Food forming device

A food product forming device is provided with a dispensing nozzle through which the food product, in slurry form, is continually fed to the outlet end thereof where a sleeve including a cut off sleeve and an outer forming tube are mounted about the exterior of the nozzle so as to be movable towards and away from the dispensing end of the nozzle; the sleeve is provided with passages for receiving and distributing a discharging fluid to the food engaging portion of the sleeve to assist in discharging the food product from the lower end thereof.

cl BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to a dispensing nozzle in a food product 
forming apparatus and, more particularly, to a dispensing nozzle having a 
fluid pressure assisted discharge and cleaning means. 
In the past, a number of automatic, relatively high speed food product 
forming devices, such as doughnut machines, cookie machines or the like, 
have been proposed where a slurry of the food product is delivered through 
a nozzle where the nozzle forms the product or delivers material to a 
forming station prior to treatment of the formed food product such as by 
cooking, freezing or the like. 
Representative prior art in this field includes U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,793,207, 
1,909,449, 2,184,825, 3,650,765, 3,650,766, 3,814,560, 3,979,172, and 
4,233,016. 
In a number of arrangements, gravity flow of the food material slurry has 
been relied upon to effect discharge of a formed product from the food 
forming apparatus. However, where the consistency of the formulation of 
the slurry varies, reliance upon gravity flow can often lead to 
significant down time when the machines have become clogged or where it 
has been necessary to start up the machine after a prolonged down time 
such as a weekend or holiday. With specific food recipes, production 
speeds have been relatively slow due, in part, to the necessity of 
frequently stopping the apparatus to effect cleaning of the product 
forming implements. Also, with a number of the specific types of food 
slurrys such as, for example, doughnut dough and onion ring slurrys, it 
has been the practice to assist discharge of the formed product from the 
forming implements by coating the slurry while or immediately after it is 
formed with a chemical composition that improves its lubricity. However, 
very often the use of such chemical compositions adversely effects the 
taste or other properties of the product in addition to the disadvantage 
of increasing the cost of the product. In other arrangements, it has been 
the practice to effect or assist discharge of the formed food product from 
the forming implements by sharply tapping the forming implement on a 
surface in an attempt to jar loose the formed food product. Such a 
procedure, while normally effective, can greatly shorten the useful life 
of an apparatus, on the one hand, or, on the other, require expensive and 
frequent maintenance due to the force to which the various linkages are 
subjected. 
The present invention avoids the foregoing disadvantages by providing a 
fluid pressure assist to a food forming slurry delivery nozzle which is 
relatively inexpensive to operate and yet which will positively deliver 
the formed product from the nozzle for subsequent processing as well as 
clear the forming member of any undesirable food residue. 
In summary, the present invention provides a sleeve about the exterior of a 
slurry delivery nozzle with the sleeve being provided with a recess which 
is in communication with a fluid pressure distribution chamber by means of 
a large number of small diameter bores. The fluid distribution chamber is 
connected to a source of fluid such as air or a suitable liquid maintained 
under pressure and connected to the fluid distribution chamber through a 
suitable control valve. 
In operation, upon delivery of a quantity of slurry to the forming portion 
of the sleeve and nozzle, the valve will be actuated to deliver fluid 
under pressure to the bores to discharge the formed food product from the 
end of the nozzle and sleeve for further processing. The amount of 
pressure employed may vary to compensate for the degree of adhesion of the 
product to the adjacent surfaces of the nozzle and sleeve. 
The foregoing and other advantages will become apparent as consideration is 
given to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the 
accompanying drawings, in which:

