General Foods Limited

Jonas Bortkevicius

Robert F Bardsley

Charles D Schoonmaker

C Donald Schoonmaker

An apparatus and a method for the production of frozen confections wherein the frozen confections are produced from a supply of a generally semifrozen confection material of viscous consistency conveyed at a constant volume and at a constant rate through a novel filling system into a plurality of molds. The apparatus provides for the production of frozen confections from a supply of a generally semi-frozen, compressible material having a highly viscous consistency, wherein the material is rapidly and accurately metered into 'bottom-up' molds which are indexed into position below a filling station, and in which filling nozzles are inserted into the molds so as to fill the latter with the material to the desired extent as the nozzles are raised upwardly out of the molds. Moreover, the invention contemplates the provision of novel metering pump means wherein metered quantities of the confection material are continuously supplied to the filler nozzles, and in which pump structure connected upstream of the metering pump will continuously supply the confection material in a predetermined pressurized condition to the metering pump in order to preclude the formation of any voids in the material being introduced into the molds, thereby presenting an extremely accurate apparatus and method in being able to precisely meter the required amounts of confection material into the molds without the creation of voids or the possibility of incomplete filling of the molds causing wastage which would result in a lower efficiency in production and economy for the apparatus and method.

Apparatus and method for producing frozen confections

An apparatus and method for the automatic, rapid and continuous preparation of generally friable or fragile ready-to-eat food product bacon analog strips of predetermined configuration, simulating natural, cooked bacon, wherein a slab or bulk material of the food product is sliced by a cutting device into individual strips basically having the dimensions of sliced natural bacon strips, and conducted by means of a first endless conveyor arrangement from the cutting device towards a cooking installation. Ahead of the cooking installation, a second endless conveyor mounts a series of strip-engaging members adapted to sequentially contact the sliced strips and to conduct the strips from the first endless conveyor arrangement onto and along guide rod members which extend into and through the cooking installation. The strips are fried or cooked at a controlled temperature to a finished degree, determined by the speed of movement through the tank, and are thereafter guided into position on forming die members which are arranged about the periphery of a rotatable forming die wheel. Complementary-shaped die members arranged on each of the strip-engaging members are brought into closely spaced cooperation with the forming dies on the rotatable forming die wheel through the action of a camming arrangement encompassing a portion of the periphery of the forming wheel so as to shape the interposed bacon analog strips into their predetermined configurations.

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Woodhaven, NY, United States of America

Jonas Bortkevicius