Biscuits shaping

Mixtures of sizes and shapes in the intermediates are difficult to evaluate. Surprising inconsistencies occur which do not fit an overall theory yet. Generally a variety of shapes is best. A mixture of conic, tear drop, potato, spherical and biscuit shapes provides high fluidity at high density of overall packing. 

The product chosen in the case study is Mary Biscuit of the design brand Alessi (see Fig. 24.7). The design features, e.g., the biscuit shaped lid with vanilla scented and special texture, make Mary Biscuit stand out from other competitors. Five participants were invited to perform a pilot study and 33 participants (Mean age = 23.36 years, age range 20-26 years 15 female and 18 male) were invited to perform the formal experiment. 

Compressed flake biscuits are formed by compression of flakes or cooked grain mixtures with other ingredients. These products are especially important in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries. The most used flakes are from wheat that has been precooked with sugar and other flavorings and formed into the biscuit shape. The biscuits can be individually formed, or flakes and other ingredients can be sheeted into a mat and then cut into rectangular forms. The biscuit pieces are then toasted to the desired color, flavor, and moisture (Fast and Caldwell 2000). 

Soft-wheat flours are sold for general family use, as biscuit or cake flours, and for the commercial production of crackers, pretzels, cakes, cookies, and pastry. The protein in soft wheat flour mns from 7 to 10%. There are differences in appearance, texture, and absorption capacity between hard- and soft-wheat flour subjected to the same milling procedures. Hard-wheat flour falls into separate particles if shaken in the hand whereas, soft-wheat flour tends to clump and hold its shape if pressed together. Hard-wheat flour feels slightly coarse and granular when mbbed between the fingers soft-wheat flour feels soft and smooth. Hard-wheat flour absorbs more Hquid than does soft-wheat flour. Consequently, many recipes recommend a variable measure of either flour or Hquid to achieve a desired consistency. 

Experienced Extensograph users learn the characteristic shapes of the extensogram typical for flour suitable for particular uses (Figures 9-11). Bread flours need both resistance and some extensibility while in biscuit flours a low resistance and a high extensibility are needed. 

Biscuits can be shaped by cutting, either rotating or vertical, wire cutting or rotary moulding. These processes are covered in Chapter 8 (Section 8.4 on biscuits). 

Biscuits can be mixed in most sorts of mixer. Continuous and batch mixers are both used. Some of the batch mixers are vertical others are horizontal. It might be thought that, as biscuits are often shaped and baked continuously, a continuous mixer would be essential. In practice, dough can always be mixed faster than it can be used, so a continuous mixer is not essential. 

If biscuits are made by hand the shaping process would be to roll out the dough and use a cutter to cut the biscuits to shape. The scrap dough is then re-rolled and more pieces are cut with the excess being re-rolled and the process repeated until there is insufficient dough to make any more biscuits. 

It is also possible to shape biscuits by a mechanised system that does the same process. This is called sheeting gauging and cutting. Some biscuits are shaped by extrusion and depositing, while others are wire cut. Alternatively, the biscuit dough can be fed to a rotary moulder, which shapes the biscuits in one step (Figure 2). 

A similar technique may be used to make injection mouldings with elaborate patterns or decorations paper or film may be printed flat with the design required then folded, say, in a box-shape and placed in the mould—where it is held in place electrostatically or by vacuum applied through pins moulding then takes place on or through this substrate. Such an approach has been used to mould boxes for biscuits, showing pictures of the biscuits on the box. It eliminates difficulties associated with printing shaped objects. 

Oncoid an algal biscuit resembling the small, variously shaped (often spherical) concentrically laminated, calceireous sedimentary structures called oncolites. 

Asteroids also have a variety of shapes. As the chart on pages 207-209 shows, some are essentially spherical (with a single diameter in all dimensions), while others have dimensions that differ in each direction. Pallas, for example, has a shape somewhat like a distorted potato. The radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico, found that Kleopatra has one of the most unusual shapes of all asteroids, best described as similar to a dog biscuit. 

Sandwiches consist of one or more flavours of ice cream between two biscuits or wafers, which may have been covered in chocolate (Figure 5.4a). Biscuits are made by mixing flour, sugar and fat, shaping and then baking. The sandwich can be assembled layer by layer, i.e. the first biscuit or wafer is covered with ice cream, which in turn is covered with a second biscuit or wafer. Alternatively, the ice cream can be extruded between two biscuits. The product is then hardened, dipped in chocolate or couverture if required, and packaged. 

Preform . (1) The test tube shape that is used to form the final blown product in injection blow molding. (2) A compressed tablet or biscuit of plastic composition used for efficiency in handling and accuracy in weighing materials, particularly thermosets. (3) Foamed perform. (4) A pre-shaped fibrous reinforcement formed by the distribution of chopped fibers or... 

Preform v. (1) To make plastic molding powders into pellets, tablets, or biscuits of known mass that facilitate accuracy in compression molding. (2) To prepare by hand cutting of reinforcing cloth or mat, or by blowing chopped fibers onto a contoured screen, the reinforcement for a fiber-reinforced molded object. The reinforcement, which has a shape close to that of the final molded object, is placed into or onto the mold along with the required amount of resin, then wet out and cured. 

The first design, Mushy (see Fig. 24.9), is a marshmallow-shaped biscuit container with matte surface. The internal surface of Mushy is in brown colour, which suggests the container is filled with chocolate and, hence, may increase users appetite. There are two ants heading towards the overflow chocolate. The white colour external surface of the Mushy causes this part to become the highlight of the design. The intention is to make users feel curious and make them investigate what is inside the Mushy . The snap-fit lid is easy to open. Besides, there is sweet scent on the external surface of the lid. Users can choose the scent they desire while purchasing Mushy . Available sweet scents include caramel, chocolate, vanilla and honey. 

The second design, Passion (see Fig. 24.10), is an orange-shaped biscuit container with matte surface. The matte surface is to suggest similarity of this biscuit container with real orange. This container comprises a tissue paper chamber and six compartments for users to contain and sort various cookies. The transparent biscuit container lid allows users to see the cookies inside the container without opening it. As the white arrow shows, users can rotate the compartment around the tissue paper chamber to search for cookies they desire. Each of the individual compartments can be taken out easily by simply lifting it upward. Both biscuit container lid and tissue paper chamber lid are snap-fit. The tissue paper chamber lid is further customized with ftuit scent. 

The fifth design, FreshMint (see Fig. 24.13), is a tooth-shaped biscuit container with glossy surface. It is a snap-fit container. There is a toothpaste-shaped and mint-scented tissue paper container on the top of the design. The intention is to educate users. When users clean their Ups with tissue paper after eating, the mint smeU reminds them of tooth paste. This may further remind users to brush their teeth after eating. 

Box Kiln. A relatively small industrial intermittent kiln of box-like shape Boxing. The placing of biscuit hollow-ware, e.g. cups, rim to rim one on another this helps to prevent distortion during firing. 

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