Sopes dish forming machine

Improvements a machine that turns gorditas into sopes. The machine uses an elliptical chain drive that transports the sopes. The gorditas travel horizontally where the gorditas are turned into sopes as they continue along the linear travel of the elliptical chain drive. The holder is a female pocket that accepts the gorditas and provides support at the sides of the sopes. A rotary press placed along the travel of the gorditas as they become sopes. The rotary press is synchronized to rotate and press into holders. The machine include leveling arms or pads that level the female pocket with the gorditas is loaded, pressed and ejected. The forming machine flips the sopes out of the female holder after the sopes has been formed with a central pocket.

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THE NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT

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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

This invention relates to improvements in a forming machine for a sopes food product. More particularly, the present machine receives semi-cooked gorditas and creates a dish cavity in the gorditas using a continuous conveyor system wherein the sopes can later be filed by the end customer.

Sopes are Aztec cuisine made from corn (masa) flour cakes and are topped with a variety of items from just beans and cheese, to eggs, shredded chicken or beef, vegetables picadillo, or even just guacamole. Sopes make a great appetizer because of their small size. Making any recipes involving homemade dough can seem like an intimidating task to some, but I assure you the corn mesa flour used in these Mexican recipes is a pure joy to use. The sopes are formed from corn balls that are pressed into flattened circles. The flattened circles are then lightly cooked on both sides and then the outer edge is pinched to form a raised edge.

Several food products use a raised outer ridge to keep toppings within an inner surface. In high volume production the process needs to be performed in a rapid manner where some form of automation increases the efficiency and the rate of production. A number of machines have been made that form a raise outer surface have been issued or published. Exemplary examples of patents and or publication that try to address this/these problem(s) are identified and discussed below.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,963,402 issued on Jun. 15, 1976 for Peter Berta discloses a method for shaping shells for hors d'oevres. The method uses an upper male and a lower female dies that where a sheet of dough is placed and pressed together in a matrix that forms multiple shells at a single time. While this patent covers a machine that makes shells, the shells are made from dough and provide an even wall section without a flat lower surface. The machine requires an even sheet of dough and does not use an individual disc of pre-cooked dough.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,634,365 issued on Jan. 6, 1987 for Pedro R. Triporo et al discloses an Apparatus for Making Pizza. The apparatus uses a flat-bed conveyor where trays of pizza move around an arc where a series of vertical rods push into the pizza to texture the top surface of the pizza. While this apparatus forms the top surface of dough it does not operate in a linear conveyor where the dough is pressed in a linear rolling motion.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,074,778 issued on Dec. 24, 1991 for David E. Betts, Jr. et al discloses a Pizza Crust Dough Forming Die Assembly. The assembly accepts a round dough ball that is placed central to the forming die. The top die closes vertically onto the lower die and the dough is squeezed to fill the forming die. Because the dough is squeezed between two dies the volume of the ball of dough must be accurately maintained to ensure that the pizza is completely filled without being over filled where excess dough is squeezed out of the die.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,919,508 issued on Jul. 6, 1999 for Davis A. Donnelly et al discloses a Process for Forming Dough Foodstuffs. The process starts with a dough ball placed on an oven safe sheet. The dough is the pressed with a vertical press to form pizza crust, rolls or loaves of bread. While this process forms the uncooked dough products, it required the uncooked dough product to expand as it rises. The dough is not partially cooked and then pressed to set the base and raised outer surface.

What is needed is sopes press that operates on a conveyor belt system where the gorditas are loaded into female trays and then a male tray compresses the gorditas into a sopes. The proposed sopes dish forming machine provides the solution with a conveyor forms the sopes for resale.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the sopes dish forming machine to use an elliptical chain drive that transports the sopes. The elliptical chain drive provides an elongated distance where the gorditas can be placed into holders at one side at the beginning of linear travel. The gorditas travel horizontally where the gorditas are turned into sopes as they continue along the linear travel of the elliptical chain drive. The holder is a female pocket that accepts the gorditas and provides support at the sides of the sopes. The linear travel allows for additional processes to be imposed onto the gorditas or sopes as they travel from a loading to an unloading location.

It is an object of the sopes dish forming machine to utilize a rotary press placed along the travel of the gorditas as they become sopes. The rotary press is linear with the travel of the elliptical chain drive. The rotary press is synchronized to rotate and press into holders. The press is a male former that forms the recessed female pocket in the sopes and is basically a rolling shoe that clears the outer lip of the female pocket, presses the sopes shape and then rolls out of the opposing outer lip of the female pocket.

It is another object of the sopes dish forming machine to include leveling arms or pads that level the female pocket with the gorditas is loaded, pressed and ejected. Because the drive system is a chain drive that transports the holders along the center of the female pocket. The leveling arms or guides are placed on the distal sides of the female holder to keep the female holder horizontal. The leveling arms or guides are placed to allow an operator to set a gorditas, at a location where the gorditas is turned into a sopes and where the sopes is unloaded or had additional processes performed.

