Automated bread-making system

Abstract

An automated production system is disclosed herein. One aspect of the present technology, for example, is directed toward an automated system for the continuous production of baked bread. The system can include a priming assembly having a dry ingredients priming unit and a wet ingredients priming unit. The dry ingredients priming unit can include a vertically-oriented hopper and a screw positioned within an interior region of the hopper, wherein the first screw extends along the central longitudinal axis of the hopper and is configured to rotate about its own central longitudinal axis. The system can also include a mixing assembly, a forming assembly, an oven, and a controller. The controller can be coupled to the priming assembly and configured to adjust the amount of dry ingredients delivered from the hopper to the mixing chamber by controlling rotation of the screw.

I/We claim: 
     
         1 . An automated system for the continuous production of baked product, comprising:
 a priming assembly comprising:
 a dry ingredients priming unit comprising a vertically-oriented hopper having a conical sidewall, a hopper inlet for receiving a dry ingredient, a hopper outlet for discharging the dry ingredient, and a central longitudinal axis; 
 an intermediate chamber having
 a first end with a first opening and a second end with a second opening, 
 a first cover having an open position in which the first cover is fluidly coupled to the hopper outlet and a closed position, 
 a second cover having an open position in which the second cover is fluidly coupled to the mixing assembly and a closed position; and 
 
 a wet ingredients priming unit including a liquid reservoir and an outlet for discharging a metered amount of wet ingredients from the reservoir; 
   a mixing assembly fluidly coupled to the priming assembly and configured to separately receive the dry ingredient from the dry ingredients priming unit and the wet ingredients from the wet ingredients priming unit and mix the wet and dry ingredients to form a lump of dough, wherein the lump of dough is sized to form an individual baked product;   a forming assembly configured to receive the lump of dough from the mixing assembly and mold the lump of dough into a predetermined shape;   an oven configured to receive the shaped lump of dough from the forming assembly and apply heat to transform the shaped lump of dough into a baked product; and   a controller coupled to the priming assembly and having memory and processing circuitry, wherein the controller is configured, for each individual baked product, to adjust the timing and/or amount of the dry ingredient delivered from the dry ingredients priming unit to the mixing assembly.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the intermediate chamber is configured to receive only a predetermined volume or weight of the first ingredient. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the priming assembly is configured to receive ingredients from multiple chambers. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 3 , wherein the chambers are on a rotating table and the desired chamber can be manually or automatically rotated into alignment with the hopper outlet and the mixing assembly inlet. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 3 , wherein the chambers are configured to hold a different volume. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the dry ingredients priming unit is configured to receive ingredients from multiple containers. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein the containers are fluidly coupled to the dry ingredients priming units via tubing and/or valves.