Process and system for the manufacture of vegetable dough

Abstract

A process and system is provided for the manufacture of vegetable dough using only water as an ingredient of the dough, and for a time interval ranging between 5 minutes and up to 10 minutes, wherein the vegetable is selected from vegetables and grains.

Claims

1. A process of a manufacturing system for converting a raw vegetable into vegetable dough comprising: providing a dry raw vegetable; micro cutting the dry raw vegetable for a fraction of a second to obtain vegetable particles with different granulometries; separating and classifying the vegetable particles according to their granulometry to provide classified vegetable particles; adding water to selected classified vegetable particles to create a mixture; and subjecting the mixture to friction forces to promote gelatinization and obtain a vegetable dough; whereby the micro cutting for only a fraction of a second reduces the risk of the dry raw vegetable being overheated.

2. The manufacturing process of claim 1, wherein the vegetable particles are flour.

3. The manufacturing process of claim 1, wherein the micro-cutting step includes micro cutting the dry raw vegetable to obtain vegetable particles with different granulometries ranging in size from 200 microns to 200 millimeters.

4. The manufacturing process of claim 1, wherein the dry raw vegetable is selected from the group consisting of grain, corn grain, corn and whole corn kernels.

5. The manufacturing process of claim 4, further comprising separating at least one sub product selected from the group consisting of the pericarp, the pedicel and the germ from the dry raw vegetable prior to the micro cutting step.

6. The manufacturing process of claim 5, wherein the step of separating at least one sub product includes dry polishing the dry raw vegetable.

7. The manufacturing process of claim 5, wherein the micro cutting step includes micro cutting the at least one sub product.

8. The manufacturing process of claim 1, further comprising precutting the dry raw vegetable prior to the micro cutting step to reduce the size of the dry raw vegetable.

9. The manufacturing process of claim 1, further comprising separating ferrous metals from the dry raw vegetable prior to the micro-cutting step.

10. The manufacturing process of claim 1, further comprising adding lime to the mixture in a 0.3% to 2.5% by weight ratio.

11. The manufacturing process of claim 1, wherein the total time of the process ranges from 5 to 30 minutes.

12. A manufacturing system for converting a dry raw vegetable into vegetable dough comprising: a machine configured for micro cutting the dry raw vegetable for a fraction of a second to obtain vegetable particles with different granulometries; a sorter for separating and classifying the vegetable particles according to their size to obtain classified vegetable particles; and a gelatinizer for exerting cutting forces on a mixture of selected classified vegetable particles and water to obtain a vegetable dough.

13. The manufacturing system of claim 12, wherein the dry raw vegetable is selected from the group consisting of grain, corn grain, corn and whole corn kernels.

14. The manufacturing system of claim 12, further comprising a magnetic trap prior to the machine for micro cutting for separating ferrous materials from the dry raw vegetable.

15. The manufacturing system of claim 12, further comprising a degerminating machine prior to the machine for micro cutting for separating at least one sub product selected from the group consisting of the pericarp, the pedicel and the germ from the dry raw vegetable.

16. The manufacturing system of claim 12, further comprising a plurality of storage tanks for respectively storing classified vegetable particles from the sorter according to their size.

17. The manufacturing system of claim 12, further comprising a precutting machine prior to the machine for micro cutting for reducing the size of the dry raw vegetable.

18. The manufacturing system of claim 12, further comprising a pressure differentiation system utilizing both negative and positive pressure for extracting the vegetable particles from the machine for micro cutting.

19. The manufacturing system of claim 12, further comprising a weighing system prior to the gelatinizer for weighing the different sizes of classified vegetable particles in order to achieve an adequate size combination and water.

20. A process of a manufacturing system for converting a raw vegetable into vegetable dough comprising: providing a dry raw vegetable; micro cutting the dry raw vegetable for a fraction of a second to obtain vegetable particles; adding water to the vegetable particles to create a mixture; and subjecting the mixture to friction forces to promote gelatinization and obtain a vegetable dough; whereby the micro cutting for only a fraction of a second reduces the risk of the dry raw vegetable being overheated.

21. The manufacturing process of claim 20, wherein the micro-cutting step includes micro cutting the dry raw vegetable to obtain vegetable particles with different granulometries ranging in size from 200 microns to 200 millimeters, further comprising separating and classifying the vegetable particles according to their granulometry.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

(1) FIG. 1 shows an isometric view of the system of present invention.

(2) FIG. 2 shows a frontal perspective view of the system of present invention.

(3) FIG. 2a shows a cut view of the degerminator machine of the system of present invention.

(4) FIG. 3 shows a frontal perspective view of the micro cutter of the system of present invention.

(5) FIG. 4 shows a back perspective view of the micro cutter of the system of present invention.

