MXPA99008002A - Iced confectionery product, method, apparatus and mould for making same - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention concerns a three-dimensional iced confectionery product easy to hold and eat consisting of an iced confectionery body and stick for holding it, the stick passing right through the body and projecting from its ends, such that the product can be eaten by holding its two ends with both hands and it is produced by moulding in a cooling tunnel.

Description

ARTICLE Pg FROZEN CONFITERY AND A PROCESS. APPARATUS AND MOLD FOR ITS MANUFACTURE DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to a frozen confectionery article, and to a process, apparatus and mold for its manufacture. Frozen confectionery to consume so-called "impulse" items • are generally delicate to handle and consume once their packaging has been opened. Generally, they have either a stick by which they are held with one hand, in the case, for example, of ice candy, or a receptacle which can also allow them to be held with one hand, for example, a wafer for ice cream cones. In all cases, it is difficult, for example, for a child to eat the item until the end without the article scurrying or breaking into pieces. Many small items of confectionery frozen with a stick are produced through molding in molds, which are usually made of metal. These molds may consist of one or more parts and, in the latter case, the various parts of the molds must be open or separate when the articles are unmoulded. In order to produce frozen confections having one or more convex portions, for example, with protrusions with a round or raised shape and re-entry portions, it is not possible to use metal molds made in one piece, since the latter they have a wide shape with a certain shirt dictated by the necessity of demolding the article, once it has hardened, through a vertical movement from top to bottom. Furthermore, these molds necessarily lead to the production of a flat top face imposed by filling the mold with the liquid composition to be frozen. Furthermore, in order to demold the articles of these molds in one piece, it is necessary that the mold cavity has no re-entry part or it will then be impossible to demold the article. According to FR-A-2 535 581, the problem of the production of articles having a shape called "non-demouldable" has been solved by means of metal molds consisting of two opposite stylized semi-cavities, which are articulate longitudinally. The semi-cavities standing in firm position against each other, are filled with the composition that will be frozen through a top opening, through which the stick is inserted; they are cooled in a tunnel of freezing of cold air and then they are heated and finally the semi-cavities are opened in order to release the molded articles. The semi-cavities may include an elastic seal along its contact surface or ensuring the tightness of the mold cavity, in order to avoid any spillage of the liquid composition during filling and hardening. Another method described in FR-A-2 502 467 consists in using semi-stylized cavities with a round protrusion in its internal part but without any elevated portion in the external part, these semi-cavities are inserted longitudinally in a master mold, while they remain in contact with it. The master mold containing the semi-cavity is cooled in a cooling liquid tank (brine or water with glycol), which represents an advantage compared to cooling in a tunnel, but is more expensive. However, the two semi-cavities have to be extracted vertically from the master mold when the articles are unmoulded, and are laterally separated to release the article. The operations involve the use of mechanical extraction and demolding devices, which are relatively complex and bulky. FR-A-653870 is known a frozen confectionery article composed of a frozen block that has the shape of a geometric figure, the product being wrapped with a waterproof paper and composed of a stick that serves as a fastener at one end or several sticks that serve as subjection. The object of the invention is to provide a novel type of three-dimensional frozen confectionery article, which can be easily handled and consumed, and a process, an apparatus and a mold to produce it. The article according to the invention consists of a frozen confectionery body and of a fastening stick crossing the body from one end to the other, and is characterized by the fact that the stick protrudes sufficiently from the ends of the body so that the item can be consumed by being held at both ends of said stick with both hands. Due to the fact that the article can be held especially in a horizontal position with both hands, there is much less risk of the frozen confectionery draining or separating from the stick than in the case of the known articles. The process according to the invention is characterized in that it is formed by a three-dimensional body of confectionery frozen around a fastening element made up of a stick, in such a way that the stick protrudes sufficiently from the body for the article to be able to Being manipulated and consumed while holding it by the two ends, it hardens and wraps the article. According to a second embodiment of the process, using the molding, suitable for the production of ice or sorbet articles, is placed in a mold cavity formed by two confronting semi-cavities maintained hermetically against each other, a fastening element consisting of of a stick passing through the cavity, so that it protrudes from the two ends of the cavity, so that it is held in a substantially axial position in the center of the cavity and so that the lower part of the stick is placed in a housing in the axial extension of the cavity, the housing being adjusted to the stick with a minimum of play, a composition for a confectionery frozen in liquid form is introduced through an upper opening in the cavity, the composition is cooled and frozen , the mold is reheated and the article is then demolded. The mold is preferably cooled by passing it through an environment of freezing fluid, in particular in a cold air tunnel, between the insertion of the stick and the reheating of the mold to be demolded. In a particular embodiment leading to composite products, the filling operation with the frozen composition is followed by a step in which the still liquid composition in the center of the cavity is sucked to produce a cavity, and the free space is then filled with a second frozen composition. These suction operations followed by the filling of the free space are carried out outside the cold air tunnel. These can be repeated several times, which leads to products in layers.

