flippers are tilted to allow the lasagna strips to slide down into the conveyor flights. A friction belt moving at a speed faster than that of the conveyor assists in pulling the lasagna strips from the flippers and into the conveyor flights.