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
Referring now to the drawings wherein like numerals designate corresponding 
parts throughout the several views, there is shown in FIG. 1, a food 
forming apparatus 10 which includes a slurry feeder 12 of a type more 
fully described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,650,765, the disclosure of which is 
incorporated herein by reference and relied upon. In the aforesaid patent, 
the apparatus is employed to form onion rings from an extrudable slurry 
with the slurry being delivered to a cylindrical nozzle 14. The flow to 
the nozzle 14 may be by gravity by a fluid under pressure or other 
suitable means. The nozzle 14 cooperates with the food forming sleeve 16 
which delivers a formed product 18 to a bath 20 in which may be installed 
belt conveyor 22 for transporting the formed article to a subsequent 
processing station. 
The forming sleeve 16 is provided adjacent its upper end with an annular 
groove 24 in which is located the end of a forked displacement arm 26. The 
opposite end of the arm 26 is pivotable by a solenoid operated linkage 30 
to rapidly shift the sleeve 16 up and down in the direction of the arrows 
A. The timing sequence for the movement of the sleeve 16 and the control 
valve, described below, will be synchronized. 
Turning now to FIGS. 2 and 3, there are shown enlarged views of the device 
of the present invention with the upper end 34 attached to a schematically 
indicated feed tube 32. 
The feeder tube 32, connected to feeder 12, will supply a slurry of food 
product to the upper end 34 of nozzle 14, which is in generally 
cylindrical form and particularly adapted to form oval or circular rings 
for the manufacture of doughnuts, onion rings or the like. This is 
achieved by connecting to a cross rod 38, the ends of which are 
permanently mounted across a diameter of the nozzle 14, a support rod 40 
lying along the axis of the nozzle 14 and a circular member 42 which is 
bolted to the lower end of the rod 40, as illustrated. The side of the 
circular member 42 facing the nozzle is in the form of a frustoconical 
surface 44 whereby the outward slant of the surface 44 relative to the 
direction of flow of the slurry down through nozzle 14 will assist 
dispensing to the annular forming space 45 for the food product. The 
annular forming space 45 is defined by a cylindrical sleeve member 46 and 
the outer sleeve 16 which is carried on the sleeve 46 and held in position 
by threaded pins such as indicated at 50. 
The lower end of the sleeve 46 is exteriorally tapered as at 52. The inner 
face of sleeve 16 is provided with a recess 54 adjacent the taper 52 and 
includes a cylindrical section 56 which extends below the lower edge 58 of 
the inner sleeve 46. Adjacent the mid-section of the outer sleeve 16 an 
annular cavity 60 is formed which is connected to a fluid inlet 62. The 
annular cavity 60 has a bottom wall 64 in which are formed a plurality of 
bores 66 which extend about the circumference of the annular cavity 60 and 
which communicate with the recess 54. A large number of such bores 66 may 
be provided as indicated in FIG. 4 to assure adequate distribution of 
fluid fed from the inlet 62 to the chamber 60 and from the chamber 60 to 
the recess 54. 
To facilitate manufacture of the outer sleeve 16, the upper end thereof may 
be provided as a separate element whereby an appropriate mold may be used 
to form the cavity 60. Thereafter, the upper element 68, which is formed 
with a ring 70 is insertable into a portion of the cavity 60. Thereafter, 
metal pins 72 may be employed, as illustrated, to secure the upper 
elements 68 on the upper end of the sleeve 16. 
The opening 62, in sleeve 16 may be provided with a plug member 74 as shown 
in FIG. 2 to facilitate connection as by a hose 76 (FIG. 1) to a source of 
fluid under pressure. 
In operation, with the inner and outer sleeves 46 and 16 in the raised 
position of FIG. 3, slurry which is continually under pressure is 
continuously delivered to sleeve 16 at 34 and flows from the bottom of the 
nozzle 16. The slurry begins to flow outwardly between the circular member 
42 and the lower edge of the annular wall segment 56. The solenoid 28 is 
then activated to lower the inner and outer sleeves 46 and 16 whereby the 
lower end 58 will immediately commence cutting off the outward flow of the 
slurry until the lower end 58 reaches the upper edge of the surface 44. At 
this time, a quantity of food product, schematically indicated at 78, is 
trapped in the cavity 54 and between the surface 52 of the sleeve 46 and 
the inner wall of the lower end 56 of the sleeve 16. At this juncture, an 
automatic control valve, not shown, operates to deliver a suitable fluid 
under pressure through opening 62 to chamber 60 and through the bores 66 
to facilitate discharging the formed product and then any remaining 
plugged food slurry in recess 54 whereby the food product 78 will be 
dispensed under positive pressure to the bath 20 immediately below the 
device. Upon expulsion of the food product ring 78 from the lower end of 
the device when using an automatic control valve, a pressure drop will 
exist in chamber 60 which can be detected by conventional pressure 
sensitive means to stop the delivery of fluid under pressure to the inlet 
62. 
It has been found, that in the operation of food forming apparatus, that 
significantly greater production capacities can be achieved where the 
formed food product is discharged under positive pressure from the food 
forming device as provided by the present invention. Clogging of the 
apparatus is eliminated. 
Having described the invention, it will be apparent to those skilled in 
this art that various modifications may be made thereto without departing 
from the spirit and scope of this invention as defined in the appended 
claims.