Patent ID: 8608467
Filing Date: 2013-12-17
Classification: A21C

Abstract:
1. A device for twisting elongated dough strips, comprising: a pair of grippers, each gripper in the pair of grippers being arranged for gripping and releasing, respectively, one short side of a dough strip that has a pair of short sides, wherein the grippers are moveable along a track and adapted to be rotatable around an axis of rotation of a wheel coupled to the gripper; a first conveyor for supplying the dough strip oriented with its long sides perpendicular to the direction of conveyance, wherein the width of the first conveyor is chosen smaller than the long sides of the dough strip so that the short sides of the dough strip protrude from the first conveyor; a transporter, for moving the grippers along the track that comprises at least: an initialisation area, wherein each gripper is initially held in a predetermined angular orientation around the axis of rotation of the wheel by a threshold torque from which the gripper can be rotated by overcoming the threshold torque, and wherein a rotational force lower than the threshold torque is exerted on the gripper by a friction element for rotating the wheel arranged along the initialisation area; a grip area, wherein the grippers are arranged on opposite sides of the first conveyor, at such distance that they can grip the protruding short sides of a dough strip on the first conveyor without gripping the first conveyor; a twist area, wherein the grippers are arranged at a distance from the first conveyor such that the dough strip does not contact the first conveyor when being twisted by mutually rotating the grippers, wherein a twisted dough strip results; a release area, wherein the twisted dough strip is put on a second conveyor; and the second conveyor for carrying off the twisted dough strip.