Abstract: Apparatus for forming and baking food particles into a unified, shaped product, e.g., shaped like pizza, has heated top and bottom plates, the mating faces of which have recesses and protrusions for molding the desired shaped product. The bottom plate is in two parts that are abutted together when food particles are deposited thereon and during a baking period with the top plate placed thereon. After raising the top plate, the two bottom parts are moved apart to release the baked, shaped product. Cooked pasta, such as spaghetti, can be formed into a pizza-like shell.

Abstract: An apparatus for compressing and baking fluid food under pressure to form unified shaped products has a heated metal mold bottom with a cavity and a heated metal mold top connected to the piston rod of a pneumatic or hydraulic cylinder positioned for alternately pressing the mold top down against the mold bottom and lifting it away from the mold bottom. A hinge-like connection attached along a side of the mold bottom and a reversible drive mechanism associated with the hinge-like connection serve to swing the mold bottom over to an inverted position and then back to the molding position. The simple apparatus automatically ejects the molded food product from the inverted mold bottom. A siamese pair of mold bottoms united back-to-back are preferred for large-scale production of molded food shapes. Every inversion of a siamese pair of mold bottoms can discharge a molded product and form another molded product.

Abstract: A simple apparatus for molding and baking food particles into edible unified products comprises a heated stationary ring sandwiched by a heated bottom plate and a heated top plate. Both plates can alternately be brought against, and removed from, the ring. By placing a measured quantity of food particles on the bottom plate while against the ring and by bringing the top plate down on the ring, the food particles are compressed for a selected baking period. The top plate is then raised from the ring and the bottom plate is lowered from the ring so that the resulting unified product is released.

Abstract: An apparatus for repetitively conveying a measured volume of loose material from a supply hopper and discharging the material at a selected site has a shuttle with a cavity for holding the material. The bottom of the cavity is a slide plate or a pair of slide plates that are retracted to discharge the contents of the cavity. Rapid retraction of the plate or plates is effected by mechanical means such as pneumatic pistons which are reversible to close the bottom of the cavity. The shuttle is moved reciprocatingly on a track extending between the supply and discharge sites by mechanical means such as pneumatic pistons. The shuttling apparatus is preferably combined with a supply hopper having a discharge gate in the form of slide plates like those at the bottom of the cavity.

Abstract: A method for forming and baking food particles into a unified, shaped product, e.g., shaped like pizza, has heated top and bottom plates, the mating faces of which have recesses and protrusions for molding the desired shaped product. The bottom plate is in two parts that are abutted together when food particles are deposited thereon and during a baking period with the top plate placed thereon. After raising the top plate, the two bottom parts are moved apart to release the baked, shaped product. Cooked pasta, such as spaghetti, can be formed into a pizza-like shell.

Abstract: A simple apparatus for molding and baking food particles into edible unified products comprises a heated stationary ring, a heated bottom plate, fitted in the ring and movable up and down therein, and a heated top plate that can be alternately brought down on, and lifted off, the ring. By placing a measured quantity of food particles on the bottom plate and bringing the top plate down in pressing contact with the ring, the food particles are compressed for a selected baking period. The top plate is then raised away from the ring, the bottom plate is pushed up so that its top face is flush with, or above, the top of the ring, and the resulting unified product is readily removed from the bottom plate.

Abstract: A high-speed continuous mixer for solids and liquids has a horizontal tubular vessel with a semi-cylindrical bottom and a mixer shaft coinciding with its axis. Multiple crescent-like flat blades are mounted on the shaft at right angles thereto and clear the semi-cylindrical bottom by a small distance. Each crescent-like blade has a tapered knife edge on its convex periphery which has a sweeping shape to provide, when rotated, a slicing action through the mass undergoing mixing while moving from the feed end to the discharge end of the tubular vessel. Remarkable high-speed production of dough for pasta and baked goods is achieved as an example of the outstanding performance of the mixer.

Abstract: An apparatus for producing ravioli and other dough capsules containing a filler comprises a rotatable horizontal drum with uniformly spaced cavities in its cylindrical surface, means for suplying a first dough sheet to the top of the drum, a filler feed header flexibly suspended thereover and containing a gear pump with discharge nozzles aimed downwardly at the cavities, active drive means for moving the header, passive drive means for the pump to meter gobs of filler through the nozzles, means for supplying a second dough sheet over the first sheet with filler gobs thereon, and a roller to press the second sheet against the first sheet to fuse them around the filler gobs. The dough-encapsulated filler gobs are cut from the fused dough sheets as ravioli or like product.

