Claims:1) An automatic chikki sheeting and cutting machine for efficiently increasing the hygiene of the food product comprising:
a. A main frame (1),
b. A feeding hopper funnel (2),
c. A grooved feeding roller (3),
d. A conveyor belt (4),
e. A gear box motor (5),
f. A multi sizing rollers (6),
g. A bearing roller (7),
h. A multi cooling roller (8),
i. A cooling water unit (10),
j. A conveyor roller (15),
k. A knife edge (16),
l. A top cutting roller with circular blades (17),
m. A bottom plain roller (18),
n. A levelling roller (20),
o. A conveyor belt (21)
p. A knife cutter (25)

the feeding hopper funnel (2) and the main conveyor belt (4) driven by the gear box motor (5) is supported on the main frame (1), the chikki mix fed inside the feeding hopper funnel (2) is extruded onto the conveyor belt (4) by the grooved feeding roller (3) assembled inside the feeding hopper funnel (2) and the multiple sizing rollers (6) configured on the bearing rollers (7) flattens the chikki mix over the breadth of the conveyor belt (4) to desired thickness;

the multiple cooling rollers (8) configured on a bearing rollers (9) cools down the flattened chikki to the desired temperature, the cooling water unit (10) connected to the cooling rollers (8) and the cooling fans (11) provides the cooling effect to the flattened chikki moving along the conveyor belt (4);

the cooled flattened chikki is moved to a conveyor belt (12) over a frame (13), wherein the conveyor belt (12) is driven by a gearbox motor (14) and the conveyor rollers (15), the knife edge (16) equipped on the conveyor belt (12) performs the straight cut through the top cutting roller with circular blades (17) which is supported by the bottom roller (18), wherein the both top cutting roller with circular blades (17) and the bottom roller (18) driven by a gear box motor (19), thereby cutting the chikki sheet lengthwise and the chikki sheets after the straight cutting is over the chikki lines are separated using partition rollers(30) to prevent them from sticking together and levelled over the belt using levelling rollers (20) , afterwards they undergo cross cutting process through a conveyor belt (21) running over a frame (22) powered by the gear box (23), wherein the conveyor belt (21) is provided with the knife edge (24) for the movement of chikki sheets to be cut into pieces, the knife cutter (25) powered by the pneumatic system (26) controlled by the electric panel (27) and bearing roller (28) gives a push to the cross cut chikki line along the speed of the conveyor belt (21), wherein the knife cutter (25) determines the frequency of cross cuts required and the length of the chikki bar.

2) The automatic chikki sheeting and cutting machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the multi sizing rollers (6) running over the conveyor belt (4) is adjusted to obtain the chikki bar of desired thickness.

3) The automatic chikki sheeting and cutting machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the hot flattened chikki with desired thickness is cooled by multiple cooling rollers (8) supported by bearing rollers (9) cools down the flattened chikki to cutting temperature and the colling rollers (8) with cooling in the internal surface of the rollers (8) keeps the surface of the rollers at low temperature

4) The automatic chikki sheeting and cutting machine as claimed in claim 3, wherein the cooling fans (11) provided over the total length of the conveyor belt (4) and the cooling requirement depends on the recipe and user-requirements.

5) The automatic chikki sheeting and cutting machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the conveyor belt (12) in which the straight cutting over the chikki sheets is performed by top cutting roller with circular blades (17) fitted with equally spaced circular blades where the spacing can be adjusted, thereby thickness and width of the cutting of the sheets is performed.

6) The automatic chikki sheeting and cutting machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the chikki sheet travelling over the conveyor belt (21) has to undergo cross cutting operation with the help of guillotine knife cutter (25) powered by pneumatic system (26) controlled by electric panel (27) which cuts the chikki lines widthwise to obtain required length , bearing roller (28) powered by a unique gearbox-motor drive (29) helps to create a spacing between the consecutive row of chikki lines along the width of belt.
, Description: Technical Field

The invention relates to an automatic chikki sheeting and cutting machine. The invention particularly relates to an automized method for making chikki especially peanut and groundnut bar without any manual intervention. In the present invention the product obtained from the automated process that is the chikki obtained with zero manual intervention while undergoing sheeting and cutting process. Moreover, the obtained chikki can be ready for automatically transferred to the packing process. The present invention can be used by the consumers with the perfect finish, quality and of the desired size. The automated method involved in producing the chikki provides more hygienic and high-quality product.

