Rimless Pastry Shells Forming Apparatus
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for producing pastry shells are labor-intensive and unable to create rimless, open-topped shells with vertical walls and sharp corners, limiting the variety of shapes and sizes that can be produced.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus using an annular baking ring with open ends and a complementary male die, supported by a hydraulic press, to form pastry shells with a flat floor and continuous vertical side walls, allowing for sharp corner intersections and complex shapes, and incorporating a gasket and sealing collar for efficient dough formation and separation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Shape
If conventional closed-bottom baking pans are used as female dies, then the pastry shells can be easily formed, but the sidewalls become broadly tapered with large radii and cannot achieve sharp corners or complex shapes
Solution Approach 1:
The female die is segmented into two parts: a removable baking ring that defines the shape and a separate closed-bottom pan that provides support. This segmentation allows the baking ring to be easily removed after forming, leaving the pastry shell with sharp corners and complex shapes without the constraints of a single-piece closed-bottom pan.
Solution Approach 2:
The open bottom portion is extracted from the traditional closed-bottom baking pan to create a removable baking ring. This extraction allows the pastry dough to be formed with sharp corners and complex shapes while the closed bottom pan remains as a separate support structure, resolving the contradiction between shape complexity and ease of forming.
2Productivity
If manual trimming of excess pastry material is performed, then the pastry shells can be formed in conventional pans, but the process becomes labor-intensive and reduces production speed
Solution Approach 1:
The apparatus is designed so that the hydraulic press automatically performs the trimming function during the forming process itself. The press confines the dough within the baking ring and pan, and excess material is naturally trimmed away during ejection, eliminating the need for separate manual trimming operations and increasing production speed.
3Adaptability or versatility
If conventional closed-bottom pans are used, then the structure is simple, but rimless open-topped shells with vertical walls cannot be produced
Solution Approach 1:
The die system is segmented into a removable baking ring and a closed-bottom pan, allowing the baking ring to be easily exchanged for different shapes and sizes. This segmentation provides versatility in producing rimless open-topped shells with vertical walls while keeping the overall apparatus relatively simple through modular components.
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
Enables high-speed, uniform production of rimless pastry shells with sharp corners and complex shapes, improving efficiency and versatility in pastry production.
Implementation Method 1
a hydraulic press mounting one or more pairs of frustoconical dies and operative to conformingly press pre-measured volumes of pastry dough
Implementation Method 2
controllably urging the upper and lower support plates toward each other, such that a measured volume of deformable pastry dough disposed between the male and female dies before they are brought together, is formed into a rimless pastry shell
Implementation Method 3
A gasket, such as a sheet of an inexpensive, commercially available baking paper, is disposed between the lower end of the baking ring and the upper surface of the lower support plate
Data Source
AI summary
Apparatus for making variously shaped pastry shells includes an annular baking ring supported on a horizontal lower plate to define an upward-facing female die. A gasket is disposed between the baking ring and the plate. An upper plate is positioned above and parallel to the lower plate, and includes a downward-facing male die configured to be inserted concentrically into the upper end of the female die and thereby define a die space having a flat floor and annular, vertical side walls between the dies. An annular collar is disposed concentrically about the male die and resiliently supported on the upper support plate such that, when the two plates are urged toward each other, the collar seals the upper and lower ends of the die space, and a volume of pastry dough disposed in the cavity of the female die is formed into a pastry shell conforming to the die space.