Blunt Edge Dough Cutter
A dough cutting apparatus is suitable for cutting a sheet of dough. The dough cutting apparatus includes a structure defining a blunt dough engaging portion. The present invention can be embodied in a number of different ways, including a wheel cutter, a rotary drum cutter, a reciprocating head cutter, or another cutter.
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This application represents a Continuation of application Ser. No. 13/011,519, filed Jan. 21, 2011, which is a Divisional of application Ser. No. 10/424,340 (abandoned), filed Apr. 28, 2003, which is a divisional of application Ser. No. 09/241,508, filed Feb. 1, 1999, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 6,902,754. The entire contents of each of these applications are hereby incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention deals with a dough cutter. More specifically, the present invention deals with a dough cutter used to make bread products having aesthetically pleasing appearances.
A number of methods have been employed in order to make various types of bread products, such as loaves, buns, rolls, biscuits, and breadsticks, from a sheet of dough. In such systems, a sheet of bread dough may typically be extruded, reduced, and provided to a conveyor which conveys the sheet of dough along a dough travel path. The sheet of dough then encounters one or more cutting apparatus, such as slitter wheels, guillotine-type cutters, reciprocating head cutters, or rotatable drum-type cutters. Such cutters, traditionally, have employed very thin or sharp cutting edges in order to cut the dough. For instance, many such cutting edges are only approximately 1/32 of an inch thick. In fact, conventional wisdom dictates that, when cutting dough, without crimping or performing other types of dough forming functions, the thinner the cutting edge is the better. This requires less cutting pressure and results in less dough displacement from the cut.
However, such cuts can render aesthetically unpleasing dough pieces. For example, rather than resulting in a breadstick or bun which has rounded corners which resemble handmade buns, the cut bun has sharp and squared off edges which can be aesthetically undesirable.
In order to obtain a more rounded look, prior systems have divided or cut the dough sheet with dividers or sharp cutters, as described above, and then subjected the cut dough pieces to a subsequent rolling process by which the dough pieces are rolled to resemble a hand-formed dough piece.
Still other prior techniques do not even attempt to process a dough sheet into such rounded dough pieces. Instead, typical dinner roll making techniques parse dough into dough portions which are placed in molds or rollers which round the dough into balls. Those balls are then baked into the eventual rolls. Also, some bread making techniques parse dough into pieces which are allowed to rest, are sheeted and rolled, subjected to pressure by a pressure board and placed in a pan. Such techniques are quite slow.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONA dough cutting apparatus is suitable for cutting a sheet of dough. The dough cutting apparatus includes a structure defining a blunt dough engaging portion. The present invention can be embodied in a number of different ways, including a wheel cutter, a rotary drum cutter, a reciprocating head cutter, or another type of cutter.
By contrast,
In the past, this type of shape has been obtained by placing small balls of dough in rollers which roll the balls of dough into a substantially spherical shape. The dough spheres (or dough balls) are then placed in individual baking pans so that they can be baked, much as a conventional dinner roll is baked by a consumer. However, such techniques are very low throughput techniques. They are, thus, less than desirable for commercial applications in which it is desirable to process many pounds of dough per minute.
Dough cutter 16 has a cutting portion 18, which engages, and cuts, dough sheet 15. Cutting portion 18, in the embodiment illustrated in
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, cutting portion 18 is wide enough such that frictional engagement between the upper surface 26 of dough sheet 15 and cutting portion 18 acts to draw, or pull, the top surface 26 of dough sheet 15 downwardly, as indicated by arrows 30, toward the bottom surface 28. The pressure exerted by cutting portion 18 also acts to seal top surface 26 of dough sheet 15 to bottom surface 28. This results in a more rounded cut dough product 12, as indicated in
However, cutter 31 also has an additional cutting edge 32. Edge 32, in the embodiment illustrated in
Preprocessing station 40 simply illustrates that dough sheet 15 may typically be extruded, reduced, or processed in some other manner and provided to the conveyor carried by rollers 42 and 44 in the direction indicated by arrow 54.
Cutters 48, 50 and 52 are rotatably mounted relative to the conveyor, preferably about an axle 56. Cutters 48, 50 and 52 each have an outer diameter which is preferably at least six times as large as the thickness of the dough, and even more preferably is at least 10-12 times as large or more. Cutters 48, 50 and 52 are mounted relative to the conveyor such that, when dough sheet 15 is traveling in the direction indicated by arrow 54, cutters 48, 50 and 52 engage the dough sheet and sever it, to provide a plurality of cuts in dough sheet 15. Cutters 48, 50 and 52, can either be positively driven, or simply driven by the frictional engagement between the cutters and dough sheet 15 or the conveyor. After the cuts are made in dough sheet 15, dough sheet 15 continues traveling in the direction indicated by arrow 54 to post processing station 46. Post processing station 46 can include, for example, cutting, proofing, baking, freezing, and/or packaging.
