The present invention relates to a device useful for making spherical shaped food products.

The continuous forming/shaping device finds application in forming/shaping of spherical shaped

food products like laddu, jaggery balls, puffed rice balls, roasted sesame balls and many other
Indian traditional savories. This invention relates to a method and apparatus for forming food
materials into three dimensional food products. More particularly, the method and machine are
useful in forming food products into a variety of three-dimensional forms from a formable
feedstock, changes in the form of the product are easily made by changing only a part of the
machine. Machines for forming food products from a food base feed stock are well known. Most
such machines form the products in wafers, patties or other forms that is not suitable for Indian
Traditional Foods. In many cases the formed product is merely a compaction of the feed stock in a
form that is most easily formed by the machine or a form that is stamped or cut from a sheet of feed
stock. Various methods and machines have been developed over the years for shaping food
materials to enhance their value and marketability. Some of those methods have utilized the single
rotary concept with forming cavities in one roll only with another roll serving only as an applicator
roll and functioning only to fill the cavities in the forming roll and to compress the feed material. In
all such machines known, the forming cavities are an integral part of the roll structure and changes
in the forming cavities are only effected by changing the entire forming roll. Those machines with
the forming cavity as an integral part of the roll structure have had the limitation of forming only
two dimensional products, and a lack of versatility in changing from one product form to another,
and for those reasons those machines have been uneconomic in serving the food forming industry. It
has become desirable to form food articles in three dimensional forms that resemble a part of the
source of the feed stock. For instance, it is desirable to form boondi in the form of laddu, or to form
jaggery powder into a jaggery ball. Food processors do not wish to have machines dedicated to the
formation of a single food product and would prefer to have a machine that can be easily adapted or
changed from forming one product into a machine for forming another product. Quick changes
from one form to another form are desirable, not only because
quick changes are less labor intensive but also because the time taken to effect the change reduces
the time spent in the formation of food products. In light of these desires within the food product
forming industry there has developed a need for a universal food product forming machine that may
be adapted to the formation of many different food products with the changes between food
products being made easily and with a minimum of equipment. The object of the present invention
is a method for forming three dimensional food products from a feed stock of food materials with a
machine that is adapted to form a variety of food forms and is adapted to be changed from one food
form to another with a minimum of effort and time. A further object in accord with the preceding
object is a food forming machine that will form three dimensional food objects from a feed stock
and will take an input of compressible feed stock, form that stock into the desired product, and eject
the formed product from the forming machine. A further object in accord with the preceding objects
is a continuous conveyorized food product forming machine that will continuously receive feed
stock, form the stock into a desired form, hold the formed product for few seconds for setting and
eject the formed stock.
Reference may be made to an US patent No. 4886441, dated 12-12-1989, wherein an apparatus for
forming three dimensional food products is described. Basically, the system consists of two corotating cylinders with forming plates. The material to be formed is fed in between the rollers and is
squeezed to forming the required shape. At the end of the rotation the formed product is ejected out
onto a receiving conveyor.
The main drawback of the above system is that there should not be gap between the rollers for the
perfect forming. This makes it suitable for dough and liquid food products. This is not suitable for