The frozen compositions may contain inclusions in the form of different particles, pieces, for example chocolate, chocolate with pralines, soft caramel, dried fruits, flavored or candied gelato or also inclusions, for example of sauce or syrup giving a marbled appearance. Once out of the mold, the articles can be bathed, for example, with a cover of chocolate and, as the case of solid particles of annexes, taking care to limit the bath to the body of the frozen confectionery especially without projecting the cover on the part of the sticks protruding from the body, for example by means of a bath machine using applicator rolls combined with a low pressure spray. When it is a water ice cream or sorbet, the articles can be covered with a thin layer of water, for example by spraying, which gives them a protective surface glaze, which can be equally attractive. In another embodiment of the molding process, a cavity is created through hot blow molding in line between two thermoplastic sheets, which are sealed and which can be separated from one another by detachment, the cavity being connected to a filling channel in its upper part and extending axially through a housing in its lower part, the housing being adjusted to the stick with a minimum of play and serving to guide the stick at the time of insertion and keep it in place during the filling, the stick is placed in its housing, a composition for a confectionery frozen in liquid form is introduced through the filling channel in the cavity, the composition is cooled and frozen. In this last variant, the article can be demolded simply by detaching one of the thermoplastic sheets. The sheets can also be cut around their seal line, in which case the sheets serve as a mold and also as packaging for the items. The apparatus according to the invention is characterized in that it comprises: a mold assembly consisting of two complementary half-cavities articulated longitudinally and forming a cavity, a mold support bar, fixed to an endless conveyor chain, traveling at par the endless conveyor chain and cooperating with the chain to keep the molds hermetically against each other during the insertion of the stick, during the filling of the cavity and during the hardening of the article in the advance stroke on the flat part of the stroke. return of the chain and to separate the molds one from the other by extraction, in the part bent inward of the return stroke of the chain, means for cooling the molding assembly, means for inserting and placing a stick in the cavity, means for filling the molding assembly with a frozen composition, means for reheating the molds, means for opening the semi-cavities for smoldering the article, a device for diagonally extracting the molded articles, and an endless conveyor chain for removing the molded articles. In a particular embodiment, the apparatus also includes means for sucking the still liquid frozen composition in order to form a cavity and means for filling the thus formed cavity with another frozen composition. In another embodiment, the apparatus further includes means for bathing or glazing the demoulded articles. The invention also relates to a mold for manufacturing a frozen confectionery article, characterized in that: it consists of two semi-cavities articulated longitudinally and forming a mold cavity, an opening is provided in the upper part of the cavity for the insertion of a stick and to fill with the frozen composition, the lower part of the cavity extends through an axial housing where the stick is inserted with a minimum of play and, the stick is kept in its central position by means of a resistant elastic element that rests on the stick in the housing. The invention will be better understood through the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings that illustrate embodiments of the process and an embodiment of the apparatus and the mold according to the invention, given as examples. In the Figures, the same reference numbers indicate the same elements. In the drawings: Figure 1 is a general diagram of the apparatus showing several stations for the production of a ridimensional ice candy through molding, Figure 2 diagrammatically shows the demolding operations of the article; Figure 3 is a front view of the mold for manufacturing the article, in a fully open position, with the confectionery article frozen in the molding cavity, and Figure 4 is a diagrammatic illustration of a variant of an article in accordance with the invention, front view. In Figure 1, the apparatus comprises a zone without freezing and without overheating, a freezing zone X, a zone 'for e? surface reheating Y, a demolding zone Z. The freezing zone X is inside a cold air tunnel 1 at a temperature of, for example, -30 ° C to -32 ° C, and if possible a an even lower temperature. It is possible to use a cooler rapid freezing tunnel, for example, one that uses liquid nitrogen sprayed or blasted on the molds. For reasons of simplification of presentation, the distances indicated for the different zones, W, X and Y, do not correspond to the real distances necessary for the appropriate transfers of heat. In addition, certain components are not shown for reasons of clarity. For example, only one mold is shown while in practice bars that support rows of molds are used. In this way, the molds are articulated on an endless conveyor chain, which by themselves constitute a conveyor belt. Similarly, the mold bars constitute the links of an endless chain, only part of which has been shown. In the following description, the term "mold" will actually be used to indicate a row of articulated molds on a mold bar. A mold 2, formed of two longitudinally articulated semi-molds 3 and 4, travels from left to right in the direction of the arrow fx in the zone W through the stepped translational movement of the endless chain 5, it being understood that one step consists of the distance between the two consecutive molds. In the zone W as well as in the various straight parts of the chain in the zone X and Y, the molds