Cutter 48, as illustrated in
It occasionally happens that, when fairly thick dough (such as dough in excess of 1 inch thick) is to be cut by rollers (such as with system 38 illustrated in
Based on the above, it should be readily apparent that, at least in accordance with certain aspects of the invention, the dough cutting wheel includes a dough engaging surface portion at a central outer circumference thereof that is radially offset from the dough engaging curved surfaces that are provided to both sides thereof so as to cut dough of the first and second skins of the dough sheet as pinched together by the dough engaging curved surfaces. In addition, the dough engaging surface portion at the central outer circumference, at least in accordance with certain embodiments, is radially offset by an amount that is no more than one half of the radius for each of the dough engaging curved surfaces. In addition to longitudinal cutting, transverse cutting can be employed, such as with a transverse cutter assembly for transversely separating the dough strips into dough pieces, with the transverse cutter assembly operatively supported with respect to the conveying surface downstream from the first cutter assembly. In particular, the transverse cutter assembly can comprise at least one transverse cutting element that includes a blunt edge cutter that is defined by a transverse dough engaging curved surface, with the transverse dough engaging curved surface having a radius so that the first skin of a respective dough strip will be drawn to and pinched together with the second skin of the respective dough strip as the respective dough strip is moved past the transverse cutter assembly to create the dough pieces. For instance, the transverse cutter assembly can comprise a guillotine-type cutter having a controlled movement to cut the dough pieces during intermittent stoppages of the conveyor.
Therefore,
In some applications, it has been found desirable to be able to form a plurality of buns or loaves which are distinct from one another, but which are still attached to one another, in groups. Such buns can be ganged together in any desired number. For example, in order to package hot dog buns, it may be desirable to maintain four buns, physically connected to one another, yet discrete, such that they can be inserted in two layers into a bag or other package, to provide the consumer with eight hot dog buns. Such ganged buns or loaves can also be used in other applications.
This is indicated in greater detail in
The resulting product is illustrated in
In an illustrative embodiment, a dough sheet is passed along cutter 108 in the direction indicated by arrow 112. Cutter 108 is mounted on a reciprocating cutter (such as that described in greater detail with respect to
Imprinter 109 is shown attached to cutter 108 (described with respect to
Thus, it can be seen that the present invention provides a number of significant advantages over prior art dough cutters. The present invention provides a blunt dough cutting or dough engaging surface which is configured to pull a first surface of the dough toward a second surface of the dough, when the cutter is impinged on the dough sheet. This tends to seal the two surfaces of dough together, and also, when desired, severs the dough sheet. This results in a dough product which more closely resembles a hand formed dough product, with rounded edges, rather than straight or sharply angled edges. Since the present invention can be implemented on substantially any suitable cutting apparatus, or in any suitable cutting system, the present invention can achieve a high throughput while still maintaining its advantages.
Although the present invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments, workers skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
Claims
1. A dough cutting apparatus for shaping and cutting a dough sheet having a lower surface, an upper surface and a thickness defined as a distance between the lower and upper surfaces with the thickness being greater than one inch, the apparatus comprising:
- a conveyor for moving the dough sheet in a dough travel direction, said dough sheet being positioned on the conveyor with the lower surface of the dough sheet resting upon the conveyor;
- a support axle extending laterally across the conveyor at a position spaced above the upper surface of the dough sheet; and
- a plurality of cutter wheels fixedly mounted on the support axle at laterally spaced locations such that the plurality of cutter wheels are simultaneously driven upon rotation of the support axle, each of said plurality of cutter wheels being disc-shaped with two flat opposing side portions leading to angled outer circumferential, dough engaging portions which meet at a central, radially outwardly extending nip portion,
- wherein movement of the conveyor causes the dough sheet to travel to the plurality of cutter wheels whereat rotation of the support axle causes the plurality of cutter wheels to be simultaneously driven and the dough sheet to be formed into a plurality of longitudinally extending and laterally spaced dough strips with, for each of the plurality of cutter wheels, the dough engaging portions engaging and shaping upper side portions of a respective adjacent pair of the dough strips, an upper portion of the dough strips extending between at least part of the two flat opposing side portions to the dough engaging portions, and the nip portion severing the respective adjacent pair of the dough strips.
