Division of dough into portions uses a hollow cylinder which generates a primary and a secondary underpressure to draw in the dough to be ejected by the piston in portions of a consistent size and weight

摘要

To divide dough (10) into portions, a primary underpressure is generated in a hollow cylinder (14) to draw the dough (10) into it from a dough container (9). The dough (10) is ejected from the hollow cylinder (14) in portions. The hollow cylinder (14), with the primary underpressure, generates a secondary underpressure at a timed interval. The primary underpressure is generated by an initial piston movement at the cylinder zone. The secondary underpressure is generated after the initial piston movement. The surplus dough (10) is removed by a relative movement between the hollow cylinder (14) and the dough container (9), across the cylinder axis. The dough portion is ejected from the hollow cylinder (14) by a second and opposing piston movement. An Independent claim is included for an apparatus which can generate a secondary underpressure in the empty cylinder zone. Preferred Features: The secondary underpressure is formed by a vacuum pump or a fan, linked to the empty cylinder zone through an opening which can be closed in the piston unit (17). To close the opening, the piston unit (17) has a central piston with a coaxial ring piston round it, which can slide against each other along the longitudinal cylinder axis. To move the piston unit (17), a piston tube along the cylinder axis slides longitudinally at the ring piston, bonded to a cylinder piston unit which is stationary against the hollow cylinder (14). Within the piston tube, a piston rod slides longitudinally with the central piston. The piston tube and the piston rod are coupled together by a spring. The spring holds the piston rod against a limit stop at the piston tube so that, in the start position, the upper side of the central piston and the ring piston are flush together. The piston rod is at an initial limit stop after it has been moved by a given length from the start position. The piston tube is at a second limit stop after a second movement of the piston. The gap between the limit stops and the length of the center piston are set so that, when the piston tube has reached the second limit stop, a ring gap is formed between the center and ring pistons. The hollow cylinder (14) has a sliding movement against the dough container (9), across the longitudinal axis. The lower edge of the dough container (9) is a cutting edge. A unit can be adjusted to set the length of piston movement.