Background of the Invention

RU2383207C2 deals with a snack bar having less than 110 Cal per 28 g serving and comprising a core layer, a caramel layer, which is separate from the core layer, and a compound coating applied to surface portions of the core layer and separate caramel layer. Said core layer combines, in the form of a solid mass, protein crisps, caramel, water-soluble dietary fibres and a binder; and said caramel layer comprises water-soluble dietary fibres. It also claims a method of producing this nutrition energy snack bar.

AU2007201492B2 method of producing a cereal bar is provided in which the cereal comprises a cereal mixture including ready-to-eat (RTE) cereal pieces joined together with a binder, where the cereal and binder together form a cereal matrix which is heated for a time and temperature to reduce the water activity of the external portion thereof while maintaining an internal portion of the cereal matrix at a higher second water activity. The method provides cereal bars requiring less compressive force to be formed into a cohesive self-supporting structure in providing a chewy reduced-density cereal bar with improved shelf life.

The existing systems for manufacturing the healthy snack bar involves a manual and tedious process which tends to decrease the productivity of the manufacturing process.

Object of the Invention

The primary object of the invention is to provide chikki (peanut bar, groundnut bar ) with zero manual intervention.
A further object of the invention is to achieve chikki to be ready for automatically transferred to the packing system.
Another object of the invention is to provide perfect finish, high quality product with perfect size.
A further object of the invention is to provide the cutting of chikki at required temperature in required sizes thereby increasing the quality and quantity of the products.
Another object of the invention is to fully automate the chikki producing process to increase the hygiene of the food products.
A further object of the invention is to cut the chikki sheet at correct temperature at required size thereby, making the manufacturing process easy and efficient.
Another object of the invention is to continuously fed into a packing line, to suit ones requirement and the size (thickness, width, length) of the health snack churned out of this machine can be standardized.

Summary of the invention

In the current invention, the the hot chikki mix is fed inside the Feeding Hopper Funnel (2), the grooved feeding roller (3) functions as an extruder pushing the chikki mix onto the conveyor belt (4) ,the multiple sizing rollers (6) with the help of bearing rollers (7) flattens the chikki mix over the width of the belt to desired thickness. Therefore, the number of sizing rollers, are based on the requirement of adjusting thickness and recipe of chikki mix.

While travelling over the conveyor belt it is sheeted to uniform thickness over the width of the belt and precisely cooled to the cutting temperature for getting perfect finish cut and quality of chikki bar. On completing the cooling process, the chikki undergoes the straight cutting and the chikki sheet is cut lengthwise into many chikki lines with equal width. On completing straight cutting the partition knife edge roller prevents the chikki lines from joining. The cross cutting is performed where the chikki lines are cut to equal length. At the end of the process chikki bars of uniform thickness, width and length are obtained.

These and other aspects of the example embodiments herein will be better appreciated and understood when considered in conjunction with the following description and the accompanying drawings. It should be understood, however, that the following descriptions, while indicating example embodiments and numerous specific details thereof, are given by way of illustration and not of limitation. Many changes and modifications may be made within the scope of the example embodiments herein without departing from the spirit thereof, and the example embodiments herein include all such modifications.

Brief description of the drawings
Fig. 1 represents the front view of the Automatic chikki sheeting and cutting machine with improvised feeding roller and sizing rollers.
Detailed description of the invention

An Automatic Chikki (groundnut bar, peanut bar, protein bar, health bar) Sheeting and cutting machine comprising a Main Frame (1) which consists of a Feeding Hopper Funnel (2), assembled inside the Feeding Hopper Funnel (2) is a grooved feeding roller (3). In the current invention, the Main frame (1) is a main conveyor belt (4) controlled by gear box-motor and drive mechanism (5), a multiple sizing rollers (6) running over the belt which are supported by a plurality of bearing rollers (7).

