| 摘要 |
986,038. Heating and puffing cereal grains, doughs &c. GENERAL MILLS Inc. May 28, 1963 [May 31, 1962], No. 21287/63. Heading A2Q. In heating and, if desired, puffing a food product such as a cereal grain or a flaked cereal dough, the product is fed into a cylindrical pan 11 secured to and coaxial with an inclined hollow shaft 21, which is rotated by an electric motor 19 through a chain drive and sprocket 22. A compartment 47 is formed in the pan between its base 31 and an annular, perforated plate 17 secured inside the pan. A perforated helical member 12 is secured to the plate 17 and to the inside of the pan. Heat-transmitting granular material, such as salt, sand or steel shot, is charged into the pan, to an optimum level indicated by the dot-and-dash line, and is heated by a gas burner 26 mounted in a stationary jacket 27 surrounding the pan. The gas burner is controlled by a temperature-sensing device 29, such as a thermocouple, immersed in the material in compartment 47 so as to keep its temperature at a desired value, e.g. between 315‹F. and 475‹F. The food product is fed into zone 23 of the rotating pan, from a hopper 13, through a valve 14 and shoot 16. The food product and heated granular material are intimately mixed and the resulting heated food product and a minor amount of the granular material are conveyed, by the helical member 12, towards the mouth 24 of the pan, from which they are discharged into a hopper 51 and then pass, through a shoot 58, into a rotating separator 59 comprising a cylindrical screen 62, through which granular material is discharged into a hopper 76, and a second cylindrical screen 66, through which fines broken from the product pass into a hopper 73. The heated food product is discharged, through an opening 71 at the end of the screen 66, on to a conveyer 72. Granular material is returned, from the hopper 76 to zone 23, by a helical conveyer 77 in a housing 78, a conduit 81 and a stationary auger 83 in the hollow shaft 21. A frusto-conical circulator 44, provided with helical flights, is mounted centrally on the inner surface of the base 31 and lifters 50 are attached to its adjacent inner wall to pick up material in the compartment 47 and deposit it on the circlator 44, which discharges the material into the zone 23. |
