| 摘要 |
<p>An apparatus produces a continuous plurality of generally rectangular dough elements of a controllable weight from a continuous and irregular mass of dough. The invention includes separate forming, dividing, and cutting portions. The forming portion includes multiple rollers disposed both normal to as well as parallel and traverse to the path of movement of the dough which form the irregularly-shaped dough mass to have a uniform width, depth, and consistency. The dividing portion includes a horizontally-disposed, multichannel dividing drum and a plurality of compression rollers which divide the dough from the forming portion into multiple strips of uniform cross section. The cutting portion includes a multiblade assembly having the shape of and being occludable with the channels of the multichannel drum. The blades are driven at constant speed in a planetary fashion whereby the only motions of the blades relative to the strips of dough passing through multichannel drum are inward and outward. The strips of dough are thus divided into a plurality of generally rectangular dough elements with a minimum of dough working or punishment. The weight of the dough elements is determined by the rotational speed of the dividing drum. Cooperating with the forming and dividing portions is a sensing mechanism which senses the amount of dough between the forming and dividing portions. The sensing mechanism controls the rotational speed of the horizontal rollers in the forming portion to maintain a predetermined amount of dough adjacent the compression rollers to assure uniform compression of the dough.</p> |
