Shutter Piece Segmentation for Food Dough Sealing

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing shutter sets for enveloping food products face issues with insufficient sealing and surface roughening of the outer skin material, as well as protrusion onto the upper surface or into recessed spaces, which affects the appearance and integrity of the formed food product.

Innovation Solution

A shutter piece with a first side surface for attaching and sealing the outer skin material above the inner material, and a second side surface located below the first side surface to gather the outer skin material, featuring convex edges and horizontal portions to enhance sealing and prevent surface roughening, forming a disk-like configuration that ensures secure attachment and sealing without protrusion.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If the base edge is perpendicular to the upper and lower surfaces of the shutter piece, then the outer skin material can be sealed, but the outer skin material is easy to move downward causing insufficient sealing

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesealing reliabilityVSAvoidshutter piece structure

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The shutter piece side surface is divided into multiple segments: an inclined surface, a horizontal surface, and a second inclined surface. This segmentation allows each surface to perform a specific function - the inclined surfaces guide the outer skin material while the horizontal surface provides a stable sealing platform, preventing downward movement and ensuring reliable sealing.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The shutter piece incorporates inclined surfaces that guide the outer skin material at specific angles. These angled surfaces replace the simple perpendicular base edge, creating a curved or inclined path that prevents the outer skin material from moving downward while maintaining sealing effectiveness.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #14Spheroidality (Curvature)

2Shape

If the closing operation is stopped before the opening is closed to prevent protrusion, then appearance is maintained, but the outer skin material remains more than necessary causing insufficient sealing

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveappearance qualityVSAvoidsealing reliability

Core Design Contradiction:

ShapeVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The shutter piece structure is designed with inclined surfaces and horizontal surfaces that preliminarily gather and position the outer skin material before the closing operation completes. This preliminary action prevents protrusion while ensuring the material is properly positioned for sealing, allowing the closing operation to proceed to completion without appearance defects.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

Different regions of the shutter piece are designed with different surface characteristics - inclined surfaces for guiding and gathering, horizontal surfaces for stable positioning. This local differentiation ensures that the outer skin material is properly managed in each region, preventing both protrusion and insufficient sealing simultaneously.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

3Ease of operation

If the shutter set gathers the outer skin material toward the center, then enveloping is achieved, but the bottom of the shutter piece roughens the surface of the outer skin material

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvegathering functionVSAvoidsurface quality

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSShape

Solution Approach 1:

The inclined surfaces are designed with specific angles and smooth transitions that guide the outer skin material toward the center without creating sharp edges or rough surfaces. The curved or angled surfaces replace abrupt perpendicular edges, allowing effective gathering while maintaining surface quality.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #14Spheroidality (Curvature)

Solution Approach 2:

The inclination angles of the surfaces are carefully selected to optimize the gathering function while preventing surface roughening. By adjusting these geometric parameters, the shutter piece achieves effective material gathering without compromising the smoothness of the outer skin material surface.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentUS20250017255A1Shutter piece and shutter set for molding food dough

Publication Date: 2025.01.16 RHEON AUTOMATIC MASCH CO LTD

AI summary

A shutter piece includes an upper portion and a lower portion of an opening-side surface. The upper portion has an upper edge and an intermediate edge, and is configured to close a front end of the intermediate edge after a front end of the upper edge is closed when the plurality of shutter pieces is swung to close the opening. The lower portion includes a protruding edge disposed between the upper edge and the intermediate edge in the plan view. The shutter piece is configured to define a ceiling space for receiving the peripheral portion of the outer skin material when the front end of the upper edge is closed. The shutter piece is configured to reduce the upper space while the outer skin material in the ceiling space is held by the lower portion until the front end of the intermediate edge is closed.