(6) FIG. 5 shows a frontal perspective view of the gelatinizer of the system of present invention.

(7) FIG. 6 shows a back perspective view of the gelatinizer of the system of present invention.

(8) FIG. 7 shows a cross cut of the gelatinizer of the system of present invention, wherein a plurality of blades can be seen.

(9) FIG. 8 shows a lateral view of the gelatinizer of the system of present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(10) With the end goal of delimiting the scope of the claimed invention, the following definitions are provided:

(11) The use of the term approximately provides a determined additional range. The term is defined in the following manner. The additional range provided by the term is 10%. By way of example, but not in a limitative manner, if it states approximately between 25 and 41, the exact range lies between 22.5 and 45.1, or yet between 27.5 and 45.1, or yet between 22.5 and 36.9 or between 27.5 and 36.9. Any of the possibilities described above are covered through the use of the term approximately.

(12) In a similar manner, the term vegetable should be interpreted as being derived from plants or all elements related to them, in such a way that if speaking of a vegetable dough it is to be understood that dough can be maked from a leguminous (for instance garbanzo, broad bean, lentils), a fruit (for instance mango, banana), a tuber (for instance potatoes), a root (for instance carrots), a grain (for instance corn, wheat), a seed (for instance beans, peas, soya), etc.

(13) The manufacturing process for vegetable dough is carried out in a device which is specially conceived for the process of present invention, references FIGS. 1 through 8 in an indistinct manner. For the end purposes of illustrating the system and process of instant invention, corn grains will be used. Notwithstanding, as will become evident to a person skilled in the art, the system and process of the invention can be employed using any type of dehydrated raw vegetable.

(14) The corn grain is pulverized by means of micro cutting to be shrunk to a particle level size (flour) in different granulometries; depending on the desired granulometry different micro cutters will be used with different knife blade numbers, from 50 up to 120 knife blades to achieve an adequate particle size for the final product, in such a way that said particles present a size between 2 mm up to 200 m, to achieve an adequate size for the granulometry of the particle, it is necessary to feed the corn grain flow to the micro cutting machine (10) by means of a dosage system.

(15) The dosage speed of the corn grain will depend on the variety of corn to be used, given that each corn species presents different properties, such as size, dampness, hardness, amount of starch etc.

(16) The dosage system is carried out with a variable speed worm, which is required in order to be able to adjust the feeding of the micro cutting machine, and also, it must be taken into account that many varieties of corn exist and that each one has different properties.

(17) The corn knocks against the cutting borders of the knife blades which are exposed on a head with great speed. This action results in the elimination of small particles until the decrease of the corn grain is completed. The particles are discharged through the spaces between the knife blades.

(18) Depending on the number of knife blades set on the micro cutting machine (10), will then determine the size of the particles to be obtained, in such a way that by increasing the number of knife blades, the size of the particle will be decreased, while decreasing the number of knife blades will increase the size of the particle.

(19) Given that the driver turns at high speeds, the product remains in the micro cutting machine (10) only for a fraction of a second, thereby avoiding that the corn grains be knocked and become overheated. The particles obtained present the greatest amount of viable starch given the use of the micro cutting, decreasing the corn grains in a soft manner to avoid damage to the starch, thus avoiding the use of hammer mills.

(20) To be able to increase the extraction speed of the particles of the micro cutting machine, a pressure differentiation system (20) is used, being able to use both negative pressure as well as positive pressure, thus avoiding that the particles remain for a longer period of time than necessary in the inner part of the micro cutting machine (10), given that the risk exists that said particles become burnt given the temperature increase in the knife blades caused by the friction with the corn grains to be pulverized.

(21) In an alternative embodiment, prior to the pre cutting step, a step for the separation of the ferrous material is carried out, in such a way that the corn grain passes through a magnetic trap, which traps the ferrous materials in the corn grain, thus avoiding that said materials be introduced into the micro cutting machine, in such a manner that the knife blades of the micro cutting machine are maintained in optimal state.

(22) In an alternative embodiment, the vegetable, preferably grain and even more preferably dehydrated raw grain can have the at least one germ, the pedicel and the pericarp, which jointly are known as the sub product, removed in a controlled manner, thereby obtaining complete or incomplete raw corn, depending on whether one or more of the above parts have been removed.

(23) The raw grain corn is fed to a degerminator machine (30) through a hopper (31), said degerminator machine (30) presents an entry gate (32) and an exit gate (33), through the entry gate the grain is fed by means of a worm to a polishing chamber (35), once the polishing chamber becomes full, the grain is propelled against a rotor and is brushed against some perforated meshes (34) of a screening drum (36), the retention of the grain within the polishing chamber is adjusted to the exit gate by moving two counterweights, causing the sub product to become detached. Said removed sub product is transported, classified and stored for its later use within the process or may be treated as waste. It should be mentioned that said polishing is carried out in a dry manner.