granular products. This differs form our present objective of making ball shape from boondi and
jaggery powder. Also, this system does not have any holding time for the formed product to set,
which is an important aspect in the Indian traditional food preparations. Since the feed is not dosed
into the forming unit, there is a lot of wastage and recycling, which may affect the product quality.
Reference may be made to a Japanese patent JP9107924 dated 28-04-1997 wherein a ball-molding
device for food paste-molding machine is described. The description relates to a ball-molding
device capable of automatically molding a thick or flat pre-molded food paste into a ball shape. The
system consists of a ball mold for receiving pre-molded foods and subsequently roll-molds the
foods into ball-like molded products and is disposed on a belt conveyer. The molding machine has a
rotary drum where depressed molds are formed on the circumferential surface.
The drawback of this system is that, it requires pre-moulded feed and is not suitable for Indian
traditional foods. This calls for additional unit operations for pre-moulding. This is not suitable for
granular products.
Reference may be made to an US Patent US5375509, wherein a dough ball preparation table is
described. This invention relates in general to a filled dough ball shaping apparatus employed to
form filled dough ball bodies of desired configuration prior to processing like freezing, drying,
baking, frying, steaming, or otherwise cooking the items. The present invention relates to a filled
dough ball receiving, shaping, dividing and forming machine for making filled dough ball bodies of
a predetermined weight and configuration of an initially filled and encrusted, spherically-shaped
dough ball into smaller shaped and sealed, filled and encrusted dough balls in a continuous manner.
The drawback of the present invention is that. It needs a preformed dough sheets and is applicable
to only dough like food products and is basically an encrusting machine. This differs form our
present objective of making ball shape from boondi and jaggery powder. Also, this system does not
have any holding time for the formed product to set, which is an important aspect in the Indian
traditional food preparations. Since the feed is not dosed into the forming unit, there is a lot of
wastage and recycling, which may affect the product quality.
Reference may be made to an US Patent US5795610, dated 18-08-1998 wherein a Food molding
apparatus and method of forming food products, is described. The invention provides a molding
apparatus and process of molding formable materials,
which comprises of a manifold for receiving a formable material and plungers or pistons for
applying pressure to the formable material within the manifold. A mold plate including mold cavity
is driven between fill and discharge positions, with the mold cavity exposed to the supply manifold
when in the fill position.
A clamp member is positioned adjacent the mold plate when in the fill position, and pressure is
applied on the clamp member to clamp the mold plate against the supply manifold. The clamp
member and associated structure apply pressure to the clamp member compensating for deflection
of these structural members which maintains the mold plate in firm clamping relation relative to the
supply manifold. The arrangement eliminates the need to provide the clamp plate with a thick cross
section or heavy mass, which would accommodate forces normally encountered during filling of the
mold cavities. A mold plate knife assembly is used to cut the formable material at a position
adjacent the mold cavities subsequent to filling to facilitate formation of precise portions of the
formable material, and also functions to seal off the supply manifold prior to movement of the mold
plate to provide distinct advantages.
The main drawback of this system is that the formable food product is forced into the cavities under
pressure, and a knock out position where the contents of the cavity are removed or knocked out.
This differs form our present objective of making ball shape from boondi and jaggery powder. Also,

this system does not have any holding time for the formed product to set, which is an important
aspect in the Indian traditional food preparations. Since the feed is not dosed into the forming unit,
there is a lot of wastage and recycling, which may affect the product quality. According to the
description, this system is more suitable for animal products, which can withstand pressure during
forming due to the material property.
The main objective of present invention is to provide continuous device for making spherical
shaped food products, which obviates the drawbacks as detailed above.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a continuous system for the production of
spherical shaped food products.
Still another objective of the present invention is to provide a hygienic system untouched by human
hands for making spherical shaped food products.
Yet another objective of present invention is to provide a system for mechanization of preparation /
production of spherical shaped food products.
The drawing accompanying this specification, fig.1 represents the individual forming units and fig.2
the assembly drawing making use of these individual forming units in multiples.
Accordingly the present invention provides a device for making spherical shaped food products
which comprises of a forming unit as shown in (fig. 1) characterised in that the said forming unit
consists with two semi-spherical cups (1) being movably fixed inside a cylindrical/square barrel (2)
with a cut open (3) to intake the material, the said cups are connected to a connecting rod (4) with
spring loading (5) and a cam follower/roller (6) , the said cylindrical cut open (3) is provided with
two end plates (7), the said individual units are mounted in multiples on a slat conveyor (8) which
are in turn mounted on two sprockets (9) , the said sprockets are mounted on a rigid frame (10) , one
of these sprockets (9) is provided with a drive mechanism (11) to move the forming units, the
material is fed through a hopper (12) and dosing device (13) mounted on a frame (14) operated by a
drive mechanism linked to the said slated conveyor (8) , the said cam roller (6) is operated upon by
cam profile (15), a Cleaning-in-Place (CIP) system is provided in the return track of the said slated
conveyor (8) consisting of a detergent wash (16) , and a water wash jet (17) , an outlet chute (18) is
provided at the outlet to collect the formed products (19).
In an embodiment of the present invention the capacity of the unit may be varied by varying the
number of forming units.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the device can also have the combination of all
these embodiments like, different shape and size of the forming unit in one set to obtained different
size and shape products.
While certain preferred embodiments of the invention has been specifically disclosed and described,
it should be understood that the invention is not limited thereto as many variations will be readily
apparent to those skilled in the art and the invention is to be given its broadest possible
interpretation within the terms of the following claims.
The novelties of the present invention are:
It provides a continuous system for the production of spherical shaped food products.
It is a continuous device to produce spherical shaped food products under hygienic conditions
untouched by hands to handle hot (70C) products, which is otherwise difficult manually. CIP
system as part of invention maintains hygiene of system at all stages.
Metered input facilities uniform size, weight and shape of the product, with minimum wastage.
The capacity can be easily varied by varying the number of individual forming units. The shape of
the product can be easily varied by altering the individual forming units.
The present invention relates generally to the apparatus for food processing in

making/shaping/forming spherical shaped food products.