Abstract: Rolling mills commonly have rollers with shoulders abutting face plates on the frame of the mill. Dirt collects at the interface of the roller shoulders and face plates. There is no simple way to clean that interfacial area. Novel shields positioned against the roller shoulders and movable therefrom now permit facile cleaning of both the roller shoulders and shields. Frequent cleaning is critical in rolling mills of not only the food industry to prevent bacterial contamination of food products but also other industries where gritty material migrates into the interfacial area of roller shoulders and causes abrasion thereof. The shields can be as simple as stiff plastic sheets.

Abstract: An apparatus for producing dough capsules containing a filler comprises a feed roller, a pocket-forming roller with axially and circumferentially equispaced cavities in its cylindrical surface and with a circumferential thin ridge thereon between each pair of axially spaced cavities, a cutting roller with circumferentially equispaced flutes extending lengthwise thereof and with a lengthwise thin ridge between each pair of flutes. The pocket-forming roller is parallel to, and in contact with, an upper quadrant of the feed roller, while the cutting roller is parallel to, and in contact with, the adjacent lower quadrant of the feed roller. Synchronous drive means rotates the feed roller in one direction and the other two rollers in the opposite direction. A dough sheet with longitudinal beads of filler aligned with the axially spaced cavities of the pocket-forming roller and a cover dough sheet enter the bite between the feed and pocket-forming rollers.

Abstract: An apparatus for forming an alignment of longitudinally spaced short slits with undulated edges in a sheet of fresh pasta comprises a pair of meshing but noncontacting identical gear-like elements mounted on rotatively driven parallel shafts. Each gear-like element is a pair of identical bevel-toothed disks abutted together so that the tips of the bevel teeth of one disk are opposite the grooves between the teeth of the other disk, the width of the bevel teeth being appreciably less than the width of the grooves. The novel pasta product of the apparatus features an alignment of longitudinally spaced short slits with undulated edges.

Abstract: A lubricated rotary seal mounted between a shoulder of a rotary shaft and a face plate through which the shaft end extends has a ring-shaped body that fits on the shaft end and partially overlaps the shaft shoulder. A porous bearing washer on the face of the seal spans a circular channel in the body which contains oil-soaked wadding. A cylindrical recess in the seal body fits over the shaft shoulder and houses several compression springs which press the seal with its lubricated bearing washer in contact with the face plate. Debris formed by erosion of the bearing washer can be accumulated in the seal body and periodically removed. Oil can be periodically injected into the wadding.

Abstract: In continuously cooking fresh pasta in ribbon form by transportation on a zigzag conveyor immersed in a cooking water bath, it has been found that two or more superimposed ribbons of pasta can be simultaneously cooked by transportation on the zigzag conveyor without the pasta ribbons sticking together if the pasta ribbons are separately exposed to steam or hot water for a brief period before the pasta ribbons are brought together in superimposed relation. By this simple pretreatment of each pasta ribbon, the cooking capacity of the conveyor is at least doubled.

Abstract: In apparatus for treating a product in a liquid bath having two different temperature zones separated by a slotted wall and equipped with at least two continuous conveyor belts arranged to transport the product while captured between the belts through one zone, a slot in the wall and the other zone, a plurality of submerged nozzles are positioned with their orifices directed to eject pressurized fluid streams that contact the belts while passing through the slot. The nozzles promote the flow of liquid from one zone to the other and effect scrubbing of the belts. Baffles at the wall slot and parallel to the belts enhance the operational benefits of the nozzles.

Abstract: An apparatus for forming an alignment of longitudinally spaced short slits with undulated edges in a sheet of fresh pasta comprises a pair of meshing but noncontacting identical gear-like elements mounted on rotatively driven parallel shafts. Each gear-like element is a pair of identical bevel-toothed disks abutted together so that the tips of the bevel teeth of one disk are opposite the grooves between the teeth of the other disk, the width of the bevel teeth being appreciably less than the width of the grooves. The novel pasta product of the apparatus features an alignment of longitudinally spaced short slits with undulated edges.

Abstract: A conveyor with zigzag travel is formed by two continuous conveyor belts and is particularly useful for processing materials. Each belt has openings along its marginal portions and a set of driven belt sprockets meshing with those openings. Part of the length of each belt is maintained in parallel, spaced relation to part of the length of the other and together form a zigzag path with one or more U-turns. At each U-turn, one belt turns on sprockets and the other turns with its marginal portions sliding around curved guides. The remaining parts of the lengths of both belts are separated from one another and provide places for feeding material to, and removing it from, the conveyor.