Apparatus for manufacturing sealed sandwich style buns

The present invention is directed to an apparatus, for manufacturing sealed sandwich style buns, which can cut off crusts on outer peripheries of each two sliced breads containing jam, cheese, meat, vegetable or the like therebetween at one operation and can simultaneously press the outer peripheries of the sliced breads to seal them.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
(1) Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing sealed 
sandwich style buns. 
(2) Description of the Prior Art 
As for conventional sandwiches, their peripheries are in an open state. In 
other words, a cooked material is only put between two sliced breads. In 
the case of such a kind of sandwich, the cooked material easily goes bad 
and is not preservable. Even if the cooked material can be preserved, it 
will grow hard. When the cooked material has become hard, the sandwich 
containing it is required to be toasted by a toaster or to be warmed by a 
steamer. At this time, the cooked material would flow out or fall from 
between the two sliced breads, so that a shape inherent in the sandwich 
would be worsened and its taste would be impaired disadvantageously. 
Further, in the case of the conventional sandwiches the outer peripheries 
of which are open, crusts on the four sides of the sliced breads have been 
removed by cutting a number of sliced breads vertically heaped up at once 
with a disc-like rotary blade one side at a time. Therefore, in order to 
remove the crusts on the four sides of each sandwich, the cutting 
operation has been required as many as four times. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for 
manufacturing sealed sandwich style buns which is capable of overcoming 
the above-mentioned drawbacks, and this apparatus comprises a cutting 
device, for cutting off crusts of sliced breads, which has a frame like 
sharp blade on the top of its outer periphery and a shoulder having a 
predetermined width on the inside wall of the frame-like blade, and an 
intermittently rotatable table which is disposed under the cutting device 
and on which sandwiches each consisting of two sliced breads and jam, 
cheese, meat or vegetable lying therebetween can be put, the cutting 
device having functions of cutting off the crusts on the four sides of 
each sandwich in a pressing manner at one operation by the use of the 
frame-like blade and simultaneously causing outer peripheries of the 
sandwich to adhere to each other by the pressing of the shoulder and to 
thereby seal the two sliced breads. 
The apparatus of the present invention does not employ a manner of cutting 
off the crusts on the four sides of many sliced breads heaped up at four 
operations as in the conventional technique. According to the apparatus of 
the present invention, the crusts on the four sides of the two sliced 
breads can instead be cut off at one operation and the peripheral four 
sides of the breads can be simultaneously sealed to confine a sandwiched 
material within the two sliced breads. That is to say, the apparatus of 
the present invention permits cutting off, at one operation, the crusts on 
the four sides of the two sliced breads between which jam, cheese, meat or 
vegetable is sandwiched and which constitute the sandwich, and 
simultaneously sealing the peripheral four sides thereof.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
According to an apparatus of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, a 
cutting blade 1 having a sharp frame-like blade provided on the top of its 
outer periphery is caused to descend in a pressing manner in order to cut 
off, at one time and in the form of a square frame, crusts on four 
peripheral sides of sliced breads 11, 11 containing a cooked material 16 
therebetween which are put on a table 10 made from hard urethane rubber, 
and simultaneously to seal the four outer peripheral sides of the sliced 
breads. 
If the tetragonal shape of the cutting blade 1 is changed to another shape 
such as a flower or animal, sandwich style buns having such a shape in 
which their outer peripheries are sealed without any crusts can be 
manufactured. 
As shown in FIG. 2, the frame-like cutting blade 1 regarding the present 
invention is provided, on its top end, with a sharp frame-like blade 2 
and, on its inside wall, with a shoulder 3 having a predetermined width. 
