Method of extrusion and making random extruded products

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12465068-B2
Application number	US-202418625444-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 3, 2024
Priority date	Nov 11, 2014
Publication date	Nov 11, 2025
Grant date	Nov 11, 2025

Abstract

A method of making twisted collets includes providing a composition that incudes corn meal, feeding the composition into a single barrel that has more than one rotatable auger, and conveying the composition toward a die assembly through the more than one rotatable auger and through a transition piece having an interior flow path beginning adjacent to a downstream end of the augers and diverging to a wide output end with the die assembly comprising a stator and a rotor with a die gap there between, wherein the stator comprises a stator head downstream of the more than one rotatable auger and a stationary plate surrounding the output end of the transition piece and wherein the rotor is a rotatable plate downstream from the stator, the wide output end of the transition piece in communication with the stationary plate.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A method of making unique twisted collets comprising:
providing a composition comprising a first granular material consisting of corn meal having a particle size distribution between 200 microns and 1200 microns such that between about 5% and 10% of the corn meal have a particle size smaller than 300 microns; feeding the composition into a single barrel that has more than one rotatable auger; conveying the composition toward a die assembly through the more than one rotatable auger and through a transition piece having an interior flow path beginning adjacent to a downstream end of the augers and diverging to a wide output end, with the die assembly comprising a stator and a rotor with a die gap there between, wherein the stator comprises a stator head downstream of the more than one rotatable auger and a stationary plate surrounding the output end of the transition piece and wherein the rotor is a rotatable plate downstream from the stator, the wide output end of the transition piece in communication with the stationary plate; and, expanding the composition within the die assembly to form the unique twisted collets having a bulk density ranging from about 3.0 to about 6.0 lbs/ft 3 .

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the corn meal has particle size distribution between 200 microns and 900 microns with about 80% by weight of the particle size distribution having a size of about 400 microns or between 200 microns and 1200 microns with about 50% of the particle size distribution having a size about 400 microns.

3 . The method of claim 1 wherein the composition further comprising a second granular material comprising a cereal or legume flour that differs from corn meal.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the second granular material is present in the composition in an amount up to about 55%.

5 . The method of claim 3 wherein the second granular food material is whole grain corn meal.

6 . The method of claim 3 wherein the second granular food material is rice flour.

7 . The method of claim 6 wherein the rice flour is present in the composition in an amount of about 60% rice flour.

8 . The method of claim 1 further comprising a third granular material.

9 . The method of claim 8 wherein the third granular material is yellow pea flour.

10 . The method of claim 9 wherein the yellow pea flour is present in the composition in an amount of between about 10% to about 15%.

11 . The method of claim 1 wherein the corn meal comprises yellow corn meal that is present in the composition in an amount of about 30%.

12 . The method of claim 11 wherein the composition further includes about 10% to about 15% of yellow pea flour and from about 55% to about 60% rice flour.

Assignees

• Frito Lay North America Inc

Inventors

• Morales-Alvarez Jorge C
• Rao V N Mohan

Classifications

• A23P30/20

  Extruding · CPC title

• B29C48/405

  Intermeshing co-rotating screws · CPC title

• B29C48/05

  Filamentary, e.g. strands · CPC title

• B29C48/04

  Particle-shaped (making granules B29B9/00) · CPC title

• B29C48/682

  for twin screws · CPC title