When the hot chikki mix is fed inside the Feeding Hopper Funnel (2), the grooved feeding roller (3) functions as an extruder pushing the chikki mix onto the conveyor belt (4) ,the multiple sizing rollers (6) with the help of bearing rollers (7) flattens the chikki mix over the belt to desired thickness. Therefore, the number of sizing rollers, are based on the requirement of adjusting thickness and recipe of chikki mix.

The hot flattened chikki with desired thickness needs to be cooled down to cutting temperature and therefore a cooling system is provided. Mounted on same main frame (1) are multiple cooling rollers (8) supported by bearing rollers (9) which cools down the flattened hot chikki to cutting temperature. Cooling rollers (8) have water cooling in the internal surface of roller which in turn keep the surface of the roller at low temperature and when it comes in contact with chikki surface it brings down the temperature of hot chikki to cutting temperature. Water cooling is provided by cooling water unit (10) which is connected to cooling rollers by rotary coupling joints. In some cases, simple cooling fans (11) is provided over the total length of main conveyor belt (4) to cool the hot flattened chikki. Cooling requirement varies depend on recipe and production system.

On cooling the chikki the main conveyor belt (4) carries the cooled flattened chikki onto a conveyor belt (12) travelling over the frame (13). The conveyor belt (12) is powered by a gearbox motor drive system (14) and well-engineered special conveyor rollers (15). The conveyor system is specially equipped with knife edge (16) or small diameter roller on both sides to facilitate movement of chikki over the conveyor belt (12). At the beginning of the conveyor belt (12) is a straight cutting system consisting of a top cutting roller with circular blades (17) fitted with equally spaced circular blades where the spacing can be adjusted. This top cutting roller with circular blades (17) is supported by a plain bottom roller (18). Both the top cutting roller with circular blades (17) and bottom plain roller (18) are rotating by means of a separate gearbox-motor drive arrangement (19). The straight cutting system cuts the chikki sheet lengthwise thereby determining the width of the chikki.

The entire chikki sheet travelling over the conveyor belt (12) is cut to multiple lines lengthwise with perfect equal width based on spacing between the circular blades. The partition knife edge roller (30) creates a separation between the straight cut chikki lines cut over the length of the belt (12), to prevent the chikki lines from joining. After the straight cutting process is over the chikki sheet tend to move upwards due to cutting force, so to bring the chikki sheeting level to the surface of the conveyor belt (12) there is a levelling roller (20) mounted on the frame (13).

These chikki lines on undergoing straight cutting is passed into the next conveyor belt (21) running over frame (22) powered by gearbox-motor drive system (23). The conveyor system is provided with a knife edge (24) or small diameter roller on one side for smooth movement of chikki line. For cost savings there is a cross cutting mechanism which can either be achieved by using circular blades supported by linear motion bearing and guide rods running across the belts using gear motor system. But for a super fine cut we usually use a guillotine knife cutter (25) powered by pneumatic system (26) controlled by electrical panel (27) which determines the frequency of cuts per minute and in turn controlling the length of chikki bar. Directly below the guillotine knife cutter (25) is bearing roller (28) mounted on frame (22). The bearing roller (28) powered by a unique gearbox motor drive arrangement (29) gives a push to the cross-cut chikki line which along with the speed of the conveyor belt (21) gives a spacing between the first line of cross-cut chikki and second line of cross-cut chikki. Chikki bars of desired length are obtained as a result of the cross-cutting process. Therefore, the chikki bars are of desired thickness, width and length.

On performing the cross-cutting process, the chikki (peanut/groundnut/health/protein) bars is transferred to a collecting tray for simple option or can be fed onto an auto feeding line to a packing system.

The uniquely designed cooling system, straight cutting system and cross cutting mechanism make perfectly shaped chikki bars of required size and weight.