2. The dough cutting apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising at least one cutter unit longitudinally spaced from the plurality of cutter wheels for simultaneously severing at least two of the plurality of dough strips transversely so as to establish shortened longitudinal strips.
3. The dough cutting apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the at least one cutter unit constitutes by a vertically reciprocating cutter unit.
4. The dough cutting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of cutter wheels has a diameter which is at least 6 times the thickness of the dough sheet.
5. The dough cutting apparatus according to claim 4, wherein each of the plurality of cutter wheels has a diameter which is at least 10-12 times as large as the thickness of the dough sheet.
6. The dough cutting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the nip portion of each of the plurality of cutter wheels includes a blunt, flat edge.
7. The dough cutting apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the nip portion of each of the plurality of cutter wheels defines a narrow cutting edge having a thickness of no greater than 1/16 of an inch.
8. The dough cutting apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the plurality of cutter wheels are mounted and configured, relative to the conveyor, such that the nip portion of each of the plurality of cutter wheels only lightly engages the conveyor.
9. The dough cutting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of cutter wheels includes at least four cutter wheels.
10. The dough cutting apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising at least two additional cutter wheels mounted on the support axle, wherein the at least two additional cutter wheels project radially from the support axle and into the dough sheet a distance less than each of the plurality of cutter wheels.
11. The dough cutting apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the additional cutter wheels are positioned between an adjacent pair of the plurality of cutter wheels along the support axle.
12. The dough cutting apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising additional set of cutter wheels mounted on an additional support axle extending laterally across the conveyor at a position spaced above the upper surface of the dough sheet and upstream of the plurality of cutter wheels in the dough travel direction, wherein the additional set of cutting wheels projects into the dough sheet a distance less than each of the plurality of cutter wheels.
13. The dough cutting apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising a further set of cutter wheels mounted on a further axle extending laterally across the conveyor at a position spaced above the upper surface of the dough sheet and upstream of both the plurality of cutter wheels and the additional set of cutting wheels in the dough travel direction, wherein the further set of cutter wheels projects into the dough sheet a distance less than each of the plurality of cutter wheels and the additional set of cutter wheels.
14. The dough cutting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of cutter wheels is fixed to the support axle so as to be positively rotationally driven with rotation of the support axle.
15. The dough cutting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the angled outer circumferential, dough engaging portions is arcuately angled, thereby defining a radius of curvature.
16. The dough cutting apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the radius of curvature for each of the dough engaging portions is at least 0.125 of an inch.
17. A method of shaping and cutting a dough sheet having a lower surface, an upper surface and a thickness defined as a distance between the lower and upper surfaces with the thickness being greater than one inch, said method comprising:
- conveying the dough sheet in a dough travel direction upon a conveyor with the lower surface of the dough sheet resting upon the conveyor;
- rotating a support axle extending laterally across the conveyor at a position spaced above the upper surface of the dough sheet;
- simultaneously driving a plurality of cutter wheels, each being disc-shaped with two flat opposing side portions leading to angled outer circumferential, dough engaging portions which meet at a central, radially outwardly extending nip portion, fixedly mounted on the support axle at laterally spaced locations such that the plurality of cutter wheels are simultaneously driven upon rotation of the support axle; and
- causing the dough sheet to be contacted by the plurality of cutter wheels and be formed into a plurality of longitudinally extending and laterally spaced dough strips by, for each of the plurality of cutter wheels, the dough engaging portions engaging and shaping upper side portions of a respective adjacent pair of the dough strips, an upper portion of the dough strips extending between at least part of the two flat opposing side portions to the dough engaging portions, and the nip portion severing the respective adjacent pair of the dough strips.
18. The method of claim 17, further comprising: vertically reciprocating a cutter unit to simultaneously sever at least two of the plurality of dough strips transversely so as to establish shortened longitudinal strips.
19. The method of claim 18, further comprising: severing the plurality of dough strips with the nip portion of each of the plurality of cutter wheels being defined by a blunt, flat edge.
20. The method of claim 19, further comprising: severing the plurality of dough strips with the nip portion of each of the plurality of cutter wheels defining a narrow cutting edge having a thickness of no greater than 1/16 of an inch.
Type: Application
Filed: Aug 14, 2013
Publication Date: Feb 6, 2014
Applicant: General Mills, Inc. (Minneapolis, MN)
Inventors: James R. Evans (Apple Valley, MN), James W. Finkowski (Andover, MN), Gene A. Russel (Joplin, MO)
Application Number: 13/966,820
International Classification: A21C 3/10 (20060101);