as well as the half-molds of which they consist, are kept hermetically in contact with each other through the chain 5. hooks and clasps made of a resistant material (figure 2) serve at the same time to lock the successive molds together in their upper parts and keep each mold closed in the area W, X and Y closing on the corresponding edges of the molds, this being in a reversible way, that is, the half-molds can nevertheless be easily opened and the molds separated by opening the closure. The mold 2 arrives at the station 6 where a stick 7 is inserted, and then travels inside the zone X where it is strongly cooled, for example from -3 ° C to -4 ° C before being filled. This anterior cooling of the mold 'allows a thin, frozen outer shell to form after the effect of rapid freezing, which acts as a seal and prevents any liquid material from escaping. * In station 8, the cavity 9 formed between the two semi - cavities are filled almost completely through dosing devices (not shown), located inside the tunnel, supplied from a hopper 10, which is outside the tunnel, with a composition that will be frozen 11, for example a composition for a lemon ice cream that has approximately 25% dry matter containing sucrose, glucose syrup, a mixture of thickeners, lemon concentrate and a previously homogenized pasteurized lemon flavor, cooled to approximately 3-6 ° C and matured for several hours at this temperature. The composition solidifies under the cooling effect, the elapsed time passed through the tunnel 1 being from about 35 to 45 minutes. The mold 2 leaves the zone X in the return stroke of the chain 5 to pass to the reheating zone Y. The mold is reheated on the surface 12 from the bottom through the nozzles 13 which supply a hot fluid, for example , steam and / or hot air or preferably through jets of hot water or water containing hot glycol for example, at a temperature of >25 ° C (the supply of heat of electrical origin, for example, through radiation or induction, also satisfies this function), which facilitates the subsequent demoulding of the article. As shown in Fig. 2, the molds are separated from each other in the demolding zone Z at the same time as the mold bars 14 in the curved part inward elevation of the return path of the chain 5, while they act against the hook 15 that holds the molds 2 together. Since the half-molds 3, 4 are still held together by the effect of the closure 16, the molds are forced to open through the lever 17, which is placed against a flange 18 of the half-mold 3, which protrudes from the upper edge of the mold. The lever 17 is guided in a complex triangular movement for 3 periods (t ^, t2, t3) by means of actuator means (not shown). During the first period, the lever 17 rises slightly obliquely above the flange 18, during a second period it approaches the mold 2 horizontally and during a third period it falls again practically vertically while it takes the semi-mold 3 downwards , until the latter hits against the next half-mold 4 '. Simultaneously, an ascending and descending device descends along the arrow f2 and bears a clamp 19, which grasps the end of the stick 20 and removes the article by raising it along the arrow f3 along an approximately inclined path Four. Five. The operations to open the mold 2 and to simultaneously remove the article are presented during the moment in which the chain stops. Once the article has been extracted, it is taken by the endless chain 21, which directs it in a conventional backward manner to optionally supply it to a spray device to apply a glazed cover on the surface, for example, to Through a tank normally used to apply a chocolate coating, this conventional operation is not shown. The article, optionally coated, is then discharged and removed along the arrow f4 through the conveyor belt 22 to a packaging apparatus where it is wrapped, for example in a "flow pack", this operation is not sample. In figure 3, the mold 2 is shown completely open and with the frozen confectionery article representing a structure disposed in the half-mold 4, only for the purpose of facilitating the description. The mold material is cast aluminum with thick walls and does not need to be anodized or coated with Teflon. The mold 2 comprises two semi-molds 3 and 4 articulated longitudinally around the axis 23. The stick 7, of circular section, crosses the body 24 of the frozen confectionery and exceeds the ends of the latter, so that the upper part 7s of the stick represents about 2/3 of its bottom 7i. The lower part 7i of the stick is placed exactly with a minimum clearance in a cylindrical space 25 provided in the half-molds 3 and 4. When the semi-cavities such as 26 are firmly applied together to form the cavity 9 and the stick 7 is placed in its place in the mold, the stick is fixed in space 25, and is held in place without slipping through tab 27 forming a spring and then constituting an airtight seal preventing any leakage of liquid into the container. 28 in the form of inverted truncated cone of the cavity 9. The liquid composition to be frozen is introduced into the cavity 9 through the upper opening 29. The notches 30 serve for the passage of a closure 16 keeping the half-molds 3 and 4 together. As a variant, the article may have a flat stick 7 for holding it, in which case the bottom 28 has the shape of a section of an inverted pyramid with a rectangular section. In Figure 4, article 31 is manufactured by molding, by successively dosing various frozen compositions of perfumes and different colors such as 32, orange and 33, lemon by means of several dosing devices from successive hoppers placed at different suitable places in tunnel 1 around stick 34. Only a mold has been shown in the preceding description. The explanations clearly remain valid in the case of rows of molds, for example from 4 to 12 molds on a bar. It is possible, without departing from the scope of the invention, to produce articles through an apparatus with a carousel provided with several stations previously described instead of a linear apparatus.

