Irregular-Shaped Egg Product Molding for Natural Appearance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing pre-cooked egg products for convenience foods lack the appearance and texture of freshly cooked eggs, with uniform, planar surfaces and shapes that do not resemble home-cooked eggs.
Innovation Solution
A method involving pans with irregularly shaped pockets that allow liquid egg products to cook and puff, resulting in egg products with irregular perimeters and textured surfaces, using a combination of heat and moisture to create a natural appearance and texture.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If liquid egg filling is deposited into a circular recess in a pan and cooked, then the egg product can be mass-produced efficiently, but the resulting egg patty has a planar shape that does not resemble a freshly-cooked egg
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies asymmetry by replacing the traditional circular pan recess with an irregularly-shaped mold cavity that mimics the natural shape of a freshly-cooked egg. The mold cavity includes non-uniform wall angles and irregular contours that create an asymmetric egg product shape, resolving the contradiction between mass production efficiency and realistic egg appearance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses curvature principles by designing the mold cavity with curved surfaces and rounded contours that replicate the natural spheroidal shape of cooked eggs. The irregularly-shaped cavity incorporates varied curvature radii and smooth transitions that create a realistic egg appearance while maintaining manufacturability through injection molding.
2Manufacturing precision
If liquid egg filling is allowed to spread evenly in a pan recess, then the egg patty has a uniform thickness, but the top surface lacks the puffed or textured appearance of freshly-cooked eggs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by incorporating localized features within the mold cavity, such as depressed portions, raised portions, and varied wall angles in specific regions. These local variations create different cooking characteristics and surface textures in corresponding areas of the egg product, achieving a realistic puffed appearance while maintaining overall dimensional control.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses preliminary action by pre-forming the liquid egg filling into the irregularly-shaped mold cavity before cooking. The mold cavity itself creates the initial three-dimensional shape and surface texture features, which are then enhanced during the cooking process, eliminating the need for post-cooking shaping operations.
3Manufacturing precision
If the liquid egg filling has high viscosity for even distribution, then the egg patty has uniform thickness, but the egg product is difficult to release from the pan after cooking
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the release problem by incorporating a release mechanism directly into the mold cavity design. Features such as release holes, release grooves, or flexible mold portions are built into the cavity structure, providing dedicated pathways for the cooked egg product to release without requiring high viscosity control or manual intervention.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies flexible shells by using a flexible or elastomeric mold material that can deform during the cooking and release process. The flexible mold cavity conforms to the egg product shape during cooking, then relaxes to release the product easily, solving the adhesion problem without affecting thickness uniformity.
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 method produces egg products with an irregular perimeter shape and contoured top surface, mimicking the appearance and texture of freshly cooked eggs, while the shrinking process during cooking makes them easier to release from the pan.
Implementation Method 1
cooking the deposited volume of liquid egg product with a combination of heat and moisture at a cooking station
Implementation Method 2
cooking the deposited volume of liquid egg product with a combination of heat and moisture at a cooking station
Data Source
AI summary
A method of producing individual cooked egg products including the steps of: providing a pan to a liquid egg station, wherein the pan comprises at least one pocket with a bottom wall from which a perimeter side wall extends generally upwardly and inwardly, and the bottom wall comprises a planar portion from which a depressed portion downwardly extends; depositing a volume of a liquid egg product into at least one of the pockets at the liquid egg station; cooking the deposited volume of liquid egg product with a combination of heat and moisture at a cooking station; and removing the cooked egg product from each of the pockets.