This disclosure relates generally to apparatuses for providing alternative power sources to drive a food grinder. More specifically, this disclosure relates to apparatuses and processes for providing a grain grinder with alternative power sources, with the grain grinder and the alternative power sources mounted on a single base.
There are many different types of grinders for foods, such as grains, including wheat, barley, oats, buckwheat, field corn, beans, and dried rice. Some grinders are electrically powered, whether by standard wall voltage or by battery. Other grinders are powered by hand, foot, or both. Electrically-powered grinders are often preferred because of the ease and continuity of operation. However, when an electrical source is not available, or an electric motor becomes inoperable, then a manually powered grinder is a necessity.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,690,092 (Jenkins et al.) discloses a nut grinder that includes an auger, a stationary grinding plate, and a rotatable grinding plate configured to grind nuts. The auger and rotatable grinding plate receive rotational power from a v-shaped pulley connected to a drive shaft. A belt connects the v-shaped pulley to a manually powered pulley or, alternately, to a separate motor.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,939,025 (Palmer) discloses a small grinding mill having a drive shaft coupling alternately connected to a hand crank for manual power or to the output shaft of a small motor for electrical power. The motor used in Palmer includes a support arm that presses against the motor housing to prevent the motor from moving or rotating while powering the drive shaft of the grinding mill.
Various other contraptions have been provided that connect a stationary bicycle, treadmill, exercise machine, or the like via a v-belt to a grinder pulley to provide manual power to a grinder in the event that a motor fails, for example, because of a power outage or damage to the motor. Many problems arise with such mechanical arrangements, such as providing and maintaining correct belt tension between the machine and the grinder, trying to prevent slippage of a belt connected to a pulley, v-belt turn-over in the pulleys because of improper installation, broken or worn-out belts, and, in the event of an electrical outage, struggling in the dark to locate and properly connect such mechanical devices to a grinder.
An apparatus is provided in a unitary configuration of a food grinding system that includes a food grinder, a manual power source, and an electrical power source (e.g., an electric motor), wherein the food grinder, the manual power source (which may also be referred to as a “manually driven unit”), and the electrical power source are mounted on or otherwise carried by a single base.
In addition, a food grinding system is provided with a food grinder having a sprocket wheel for alternately connecting to a sprocket wheel on an electric motor or to a sprocket wheel on a manual power source, these components of the food grinding system being mounted on or otherwise carried by a common base.
Moreover, a food grinding system is provided with a food grinder having a grinder rotary mechanism thereon for alternately connecting to a motor rotary mechanism on an electric motor or to a manual rotary mechanism on a manual power source, these components of the food grinding system being mounted on or otherwise carried by a common base.
In addition, a food grinding system is provided for maintaining proper tension in the connections between components of the system (e.g., a food grinder and an electric motor or manual power source on the same base) and preventing slippage of the connections.
Other aspects of the disclosed subject matter, as well as features and advantages of various aspects of the disclosed subject matter, will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art through consideration of the ensuing disclosure, the accompanying drawings, and the appended claims.
In the drawings:
In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosed apparatuses, systems, and methods. It will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the disclosed embodiments may be practiced without these specific details.
Reference in the specification to “an example” or similar language means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the example is included in at least that one example, but not necessarily in other examples.
The following description provides examples or embodiments of new and useful apparatuses and processes for alternately connecting a food grinder to a manual power source and an electrical power source, both of which are mounted on or otherwise carried by the same base as the food grinder.
Referring to
The food grinder 12 may include a top receptacle 11 for receiving any type of grain or other food to be processed. A grinder unit 13 may be located below an opening of the top receptacle 11 and may contain suitable grinding equipment (not shown) for processing the food. The grinder unit 13 may include a grinder shaft assembly 13a protruding from the front and the back of the grinder unit 13. A front outlet 13b is also shown which may provide the resulting product of the grinding process.
The manual power source 16 may comprise a drive sprocket wheel 40 with an outer sprocket piece 42 connected to a grinder sprocket wheel 26 on the food grinder 12 via a chain 44. An inner sprocket piece 41 (e.g., a smaller sprocket, as depicted; a larger sprocket; etc.) may also be included on the wheel of the manual power source 16 to change the rotational ratio between the wheel of the manual power source 16 and the grinder sprocket wheel 26.
The electric motor 14 and food grinder 12 may be mounted on the vertical plate 21, which is situated on the raised horizontal platform 20 of the base 18, abutting the front side 21a of the vertical plate 21. The manual power source 16 may be mounted on a vertical post 22, which may be part of the vertical plate 21 or positioned adjacent to the vertical plate 21. A gear head reducer 15 may be mounted on the electric motor 14 for adapting the speed of the motor rotation to the speed needed for the motor shaft (not shown here) to rotate the grinder shaft (not shown here).
