Patent ID: 8151695

Claim:
An automated belt cooking machine for preparing food products comprising: upper and lower overlapping, thermally conductive belts, said belts being counter-rotatably mounted to a frame for said machine wherein a bottom run of said upper belt and a top run of said lower belt co-operate to convey food to be cooked into said food products between said upper and lower belts, said lower belt extending a predetermined distance to one side of said upper belt for providing a dispensing platform portion of said top run of said lower belt for dispensing thereon said food to be cooked, said food is conveyed in a direction towards a mouth formed between said bottom run of the upper belt and said top run of the lower belt to receive said food and thereafter is conveyed sandwiched between said bottom run and said top run to a downstream end of said lower belt, upper and lower heating platens operatively mounted to said frame and in thermal contact with said bottom run of the upper belt and said top run of the lower belt, respectively, and a lower roller component mounted to said frame adjacent said downstream end of said lower belt, said lower roller component and said lower belt having a surface linear speed and being adapted to rotate in the same direction, said lower roller rotating at a similar surface linear speed as the lower belt wherein said food products are peeled off said lower belt by the rotation of said lower roller component, wherein said lower belt is rotated over a driven roller being located at said downstream end of said lower belt and an axis of said lower roller component is below an axis of said driven roller, wherein said food to be cooked is initially exposed to heat from said lower platen conducted firstly through said dispensing platform portion of said top run and then continually through the remaining portion of said top run toward said mouth for releasing gases trapped in bubbles produced by heating said food before said food is sandwiched between said bottom run and said top run, and wherein said food to be cooked is then exposed to heat from said upper platen conducted through said bottom run as well as from said lower platen conducted through said top run so as to cook said food products.