As a variation, the device can also be used both three and two dimensional products.
The following examples are given by way of illustration of the present invention and therefore
should not be construed to limit the scope of the present invention. The working of the continuous
device for making spherical shaped food products is explained below with particular reference to
laddu (hot sugar syrup dipped deep fat fried
beads of bengal gram flour, formed into spherical shape at hot condition) and jaggery powder.
EXAMPLE 1
The spherical beads made out of bengal gram flour, deep fat fried and dipped in sugar syrup at hot
condition (60C) known as boondi is fed to the hopper. From hopper a metered quantity is fed to the
forming units mounted on the moving conveyor. Holder plates on the forming units holds desired
quantity to form particular diameter (75mm) spherical shaped laddu. While the forming units move
on the conveyor, the follower connected to one end of connecting rod follows the path defined by
the cam plate, which results in inward movement of hemi-spherical cups. This results in forming
spherical shaped food products from the feed.
After forming the product, it needs to be held in this position for few seconds for setting/binding of
sugar material, for this a retention period is provided on the cam plate profile. After setting, the
laddus are slowly ejected out from hemi-spherical cups by last stage of cam profile. So ejected
laddu lie on the forming barrel and then transfers it to the collecting chute, at the end of the slatted
conveyor.
On return phase of conveyor the forming units passes through CIP system, wherein detergent jet and
water jet ensures cleanliness of forming unit. A variable speed motor drives the conveyor and also
drives the metered feeding system with suitable reduction. The speed of motor can be varied to suit
proper setting time.
EXAMPLE 2
The crystallized powder of cane sugar (jaggery) at hot condition (60-70C) is fed to the hopper.
From hopper a metered quantity is fed to the forming units mounted on moving conveyor. Holder
plates on the forming units holds desired quantity to form particular diameter (75mm) spherical
shaped jaggery ball. While the forming units move on the
conveyor, the follower connected to one end of connecting rod follows the path defined by the cam
plate, which results in inward movement of hemi-spherical cups. This results in forming spherical
shaped food products from the feed.
After forming the product, it needs to be held in this position for few seconds for setting/binding of
sugar material, for this a retention period is provided on the cam plate profile. After setting, the
jaggery balls are slowly ejected out from hemi-spherical cups by last stage of cam profile. So
ejected jaggery ball lie on the forming barrel and then transfers it to the collecting chute, at the end
of the slatted conveyor.
On return phase of conveyor the forming units passes through CIP system, wherein detergent jet and
water jet ensures cleanliness of forming unit. A variable speed motor drives the conveyor and also
drives the metered feeding system with suitable reduction. The speed of motor can be varied to suit
proper setting time.
The main advantages of the present invention are:
Spherical shaped food products can automatically be formed from hot input
Uniformity in size, shape and weight of the product can easily be attained
By replacing the forming units any shape, size and weight of the formed product can be achieved
in the existing system

 The complete operation of forming of spherical shaped food products are done hygienically
CIP system ensures cleanliness and sanitation of the device.

We claim:
1. A device for making spherical shaped food products which comprises of a forming unit as shown
in (fig.1) characterised in that the said forming unit consists with two semi-spherical cups (1) being
movably fixed inside a cylindrical/square barrel (2) with a cut open (3) to intake the material, the
said cups are connected to a connecting rod (4) with spring loading (5) and a cam follower/roller
(6), the said cylindrical cut open (3) is provided with two end plates (7), the said individual units are
mounted in multiples on a slat conveyor (8) which are in turn mounted on two sprockets (9), the
said sprockets are mounted on a rigid frame (10) , one of these sprockets (9) is provided with a
drive mechanism (11) to move the forming units, the material is fed through a hopper (12) and
dosing device (13) mounted on a frame (14) operated by a drive mechanism linked to the said slated
conveyor (8) , the said cam roller (6) is operated upon by cam profile (15), a Cleaning-in-Place
(CIP) system is provided in the return track of the said slated conveyor (8) consisting of a detergent
wash (16), and a water wash jet (17) , an outlet chute (18) is provided at the outlet to collect the
formed products (19).
2. A device useful for making spherical shaped food products substantially as herein described with
reference to the figures 1 & 2 of the drawing accompanying this specification.