The cutting blade 1 is fixed under a piston 5 which can move upward and 
downward within a cylinder 4, whereby the cutting blade 1 can thus move in 
up and down directions. The above-mentioned intermittently rotatable table 
10 is disposed under the cutting blade 1, with the center of the cylinder 
4 deviated from the center of the table 10. The sliced bread 11 put on one 
said (right side in FIG. 1) of the table 10 is delivered to a position 
under the cutting blade 1 by rotating the table 10 as much as half a 
rotation and is stopped there. At this time, the cutting blade 1 is caused 
to descend in a pressing manner in order to cut off the crusts on the four 
sides of the sliced breads at one operation and to simultaneously seal 
them, while new sliced breads 11 are put on the right side of the table 10 
shown in FIG. 1. When the cutting blade 1 is caused to ascend after the 
cutting and sealing, half the rotation of the table 10 is carried out 
again, and it is stopped, and the crusts of the sliced breads are cut off 
and the breads are sealed simultaneously. Afterward, the same procedure is 
repeated to cut off the crusts on the four sides of the sliced breads and 
to seal the breads continuously. 
In order to manufacture sandwich style buns or cooked breads by the 
utilization of the cutting blade 1 in accordance with the present 
invention, the shoulder 3 having a predermined width is provided on the 
inside wall of the frame-like blade 2. When the cutting device 1 is caused 
to descend, the shoulder 3 presses the outer peripheries of the sliced 
breads. At this time, the outer peripheries of the breads are temporarily 
pressed by the shoulder 3 as represented in phantom, but when the cutting 
blade 1 is caused to ascend, the pressed peripheries take a configuration 
of such a pressed portion 13 as represented by a solid line, and the four 
outer peripheries of the sliced breads are additionally sealed. 
When the cutting blade 1 is raised, the crusts which have been cut in the 
form of the rectangular frame are lifted together sometimes because of its 
adhesion to the blade 1. Such a problem can be prevented by virtue of a 
scraper 15 upward and downward movably provided on an outer periphery of 
the cutting blade 1. Further, it seems probable that the sandwich rises 
together with the cutting blade 1 due to the adhesion of the sandwich to 
the inside wall of the cutting blade 1, but if this adhesion is strong, a 
press plate (not shown) which has the same function as the scraper 15 may 
be provided at the center of the frame-like cutting blade 1. 
The sandwich which its crusts have been removed and its four outer 
peripheries are sealed by the above-mentioned apparatus may be fried in 
oil, or may thereafter be coated with viscous chocolate, peanut or the 
like to manufacture buns. 
According to the apparatus of the present invention, the two sliced breads 
are punched by the cutting blade 1 in accordance with the above-mentioned 
procedure in order to cut off the crusts of the sliced breads and to 
simultaneously seal the outer peripheries of the breads, while a food 16 
such as bean jam, jam, cheese, meat or vegetable is sandwiched between the 
two sliced breads, thereby manufacturing a sandwich style bun 17 
containing each food 16 therein. 
In contrast to the conventional sandwiches the outer peripheries of which 
are not sealed, the buns 17 manufactured by the apparatus of the present 
invention do not allow mayonnaise, tomato catsup or the like to flow out, 
therefore they are easy to eat and to hold by hand, and do not soil hands. 
The inventors of the present application actually manufactured a bun in an 
embodiment using the apparatus of the present invention. The used cutting 
blade 1 had the shoulder 3 of about 3 mm in width, the distance from an 
edge of the blade to the shoulder being about 1 mm. A sliced cheese was 
sandwiched between two sliced breads each having a thickness of 1 cm, and 
crusts of the breads were cut off by means of the cutting blade 1. As a 
result, there could be manufactured a sandwich style bun the pressed 
portion 13 on the outer periphery of which was sealed by an adhesive force 
of the sliced breads themselves so tightly as not to be easily separated, 
as shown in FIG. 5. 
As understood from the foregoing, the present invention makes use of the 
frame-like cutting blade 1 and permits cutting off the crusts on the 
peripheries of the sliced breads and simultaneously sealing the outer 
peripheries of the sliced breads at one operation in the same manner as 
the punching of a press, therefore the procedure of the manufacture 
process can be more simplified than the conventional technique. Further, 
the cut portions of the sliced breads are pressed and sealed, therefore 
the production and fall of crumbs can be restrained. Moreover, if the 
cutting blades having a variety of shapes are employed as mentioned above, 
the sandwich style buns having shapes such as flowers and animals can be 
manufactured. From the viewpoints just described, it can be concluded that 
the apparatus of the present invention is useful and valuable in 
industrial fields.