General Mills, Inc.

Lloyd J Zoubek

Michael P Waldherr

Steven A Stein

William C Bornhorst

James M Olive

Niclas M Scher

An apparatus (,) for forming open ended, cone-shaped snack products includes a rotary cutter (,) having opposed, counterrotating rollers (,) each formed by multiple cutting discs (,) axially spaced on a mandrel (,) by spacers (,). A dough sheet formed by a sheet forming device (,) is conveyed to a slitting device (,) which slits the dough sheet into multiple pairs of dough strips. The dough strips are conveyed on a conveyer (,) towards the rotary cutter (,). The first dough strips of each pair pass over the end of the conveyor (,), and twisted 90&deg; as they pass over sheaves (,) and pass between stationary guides (,) to the first roller (,) while the second dough strips of each pair pass over the end of the conveyor (,), are twisted 90&deg; as they pass over sheaves (,) and pass between the stationary guides (,) to a second roller (,). The pair of dough strips are drawn under tension through the nip of the rollers (,) in a face to face stacked orientation. The snack products are cut and shaped by cavities (,) in the cutting discs (

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Minneapolis, MN, United States of America

Lloyd J Zoubek