IMPROVED SHEETING HEAD

摘要

Sheeting head apparatus for rolling and flattening a quantity of dough, includes a sheeting head, an infeed conveyor, and an outfeed conveyor. The sheeting head defines a dough path therethrough and includes a plurality of opposed roller pairs, a first roller of each pair being positioned on a first side of the dough path and a second roller of each pair being positioned on a second side of the dough path. The first roller of each roller pair is mounted for rotation and for independent movement toward and away from the dough path. The second roller of each roller pair is mounted for rotation adjacent the dough path. The infeed conveyor conveys a quantity of dough to the sheeting head, and the outfeed conveyor for conveying a quantity of rolled and flattened dough from the sheeting head. A sensor, adjacent the infeed conveyor, senses an unduly thick or double quantity of dough being conveyed by the infeed conveyor to the sheeting head. A control is responsive to the sensor and causes the sheeting head to move the first roller of each roller pair away from the dough path. Undesired jamming of the sheeting head by an unduly thick quantity of dough or by a double quantity of dough is prevented. Each of the rollers may be coated with a coating of polytetrafluoroethylene and nickel co-deposits, preferably between 12 % and 25% by volume of polytetrafluoroethylene particles in a high phosphorous electroless nickel matrix. The coating has a thickness of substantially between.0002 inches and.0003 inches, with a Rockwell hardness of substantially 65 to 75 on the C scale. Each of the rollers is preferably made of a mild steel with a finish smoothness, before depositing of the coating, of substantially 4 µ-inch RMS.