(24) If it is the intention to use the sub product in the flour manufacturing process, said sub product will be transported to a vibratory sorter (40). In a similar manner, said sub product may be processed by a micro cut or any other process.

(25) In an alternative embodiment, said vegetable, preferably grain, even more preferably corn grain is subjected to a precut, in such a way that the size of the grain is decreased, in such a way that the micro cutting process is eased and its efficiency increased.

(26) Said pre cutting machine comprises a plurality of driver flaps which propel the corn grain at a high speed against the plurality of vertical knife blades, thereby obtaining the precut corn grain; the number of knife blades of said precutting machine is much lower than the number of knife blades used in the micro cutting machine, despite them presenting the same functioning principle, the results are different.

(27) Returning to the main embodiment, once the vegetable particles are obtained, these are transported for their separation, wherein they are classified according to their granulometry; in this step, the smallest particles may or may not be separated from the larger sized particles.

(28) Said (flour) particles are transported to the vibratory sorter (40), where they are classified according to their granulometry; the vibratory sorter (40) is a screening device designed to separate the smallest particles from the larger sized particles, and to separate the sub product. The sorter (40) comprises at least one mesh set on a steel frame, the meshes used are from number 10 meshes up to number 100 meshes; the number of meshes will depend on the number of separations wishing to be undertaken.

(29) From the exits, the particles are stored in storage tanks (50), one per each one of the particle granulometries (flour) and one for the sub product.

(30) Each tank has sensors for both high and low levels, the transport system (cyclone and fan), the fluidization system, vibration system and feeding valves.

(31) When the particles reach the low level sensor, the corn grain feeding system is started, when the particles reach the high level sensor, the feeding gate for the corn grain into the micro cutter is closed.

(32) Similarly, two systems are present which aid the particles being transported avoiding clogging, a first system which uses fluidization injecting air into the lower part of the tank and a second system which uses the strategically placed vibrators.

(33) The process will be undertaken in a gelatinizer (50) which comprises in its inner part an arrow (61) with blades (62), temperature sensors, a motor system (63) with a motor reducer, to move the arrow with the blades and a turning system (64). The blades (62) are designed to exercise mechanical work with a cutting and friction force, with flaps which are directed and distributed for gelatinization, wherein the grade of gelatinization will be in function of the final product.

(34) Merely for the purposes of citing one example, a first step comprises undertaking a mixing at a first speed, preferably low speed, between 20 and 30 RPM, to achieve a homogenous mixing of the particles and the water with the objective of obtaining a raw dough, the ratio of particles and water depends on the final product to be manufactured with the dough, preferably the percentage of water varies from approximately 35% to approximately 56%; while a second step comprises undertaking a gelatinizing from the cut and friction force in said raw dough, given that the blades from the equipment turn at a second speed, preferably a high speed, up to 500 RPM, imprinting heat into the dough, causing its gelatinization, both the time as well as the temperature are variables to be controlled within said equipment, the above is based on the type of dough seeking to be obtained, the temperature range is found between approximately 35 C. and up to approximately 60 C.

(35) In an alternative embodiment, the sub product is fed into said gelatinizer, whether it is in particle forms or complete; if the sub product must be fed in particle form, said sub product must be processed by means of using the micro cutting machine.

(36) In an alternative embodiment, lime is added to said mixture to obtain corn dough which is nixtamalized, the percentage of lime used in said mixture varies from approximately 0.3 to approximately 2.5% by weight, which differs very much from the amount of lime used for the conventional nixtamalization processes.

(37) In an alternative embodiment, said stored particles (flour) are weighed to achieve an adequate size combination, in an embodiment, the lime is weighed along with the selected particles, and thus, it consists with a weighing system, wherein the stored particles (flour) are weighed to achieve a combination according to requirements for the final product, which is added into the passage device or directly into the equipment where the mixing and the gelatinization are carried out.

(38) A mechanical device is used for raising and lowering the hopper, the signal for lowering the hopper is determined by the temperature and/or time of the dough, to raise it, it is necessary that the dough has been unloaded. The type of device is chosen from the group of pistons, pulleys, bands etc.

(39) It should be noted that said alternative embodiments may be carried out separately or in combination with the main embodiment.

(40) Alterations to the process described in present application, may be foreseen by those persons skilled in the art. However, it must be understood that present description is described with the preferred embodiments of the invention, which are merely for illustrative purposes and must not be understood as a limitation to the invention. All embodiments which would be considered obvious within the spirit of the invention, such as changes in shape, material and sizes of the features which make up the invention, shall be considered as lying within the scope of the attached claims.