Chocolate Embossing via Segmented Dropping and Vibration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for manufacturing confectionary articles with embossed decorative patterns face challenges in producing high-quality items with three-dimensional ornaments, as they often result in air bubbles in the embossed patterns due to the large volume of confectionary mass coming into contact with the mould surface, leading to poor quality and difficulty in achieving multi-layered designs.
Innovation Solution
A method involving heating a chocolate or chocolate-like mass to a preset temperature and feeding it into a mould with a three-dimensional embossed pattern in a dispersed dropping state through a nozzle, allowing for plastic deformation and vibration to compact the mass, ensuring precise application and removal of air bubbles, enabling the creation of single-layered and multi-layered embossed decorative elements with controlled thickness and elevation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If a large volume of confectionary mass is fed into the mould at once, then the embossed pattern can be formed, but air bubbles are trapped in the grooves of the embossed pattern resulting in poor quality
Solution Approach 1:
The confectionary mass is fed into the mould in small portions rather than as a single large volume. Each portion is carefully placed to fill the mould progressively, allowing air to escape and preventing bubble formation in the embossed pattern grooves.
Solution Approach 2:
The mould is subjected to vibration during the filling process. This vibration helps to dislodge and remove air bubbles from the grooves of the embossed pattern, ensuring that the final product has a high-quality surface without trapped air pockets.
2Manufacturing precision
If conventional moulding methods are used, then production can be simplified, but it is impossible to obtain embossed decorative patterns with three-dimensional ornamentation
Solution Approach 1:
The embossed pattern is pre-formed on the surface of the mould before the confectionary mass is introduced. This preliminary preparation of the mould surface allows the three-dimensional decorative pattern to be transferred to the confectionary product during the filling process, achieving high manufacturing precision without requiring complex post-processing.
3Ease of manufacture
If the confectionary mass is fed as a single portion, then the process is simple, but air bubbles are blocked in the embossed pattern grooves
Solution Approach 1:
The feeding process is segmented into multiple small portions rather than a single large portion. This segmentation maintains relative simplicity in the feeding mechanism while dramatically improving the quality of the embossed pattern by preventing air bubble entrapment in the intricate grooves.
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
This approach allows for the production of high-quality confectionary articles with precise embossed patterns, preventing air bubbles and enabling the creation of decorative elements that can be used as standalone or integrated into larger confectionary articles, with adjustable thickness and complexity, enhancing the manufacturing quality and gustatory appeal.
Implementation Method 1
feeding it into a mould with a three-dimensional embossed pattern on an appropriate surface of the mould in a dispersed dropping state through a nozzle at a drip rate ensuring plastic deformation of the drops as the drops slow down
Implementation Method 2
exposing the filled mould to vibration to compact the confectionary mass
Implementation Method 3
whereupon the mould and the mass filling the mould are cooled
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to the production of confectionary articles with a shaped ornament or with a single-colored or multi-colored embossed design on one of the surfaces of the article. The main characteristic of the present invention consists in that a prepared chocolate/chocolate-like mass is fed into a full-scale mold in a dispersed dropping state through a nozzle at a drip rate ensuring plastic deformation of the drops as the drops slow down. The technical result of using the proposed invention is an increase in the quality of confectionary articles with a three-dimensional embossed decorative design.