Carousel Dough Roller with Barrier Slots
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing dough rolling devices face challenges such as dough tearing and cumbersome cleaning, particularly during the initial thickness reduction step, where significant thickness reduction occurs while trying to minimize width expansion.
Innovation Solution
A dough rolling device featuring a carousel with cylindrical rollers, each with a slot for accommodating a fixed barrier to prevent dough spreading, and circle-segment-shaped friction plates to ensure rollers rotate without tearing the dough, allowing for easy cleaning and consistent dough width.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If dough rollers are actively rotated to avoid tearing dough, then the likelihood of dough tearing is reduced, but the device complexity increases due to additional friction plates and rotation mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
Friction plates are introduced as intermediary elements between the carousel rotation mechanism and the dough rollers. These plates transfer rotational motion passively through friction contact, eliminating the need for active rotation mechanisms while avoiding dough tearing. The friction plates serve as mediators that convert carousel rotation into roller rotation without direct mechanical connection.
Solution Approach 2:
The dough rollers are designed to rotate automatically through passive friction contact with the moving carousel or friction plates, rather than being actively driven by motors or gears. This self-service approach allows the rollers to rotate at the appropriate speed to move dough without tearing it, while significantly reducing device complexity by eliminating active rotation mechanisms.
2Manufacturing precision
If fixed barriers are positioned in slots of dough rollers to limit dough spreading, then dough width consistency is improved, but the ease of operation deteriorates due to cumbersome cleaning requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The barrier system is segmented into removable components that can be detached from the dough rollers. Instead of fixed barriers that are difficult to clean around, the barriers are designed as separate elements that can be easily removed and cleaned independently, maintaining their function of limiting dough spreading while significantly improving ease of cleaning operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The barrier positioning system transitions from static fixed barriers to dynamic removable barriers. The barriers can be easily inserted and removed from slots in the dough rollers, allowing for quick cleaning and maintenance while maintaining their function of enclosing dough at both sides during operation. This dynamic approach resolves the contradiction between precision and ease of operation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution effectively limits dough spreading, maintains consistent dough width, and facilitates easy cleaning, reducing the likelihood of dough tearing and improving the overall efficiency of the dough rolling process.
Implementation Method 1
a circle-segment-shaped friction plate that touches a part of the dough rollers located between the slot and the end of the roller during rotation of the carousel, in order to bring the dough rollers into rotation around their respective roller rotation axis when the carousel rotates
Data Source
AI summary
Device for rolling dough on a surface, such as a plate, roller or conveyor belt, comprising:a carousel comprising a number of rollers, each of which is rotatable around mutually parallel roller rotation axes, all of said axes intersecting an imaginary circle and are jointly rotatable around a carousel rotation axis through the centre of said circle, which carousel rotation axis is parallel to at least that part of the surface intended for rolling the dough;whereinthe dough rollers are cylindrical and each has at least one same end with a slot in their jacket, configured for at least partially accommodating a barrier during rotation of the carousel around the carousel rotation axis.