Triangular Food Dough Aligning Apparatus with Optical Feedback
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional apparatuses for aligning and positioning triangular-shaped food dough pieces, such as croissant dough, face challenges in achieving high dimensional accuracy and speed due to pin vibration and misalignment issues with pantograph type mechanisms, leading to poor formation of dough pieces.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus comprising an upstream and downstream conveyor system with a separating apparatus and a laying-out and rotating apparatus, equipped with a detecting device using optical or image sensors to accurately position and rotate dough pieces, and a shutter apparatus for aligning bases, ensuring precise alignment and rotation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a pantograph type mechanism is used to expand and contract the laying-out apparatus, then the pieces of food dough can be separated and laid out in the perpendicular direction, but the pins of the laying-out apparatus vibrate largely in a horizontal plane, making it difficult to position the pins stably and with high accuracy
Solution Approach 1:
A guide plate is introduced as an intermediary component between the pantograph mechanism and the pins. The guide plate has through holes that guide the pins, constraining their movement to a vertical path and preventing horizontal vibration. This mediator absorbs the vibratory effects of the pantograph mechanism while maintaining precise pin positioning for accurate dough piece placement.
2Ease of operation
If the center of the pin of the laying-out apparatus does not correspond to the center line of the triangular-shaped food dough, then the apparatus can operate, but the pieces of food dough are located off the position where they should be located, causing poor formation
Solution Approach 1:
A detecting device (optical sensor or image sensor) is positioned to detect the center line of each triangular-shaped dough piece as it moves along the conveyer. This detection information is fed back to the control system, which adjusts the lateral position of the pins to correspond with the detected center lines. This feedback mechanism ensures accurate positioning regardless of variations in dough piece placement or orientation.
3Productivity
If the downstream conveyer moves faster than the upstream conveyer to achieve high speed laying out, then productivity increases, but the pieces of food dough move by slipping on the conveyer surface, requiring complex separating and laying-out mechanisms to maintain precision
Solution Approach 1:
The guide plate serves as a mediator that simplifies the separating and laying-out mechanisms. By providing fixed lateral guidance through its through holes, the guide plate eliminates the need for complex lateral positioning mechanisms. The pins simply move vertically through the guide plate holes, and the controlled slipping on the conveyer surface is sufficient for operation, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining precision.
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 apparatus achieves high dimensional accuracy and speed in aligning and positioning dough pieces, preventing misalignment and ensuring proper formation by controlling pin positions and rotating mechanisms to maintain precise orientation and intervals.
Implementation Method 1
a detecting device using optical or image sensors to accurately position and rotate dough pieces
Data Source
AI summary
The inventions provide an apparatus for aligning and positioning a plurality of pieces of food dough having a triangular shape on a conveyer, with high dimensional accuracy and at high speed. The apparatus is comprised of an upstream conveyer conveying the pieces of food dough having a triangular shape, a downstream conveyer faster than the upstream conveyer, a separating apparatus separating a plurality of the pieces of food dough set in a line in the perpendicular direction to the moving direction of the conveyer from the following row of the pieces and translocating them from the upstream conveyer to the downstream conveyer, a laying-out and rotating apparatus laying-out and rotating a plurality of the pieces set in a line so that they are positioned at predetermined intervals in the perpendicular direction to the moving direction of the conveyer and are rotated 90 degrees in a predetermined rotational direction, and a detecting device detecting the pieces.