Auto Pancake machine

[u/November996]

Hi everyone!

We're currently developing an automated Min Jiang Kueh (Asian pancake) vending machine as a student project in Singapore.

The machine will use an electric crepe maker with a flat, round cooking surface to produce pancakes approximately 15 cm in diameter.

Once cooked, the pancake needs to be automatically removed from the hot plate and transferred into a rotating dumpling-style mould, where filling will be added before the pancake is folded and sealed.

Our biggest challenge right now is the scraping and transferring mechanism.

As you can see from the attached video, we previously experimented with a robotic arm, but the results weren't very satisfactory. We're hoping to find a simpler, more reliable mechanism.

Ideally, the system should:

• Remove the entire cooked pancake without tearing, curling or folding it.
• Transfer it from the flat crepe maker into the mould positioned in front.
• Position the pancake accurately so the filling and folding mechanisms can operate.
• Work consistently across repeated cooking cycles.
• Be relatively affordable and compact enough to integrate into a vending machine.

We've considered using a motorised spatula on a linear rail, but we're unsure whether that's the best approach.

Has anyone worked on something similar or come across existing mechanisms that could accomplish this?

We're open to suggestions involving linear actuators, conveyor mechanisms, scrapers, rotating rollers or even completely different approaches.

Our overall prototype budget is around SGD 6,000, so we're trying to avoid expensive industrial robotic arms and unnecessary custom fabrication.

Any ideas, examples, videos or existing products we could reference would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

[u/amc7262]

Start with your standard scraper, now imagine you've taken a long piece of fabric, the same width as the scraper, and pulled it over the blade of the scraper so its taught, and most of the fabric is on the underside. Now imagine the scraper moving forward to scrape, but as that motion happens, the fabric is pulled across the blade and back over the top of the scraper, such that a given point on the fabric stays still relative to a given point on the cooking surface. The resulting action is the scraper moving forward, but as it moves under the pancake, the pancake experiences no forward pushing. As the scraper moves under the pancake, the fabric surface touching the pancake stays still.

Here is a video of the mechanism in action. I've seen it most often applied to cleaning up viscous liquids like ketchup.

[u/November996 → u/amc7262]

Oh I've seen this before but because there is no oil on the pan you kind of need to scrape the pancake off. And it'll be another set of challenge should there be 2 moving parts...

[u/mossconfig → u/November996]

Perhaps a silicone spatula on a nonstick pan, or add oil, and shrink the pancake to the size your spatula can handle?

[u/Handpicked77]

You need a flexible spatula. The metal is gonna tear up the pancake unless it's at exactly the right angle, and even then it's gonna destroy your cooking surface. I would try something silicone.

[u/Comfortable-Sound944]

There is a very common omelette/pancake maker in USA hotels and I think some in EU when they call it continental breakfast... It runs on a conveyor belt, they fall off to unstick. They are probably cooked more from the top rather than bottom like fast food cheap pizzas, burgers and similar but small plastic... Than you catch it in a funnel to aim it where you want. So you basically cook it above the dumplings sealing device, and you could also fall the filling from above

[u/ital-is-vital]

Your robot arm has a whole degree of freedom that you're not using!

Make it hold the spatula 90 degrees to how it currently holds it.

This allows you to come in MUCH lower/flatter relative to the surface of the pan, and scoop the pancake up by rotating the base rather than extending the arm. Look up 'reverse kinematics'.

You probably don't even need to re-print the spatula holder, just undo the bolt and slap the spatula on top of the holder for now.

It also allows you to flip the pancake if you wanted to.

Or just bend your spatula up by about 30 degrees, but this is not as elegant.

[u/Zorkdork]

could you cook the pancake on a silicone sheet that's connected to the arm, or like on a larger scraper so you eliminate the transfer problem entirely?

[u/Braided_Marxist]

Seems like it would do tortillas better 😅 kidding lol I find this very cool - couldn’t you have another arm slide a cover over though?

I was going to complain about the not browned top but the fold is a nice touch

[u/Dotjiff]

A pea is the last thing I would put inside a pancake

[u/Trick_Clerk_4006]

How about no robot arm. Just tilt the pan you are cooking the pancake on. If it slides at the right angle put some guard rails so it fall right into the folding machine. When it slides it is also and indication the pancake is ready and not wet at the bottom.

[u/OldGuarantee6606 → u/Trick_Clerk_4006]

Tilting is a great call, way fewer moving parts than an arm. You could pair it with a thin silicone baking mat on the cooking surface so the pancake releases cleanly without oil. A small puff of compressed air at the edge as it tilts would help kick it off if it sticks at all.

[u/sccccrrrrt]

Why is there no oil? Why does the batter come from a bottle?

[u/iRebelD]

No, I want my 1:10 back. A pea in a pancake? Seriously!?

[u/orangina_it_burns → u/iRebelD]

It’s a pea snack!

[u/Asleep-Shoe-6336]

This sucks lmao