It is still another object of the sopes dish forming machine to flip the sopes out of the female holder after the sopes has been formed with a central pocket. This is performed as the female holder travels around one of the rounded ends of the elliptical drive and the sopes fall out of the female holder onto a conveyor system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1shows a flow chart for making sopes. Corn is ground and mixed with other ingredients to form dough. The corn dough is either formed into a ball of rolled flat or then cut with a round die into a flat disk to form a corn gordita20. Before the sope is formed, the gordita comes out of an oven where it is partially or completely cooked in an over where it is in the corn “gordita” stage22. The “gordita” then travels on a cooling conveyor to the Sope Machine area where someone a person or robot selects individual gorditas and then places23the individual “gorditas” into one of the female receiving dish on the sope machine molds.

These female dishes are agar dish-shapes attached on a primary chain that acts as a conveyor24. Simultaneously a secondary chain acting as a conveyor on an opposite direction with smaller diameter flat surface male buttons that engage meets with the female receiving dish to press25the “gordita” for a couple of seconds to turn the gorditas into a sope.

Once the sope is formed25it is then dropped26on to a Teflon or equivalent band that returns the sope to the beginning of the cooling conveyor, giving the sope extra cooling time prior to packaging the sopes for retail sale where the conveyor delivers the cooled sopes where they are packed.

FIG. 2shows the track system for the sope fabrication machine without the drive mechanism andFIG. 3shows a cross-sectional view of the female and male forming dies. The primary drive system30is essentially an elliptical linked chain with drive sprocket41and idle sprocket42. A number of female dishes31,32,33,34and36are secured onto the primary drive system30.

A secondary drive system50is essentially another elliptical linked chain. The secondary drive system50has less male dies51than the number of female dishes found on the primary drive system30. The secondary system50is also essentially an elliptical linked chain40with drive sprocket61and idle sprocket62with a plurality of male die formers51and52. The secondary drive50is offset from the primary drive system30. The shorter secondary drive50allows an area for the primary drive for some dishes33to be exposed for loading of the gorditas70and71onto the female dish(s).

Because the primary drive30is a narrow linked chain the chain can tip from side-to-side. To prevent the tipping at some parts of the travel leveling platforms80exist to level the female dish(es)31when the gorditas is being placed onto the female dish33. A secondary set of leveling platforms81exist where the gordita is being press by the male die52to make an impression on the interior of the gordita thereby turning the gordita into a sope72with a depressed interior area73with elevated sides.

FIG. 3shows the female dishes33-35progressing horizontally28. The gordita71is shown in the first location “A”. The heel of the male die53rotates down and into the female dish53. In location “B” both the female34and the male52progress together. In location “C” the male die54rotates and lifts out of the female dish35the male die rotates fairly vertically out of the female dish and the trailing edge of the female dish35is lower than the leading edge38of the female dish the clear the trailing edge37of the male die54to prevent the female and male dies to interfere39. After the sope is formed the female dish35rotates around sprocket41the sope74is dropped out of the female forming plate where it is transported for further cooling.

The female dish is essentially a dish shape with a flat central area and raised outer sides. The flat central area is sized to approximate the outside diameter of the gorditas/sope. Because the gorditas is partially or completely cooked and still slightly warm to accept the impression from the male forming die. The female dish is made from a food grade metal or plastic such as but not limited to Delrin, acetyl, nylon, PVC, ABS, Teflon, aluminum and stainless steel. It is contemplated that the female dish can be treated to prevent or reduce the formed sope from sticking to the inside of the female forming dish. It is further contemplated that the interior bottom surface of the female dish can be coated with a flavor, spice or seeds that will be embedded into the outer surface of the sope.

The male die has a flat top surface. An inner solid cylinder extends down from the flat top surface. The solid inner cylinder is smaller in diameter than the inside diameter of the side walls of the female dish. The difference between the two diameters allows the formation of the raised side walls of the sope.

FIG. 4shows a perspective view of the complete sope making machine as fabricated. This view is from the gordita loading side of the machine. Links40of the primary reciprocating drive are seen between the two female dishes32and33. The primary reciprocating linked drive40has a plurality of female receiving dishes32and33secured to thereon. In the upper portion of this figure the secondary reciprocating linked drive50is seen where the secondary reciprocating linked drive is secured to the male forming die53.

The primary reciprocating linked drive40is synchronized to the secondary reciprocating linked drive50whereby when a male forming die53engages with female receiving dishes33and they progress through the machine. When a gordita is placed into one of the female receiving dishes33and a male forming die53engages into the female receiving dishes33the gordita is formed into dishes to make a dished sope. A drive motor moves the primary40and secondary50linked belts. These figure further shows pillow blocks that support an idler or drive shaft90where the linked belt50rotates around. This figure further shows one of the leveling platforms80that support the distal side edges of the female receiving dishes33. Because the female receiving dishes33are (essentially) only supported from the center of the female receiving dishes33the female receiving dishes33are susceptible to side-to-side tipping and the leveling guides80ensure that the female receiving dishes33are horizontal when the gordita is placed onto the female receiving dishes33, and a second set of leveling guides level the female receiving dishes33when the male forming die53engages with a female receiving dishes33.

Thus, specific embodiments of a sopes dish forming machine have been disclosed. It should be apparent, however, to those skilled in the art that many more modifications besides those described are possible without departing from the inventive concepts herein. The inventive subject matter, therefore, is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims.