A PURI frying machine

Abstract

A Puri Frying Machine The present invention provides a puri frying machine which can be used for automated, contactless and hygienic frying of puri / pani puri / pellets / pop balls / snacks etc It mainly comprises a frying machine (3) containing oil, whose heating, oil level and other parameters are controlled with the help of sensors and various other components, for providing automation and completing the frying process without manual intervention. It may optionally be equipped with an automatic feeder (7) to automatically feed the raw materials in the machine. Being portable, the machine can easily be taken anywhere and can be supplemented with other attachments according to the requirement.

Description

[0001] TITLE OF THE INVENTION

[0002] A PURI FRYING MACHINE

[0003] • FIELD OF THE INVENTION:

[0004] The present invention relates generally to food stuff frying machines and more particularly to a snack pellet frying machine.

[0005] • BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION:

[0006] Frying food stuff in heated oil is not a new thing as it has been known for avery long time. Accordingly, with time, different methods and machines ofvarious scales and specifications were developed by people for this purpose.

[0007] Such machines have one or more problems related to efficiency of output, uniformity of output, inability to take out all the fried pieces together or continuously in manual process leading to burning of them and labour involved etc.

[0008] Industrial scale models are available with different parts and placement of parts and heating source like oil circulation pump, heat exchanger, direct heating by burner below oil tank etc. Basically, these were large industrial fryers.

[0009] Thus, there is a need to develop frying machine models which can overcome one or more problems of prior art and avoid the need for oil circulation pumps, heat exchangers, oil tanks etc.

[0010] • OBJECT OF THE INVENTION: Therefore, the main object of the present invention is to provide a puri frying machine which can help to overcome one or more problems of prior art machines like non-uniformity in frying, partial burning of some pellets, inability to remove all the fried pieces immediately after they are fried, excess burning of oil etc.

[0011] Another object of the present invention is to provide a puri frying machine which can maintain efficiency and uniformity in output, is portable in size, reduces labour and enables to take fried pieces out continuously to minimise the chances of burning of pieces.

[0012] Still another object of the present invention is to provide a puri frying machine which avoids the need for oil circulation pumps, heat exchangers, oil tanks which ultimately increase the cost and complexity of the machine making it unaffordable to the common public.

[0013] Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a puri frying machine which does not need a large volume of oil tanks to fry pani puri, due to which large volumes of oil used to become rancid leading to wastage of the oil.

[0014] A further object of the present invention is to provide a puri frying machine which is cost effective, user-friendly and saves space.

[0015] • SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:

[0016] In one aspect, the puri frying machine mainly includes the parts: heater, conveyor belt with movement flaps, temperature regulator, motor, chain, rpm controller, oil level sensor, oil tank for frying, oil reservoir, oil level sensor, oil refilling pump, temperature probe, pulley with special grooves for conveyor belt, raw material feeder (circular or linear vibrator), vibration coil, raw material feeding sensor, feeder speed controller, electrical circuits, electrical safety tripping switch, exit slope to remove excess oil from material after frying, tray to collect this drained oil and collection box to hold the materialfor cooling. In another aspect, the puri frying machine is either a manual feeding machine or an automatic feeding machine.

[0017] In another aspect, the present invention provides a method for frying the puri / pellets comprising the steps of; heating the oil in oil tank via oil electric heater; maintaining the temperature at desired level by cutting off the heater; feeding the pellets into frying area; taking fried pellets from one end to other end of tank by conveyor belt during frying and then conveying them out from the frying area.

[0018] The above the present invention is described here in greater detail with reference to the following accompanying non-limiting illustrative drawings.

[0019] • BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:

[0020] Fig. 1 gives the drawing of manual feeding puri frying machine Fig. 2 gives the drawing of automatic feeding puri frying machine

[0021] Fig. 3 gives the drawing of the frying process using the puri fryingmachine

[0022] • DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION:

[0023] The nature of the invention and the manner in which it is performed is clearly described in the specification. The invention has various components and they are clearly described in the following pages of the complete specification.

[0024] The present invention describes a puri frying machine which can be used to automatically fry puri, pani puri, pellets, papads or similar snack items in which partial / no manual intervention is required during the frying process due to which the snacks prepared are appropriately and evenly fried and are hygienic.

[0025] In one embodiment, puri frying machine comprises the following parts:

[0026] • heater - for heating the oil • conveyor belt with movement flaps - for the movement of the puris I papads I pellets / snacks during frying and removal of the fried materialfrom the tank with the help of flaps

[0027] • temperature regulator - for regulating the temperature in the frying tank (because higher temperature will bum / over fry the snacks and lower temperature will cause under frying of the snacks)

[0028] • motor - for the movement of the conveyor belt,

[0029] • chain - an essential part of the conveyor belt

[0030] • rpm controller - for controlling the rotation

[0031] • oil level sensor - for sensing the level of oil in the frying tank

[0032] • oil tank for frying - in which the frying of the puris / pellets / snacks isdone

[0033] • oil reservoir - for storing oil for addition according to the requirement

[0034] • oil refilling pump - for refilling oil in the tank for frying from the oilreservoir when the oil level sensor senses lower level of oil

[0035] • temperature probe - for measuring the temperature in the frying tank

[0036] • pulley with special grooves for conveyor belt - for moving the conveyorbelt

[0037] • raw material feeder with circular or linear vibrator - for machines with automatic feeder wherein the vibrator is provided to sort the unfried snacks present in the raw material feeder into single units

[0038] • vibration coil - for providing vibrations to the unfried snacks to sort them

[0039] • raw material feeding sensor - for sensing the quantity of raw material fed into the frying tank so that after the optimum amount has reached, feeder is stopped

[0040] • feeder speed controller - for controlling the speed at which the rawmaterial is fed into the frying tank

[0041] • electrical circuits - for the functioning of each part of the machine

[0042] • electrical safety tripping switch - to protect the machine during uneven current flow

[0043] • exit slope - to remove excess oil from material after frying • tray - to collect the excess drained oil

[0044] • collection box - to hold the fried material for cooling.

[0045] Fig. 1 gives the drawing of the puri frying machine with manual feeding which clearly displays the collection bin (1) for collecting the fried puris, the ramp (2), which may optionally be equipped with a conveyor belt, for transfer of the fried puris from the frying machine to the collection bin (1), the fryingmachine (3) which has the oil tank for frying, control unit (4) which has the controlling systems like temperature regulator, motor, rpm controller, oil level sensor etc., plurality of switches (5) present on the control unit (4) to manually switch on / switch off the machine or increase / decrease the temperature and plurality of LEDs (6) which displays the working condition of the machine, i.e. whether it is switched on or off.

[0046] Fig. 2 gives the drawing of the puri frying machine with automatic feeding which has similar arrangement of the machine as shown in Fig. 1 except that it has an automatic feeder (7), which has the puris / pellets / snacks to be fried and which is provided with a vibrating sorter (8) which sorts out singlepieces of the puris / pellets / snacks such that single pieces of the item to be fried are added in the frying machine one by one due to which evenly fried puris / pellets / snacks are obtained.

[0047] Similarly, in other embodiment the invention provides a method for frying puri / pellets / papads / snacks in puri frying machine which comprises of thefollowing steps:

[0048] • switching on the machine for heating the oil in frying tank via electric heater;

[0049] • measuring the temperature with the help of temperature probe and maintaining the temperature at desired level by cutting off the heater with the help of temperature regulator;

[0050] • feeding the pellets into frying area either automatically or manually;

[0051] • taking fried pellets from one end to other end of the tank with the help of conveyor belt during frying;

[0052] • remove them out of the frying area onto the ramp after frying so that the fried material gets collected in the collection box and is kept for some time for cooling, before packing. Fig. 3 gives the drawing of the frying process using the puri frying machinewhich shows the frying tank with the frying puris (10). A conveyor belt is present in the tank which moves the frying puris from one end to the other. At the end of the tank is provided a flap (9) which pushes the fried puris out of the frying tank onto the ramp, which too may optionally be a conveyor belt, for moving the fried puris out of the tank into the collection box which holdsthe puris till they have cooled down and then these puris are sent for packing.

[0053] As discussed, the whole process is controlled by an electronic system which takes inputs from various sensors and controls the vibrator and electric motor to provide timed, automated, contactless, and hygienic frying.

[0054] The said machine of the present invention has many advantages:

[0055] • it can be used to fry various items such as puri, pani puri, pop balls, pellets, papad, other snacks etc;

[0056] • simple and easy to use;

[0057] • provides even frying to each piece of raw material added;

[0058] • is available in manual and automatic feeder versions according to therequirement;

[0059] • being portable it can be taken anywhere for use;

[0060] • various attachments can be attached like a seasoning system to spray tastemaker etc.; and

[0061] • easy to assemble and disassemble for ease in movement and allowingto sell feeder or fryer separately as well.

[0062] The foregoing disclosure is not intended to limit the present disclosure to the precise forms or particular fields of use disclosed. As such, it is contemplated that various alternative embodiments and / or modifications to the present disclosure, whether explicitly described or implied herein, are possible in light of the disclosure. Having thus described embodiments of the present disclosure, persons of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure is limited only by the claims.

Claims

I / We claim,1. A pun frying machine which is an automated machine for hygienically and evenly frying raw materials like puris I pani puris I pellets I papads I snacks etc. wherein the machine may be optionally provided with an automatic feeder to automatically feed the raw materials into the frying machine wherein the puri frying machine comprises of:• heater which heats the oil for frying;• conveyor belt with movement flaps which moves the raw materials during frying and removes them from the frying tank after frying, withthe help of flap;• temperature regulator which regulates the temperature of the oil in the frying tank;• motor which causes the movement of the conveyor belt;• chain which is an essential part of the conveyor belt;• rpm controller which controls the rotation;• oil level sensor which senses the level of oil in the frying tank;• oil tank for frying (3) in which the frying of the raw materials is done;• oil reservoir which stores oil for addition in the frying tank according to the requirement;• oil refilling pump which refills oil in the frying tank, from the oilreservoir, when the oil level sensor senses lower level of oil;• temperature probe which measures the temperature in the frying tank;• pulley with special grooves for conveyor belt for moving the conveyor belt;• raw material feeder (7) with circular or linear vibrator (8) for machines with automatic feeder wherein the vibrator is provided to sort the un-fried snacks present in the raw material feeder into single units;• vibration coil present in the machines with automatic feeder for providing vibrations to the unfried snacks to sort them;• raw material feeding sensor present in machines with automatic feeder which senses the quantity of raw material fed into the frying tank so that after the optimum amount has reached, feeding is stopped;• feeder speed controller present in machines with automatic feeder which controls the speed at which the raw material is fed into the frying tank;• electrical circuits which assist in functioning of each part of the machine;• electrical safety tripping switch to protect the machine during uneven current flow ;• exit slope to remove excess oil from material after frying;• tray to collect the excess drained oil;• ramp (2) for transferring the fried materials from the frying tank to the collection box and• collection box (1) to hold the fried material for cooling.

2. The puri frying machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein the ramp (2) may optionally be provided with a conveyor belt for transferring the fried materials from the frying tank (3) to the collection box (1).

3. The puri frying machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein the steps involvedin the frying of the raw materials in the machine are as follows:I. switching on the machine for heating the oil in the frying tank with the help of electric heater;II. measuring the temperature of the oil with the help of the temperatureprobe;III. maintaining the desired temperature of the oil with the help of temperature regulator by cutting off the heater whenever required;IV. feeding the raw materials into the frying tank either with the help of the automatic feeder or manually;V. movement of the frying materials from one end of the frying tank tothe other with the help of the conveyor belt;VI. removing the fried materials out of the frying tank with the help of the flap, after frying;VII. passing the fried materials through the ramp to the collection box for collection of the fried materials; andVIII. allowing the fried materials to cool in the collection box followed bypacking.

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