Machines and methods for cutting products to produce reduced-size products therefrom

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10442102-B2
Application number	US-201715411172-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 20, 2017
Priority date	May 1, 2015
Publication date	Oct 15, 2019
Grant date	Oct 15, 2019

Abstract

Machines and methods suitable for performing cutting operations on products to yield a reduced-size product, for example, slicing and strip-cutting elongate food products. Such a method includes simultaneously delivering products to annular-shaped cavities of a rotating impeller. The products are simultaneously delivered with a feed unit that has a feed chute extension that protrudes into an interior of the impeller. The feed chute extension defines feed chutes that are aligned with the annular-shaped cavities of the impeller and direct the products to circumferential series of pockets within the annular-shaped cavities. The products are held within the pockets by centrifugal force as the products are carried past a slicing knife to form a first longitudinal cut through each of the products during a rotation of the impeller and to produce therefrom a substantially longitudinally sliced product.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A machine for cutting products, the machine comprising:
a casing comprising a circumferential wall and a slicing knife disposed in the wall;
an impeller within the casing and having a rotational axis about which the impeller rotates within the casing to cause a product within an interior of the impeller to be held by centrifugal force against the wall of the casing as the product is carried past the slicing knife to form a cut through the product during a rotation of the impeller, the impeller comprising multiple rings that are axially-spaced and concentric in relation to the rotational axis of the impeller to delineate multiple annular-shaped cavities within the impeller that are parallel to each other and axially-spaced and concentric relative to the rotational axis of the impeller, the impeller further comprising paddles oriented transverse to the annular-shaped cavities to define within each annular-shaped cavity a circumferential series of pockets that are circumferentially oriented with respect to the casing so that the product is circumferentially oriented with respect to the casing and the cut through the product is a first longitudinal cut and a substantially longitudinally sliced product is produced; and
a feed unit adapted to simultaneously deliver a plurality of the product to the annular-shaped cavities of the impeller, the feed unit comprising a feed chute unit that defines multiple feed troughs, the feed chute unit comprising a feed chute extension that protrudes into the interior of the impeller, the feed chute extension comprising feed chutes that are each configured to deliver a portion of the product to at least one of the annular-shaped cavities of the impeller.

2. The machine according to claim 1 , wherein the multiple feed troughs define linear paths that are disposed at an acute angle to the rotational axis of the impeller.

3. The machine according to claim 2 , wherein the feed chutes define arcuate paths to perform a final alignment of the products with the annular-shaped cavities of the impeller.

4. The machine according to claim 3 , wherein the products are reoriented by each feed chute an angle equal to about ninety degrees minus the acute angle of the multiple feed troughs.

5. The machine according to claim 1 , wherein each of the feed chutes is aligned with one of the multiple feed troughs.

6. The machine according to claim 1 , wherein each of the feed chutes is aligned with more than one of the annular-shaped cavities of the impeller.

7. The machine according to claim 1 , wherein the feed unit is a vibrating feed unit.

8. The machine according to claim 1 , wherein the casing further comprises a circumferential opening in the wall and an adjustable slice gate that partially closes the opening, the slicing knife being oriented parallel to the rotational axis of the impeller and to an adjacent edge of the slice gate to define therewith a gate opening.

9. The machine according to claim 8 , wherein the slice gate has a surface facing an interior of the casing and a plurality of channels defined in the surface that are circumferentially oriented with respect to the casing.

10. The machine according to claim 9 , wherein each of the channels of the slice gate is individually circumferentially aligned with one of the annular-shaped cavities of the impeller.

11. The machine according to claim 1 , wherein the slicing knife is configured and arranged so that the first longitudinal cut formed by the slicing knife is a halving cut and the sliced product is a substantially longitudinally-halved sliced product.

12. The machine according to claim 1 , further comprising circular knives oriented substantially perpendicular to the slicing knife and adapted to form at least a second longitudinal cut through the sliced product to produce strip-cut products.

13. The machine according to claim 12 , wherein the circular knives are configured and arranged so that a single second longitudinal cut is produced with the circular knives through the sliced product and the single second longitudinal cut is substantially perpendicular to the first longitudinal cut made with the slicing knife.

14. The machine according to claim 12 , wherein the circular knives are configured and arranged so that a plurality of second longitudinal cuts are produced with the circular knives through the sliced product and each of the plurality of second longitudinal cuts is substantially perpendicular to the first longitudinal cut made with the slicing knife.

Assignees

• Urschel Laboratories Inc

Inventors

• Van Buynder Luc
• Underwood Nicholas Alan
• Boylstein Shawn Christopher
• Martin Mark Allen
• Fant James A
• Jacko Michael Scot

Classifications

• B26D3/18

  to obtain cubes or the like (ice harvesting F25C5/02) · CPC title

• B26D9/00

  Cutting apparatus combined with punching or perforating apparatus or with dissimilar cutting apparatus · CPC title

• B26D3/28

  Splitting layers from work; Mutually separating layers by cutting (B26D3/30 takes precedence; Recovery of plastics or other constituents of waste material containing plastics B29B17/00) · CPC title

• B26D2210/02

  for cutting food products, e.g. food slicers · CPC title

• B26D7/0641

  using chutes, hoppers, magazines · CPC title