Claims (11)

1. The three-dimensional frozen confectionery article of easy handling and consumption composed of a frozen confectionery body and of a fastening stick crossing said body from end to end, characterized by the fact that the stick protrudes sufficiently from the ends of said body to that the article can be consumed by being held at both ends of the stick with both hands.

2. The process for producing an article according to claim 1, characterized in that a three-dimensional frozen confectionery body is formed around a fastening element consisting of a stick, in such a way that the stick protrudes sufficiently from the body so that the item can be handled and consumed while it is held at both ends, the article is hardened and wrapped.

3. The process according to claim 2, by molding adapted for the production of water ice cream or sorbet articles, characterized in that it is placed in a molding cavity formed by two half-cavities pressed against one another against each other , a clamping element consists of a stick that crosses the cavity from end to end, in such a way that it protrudes from the two ends of the cavity, which is maintained in axial position almost to the center of the cavity and that part of the cavity Inside the stick is placed in a housing in the axial extension of the cavity, said cavity being adjusted the stick with a minimum of play, the confectionery composition frozen in liquid form is introduced through an upper opening in the cavity, the composition is it cools and freezes, the molding is heated and then the article is demolded.

4. The process according to claim 3, characterized in that the mold is cooled by walking it in an environment of freezing fluid, mainly in a cold air tunnel, between the insertion of the stick and the reheating of the mold in view of being emptied.

5. The process according to claim 3, which leads to the composite products, characterized in that the step of sucking the composition still liquid in the center of the cavity to form a cavity follows the filling operation of the composition to be frozen. after a second filling of the free space by a second composition to be frozen, these suction operations, after filling of the released space are carried out outside the cold air tunnel and can be repeated several times, which leads to products with layers.

6. The process according to claim 3 or 5, characterized in that the frozen composition or compositions contain inclusions in the form of different particles, pieces, namely: chocolate, chocolate with pralines, soft caramel, dried fruits, gelatin inized or candied or also inclusions, for example sauce or syrup giving a mottled appearance.

The process according to claim 3, characterized in that once out of the mold, the articles are bathed, namely a chocolate coating and, according to the case of solid particles of annexes, taking care to limit the bath to the body of the frozen confection especially without projecting the cover onto the part of the sticks protruding from the body, for example by means of a bath machine using applicator rolls combined with a low pressure spray.

8. The process according to claim 3, characterized in that once out of the mold, the articles are bathed, when it is a water ice cream or sorbet, with a thin layer of water, for example by roaciado, which gives them a protective surface glaze, which can be equally attractive.

9. The process according to claim 3, characterized in that the cavity is created through hot blow molding in line between two thermoplastic sheets, which are sealed and which can be separated from one anr by detachment, the cavity being connected to a filling channel in its upper part and extended axially through a housing in its lower part, the housing being adjusted to the stick with a minimum of play and serving to guide the stick at the time of insertion and to keep it in place during filling, the stick is placed in its housing, a composition for a confectionery frozen in liquid form is introduced through from the filling channel to the cavity, the composition is cooled and. frozen

10. An apparatus for manufacturing an article according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises: a molding assembly consisting of two complementary half-cavities articulated longitudinally and forming a cavity, a mold support bar fixed to an endless conveyor chain, traveling at the same time as the endless conveyor chain and cooperating with the chain to keep the molds tightly closed against each other during the insertion of the stick, during filling of the cavity and during the hardening of the article in the advance stroke and in the flat part of the return stroke of the chain and to separate the molds from one another after extraction, in the ascending part bent inward of the return stroke of the chain, means for cooling the mold assembly, means for inserting and placing a stick in the cavity, means for filling the molding assembly with frozen composition, means for reheating the molds, means for opening the semi-cavities to unmold the article, a device for diagonally extracting the molded articles and an endless conveyor chain for removing the molded articles.

11. A mold for manufacturing a frozen confectionery article according to claim 1, characterized in that it consists of two semi-cavities articulated longitudinally and forming a molding cavity, an opening is provided in the upper part of the cavity for the insertion of a stick and for filling the frozen composition, the lower part of the cavity extends through an axal housing, in which the stick is inserted with a minimum of play, and the stick is held in place centrally through a resistant element that rests on the stick in the housing.