The drive sprocket wheel 40 may be connected to the food grinder 12 by chain 44 to supply power to operate the food grinder 12. The drive sprocket wheel 40 may include an outer sprocket piece 42 (shown in
The first pedal 46 and second pedal 47 may be manually rotated by hands or feet, as desired. If rotated by feet, a conventional seat or stool (not shown) may be provided for the convenience of the person providing the manual rotation. It should be understood that the pedal system described in
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The diameters of the motor sprocket wheel 24 and the grinder sprocket wheel 26 may be sized to a desired ratio that may enable the proper translation of rotation from the motor sprocket wheel 24 to the grinder sprocket wheel 26. In one embodiment of the description the ratio of the motor sprocket wheel 24 to the grinder sprocket wheel 26 may about 1 to 2, that is, by way of example, twenty (20) teeth on the motor sprocket wheel 24 and forty (40) teeth on the grinder sprocket wheel 29. However, any other useful ratio may be used.
A chain 30 may be connected between the motor sprocket wheel 26 and the grinder sprocket wheel 28. The chain 30 may comprise a plurality of links 32 that may include openings (not shown). The openings may be large enough to accommodate the teeth 25 of the motor sprocket wheel 24 and the teeth (not shown) of the grinder sprocket wheel 26.
It should be understood that the electric motor 14 may be of the type that can be connected to any available power source, such as a 110 V alternating current (AC) power supply, a 240 V AC power supply, or one or more batteries, including using a transformer, as needed. Moreover, the power source may be from a capacitor or other power storage device that may derive its power from a natural energy source, such as solar panels, wind, or fluid powered devices.
The motor sprocket wheel 24, the grinder sprocket wheel 26, and the drive sprocket wheel 40 may be any type of rotatable unit having conventional apparatuses thereon adapted to move a chain, belt, or other linkage having conventional apparatus thereon to accept the conventional apparatus of the rotatable unit.
Referring to
As an alternative embodiment,
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Referring to
The food grinders 12 (
The electric motors 14 (
The drive sprocket wheels 40 (
A conventional rubber base (not shown) may be placed beneath the horizontal platforms 19 (
Another embodiment of food grinding system 90 is shown in
Specifically, referring to
The food grinder 96 may be mounted to a raised platform 102, which may in turn be mounted to a horizontal platform 103. The v-belt drive wheel 98 may be mounted on a vertical pole 104, the vertical pole 104 being also mounted to the raised platform 102 or extend from the horizontal platform 103 and through the raised platform 102.
In this embodiment, power may be supplied from the pedals 99 and 100 to the v-belt drive wheel 98 and through the v-belt 92, which may rotate the v-belt grinder wheel 94. The v-belt 92 may have conventional cogged wedges 93, such as an XPA cogged wedge v-belt, for added traction in the v-belt grinder wheel 94 and the v-belt drive wheel 98. The v-belt grinder wheel 94, the v-belt drive wheel 98, and the v-belt 92 are all conventional and may be obtained on the open market.
It should be understood that the scope of the present disclosure is meant to include any type of conventional belt, rope, cable, or other connector that may be used to connect the drive wheels or pulleys of the electric motor 14 (
Referring now to
As seen in
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Referring now to
The guard 140 may similarly be used with the electrically-driven portion of the embodiment of the food grinding system 10 shown in
The guard 140 may similarly be used with the v-belt embodiment of the food grinding system 10 depicted by
Although not shown here, the same v-belt pulleys connected by a common v-belt may be used to transmit power from an electric motor having a v-belt pulley output to a v-belt pulley mounted on a food grinder, in a manner similar to the sprocket embodiment.
Although various embodiments are shown having capability of transmitting manual or electrical power to a food grinder, it should be understood that other types of power transmission devices may be use for the same purpose. For example, other sprocket and chain driven devices may be used with sprocket connectors to transmit power from electric or manual power sources to a food grinder. Likewise other types and shapes of pulleys and belts may be used instead of v-belt pulleys and v-belts or sprocket wheels and sprocket chains.
One advantage of the present embodiments is that all components of the food grinding system may be mounted to or otherwise carried by the same base and are thereby readily available in case of an emergency. This is particularly advantageous when the normal house power supply goes out and manual operation is essential. In such case, it is likely that lighting may be very limited, so having all the components of the food grind system mounted on one platform eliminates the possibility of having to search in the dark for missing components.
Another advantage for one of the present embodiments is the use of sprockets and interlocking chains to eliminate slippage in the connections between the food grinder and the power supplies.
Another advantage for one of the present embodiments is that the use of chains having interlocking links instead of the use of belts, thereby reducing belt wear, twisting and breakage.
Yet another advantage of the present embodiments is the option of adjusting the distance from the food grinder to the electric or manual power supplies, to thereby adjust tension on the connecting chains as desired.
Still another advantage of the present embodiments is the option of applying either hand enabled power or foot enabled power to the manual power source.
Yet another advantage is to provide a belt and pulleys to provide manual and electrical power to the grinder.
Yet another advantage is to provide a cogged v-belt for added traction in v-belt pulleys.
Yet another advantage of the present embodiments is the use of conventional components that can easily be replaced as needed.
Another advantage of the present embodiments is the use of a chain or belt guard to protect against inadvertent harm to a user caused by contact with the chain or belt.
Although the preceding disclosure provides many specifics, these are merely examples and should not be construed as limiting the scope of any of the ensuing claims. Other embodiments may be devised which do not depart from the scopes of the claims. Features from different embodiments may be employed in combination. The scope of each claim is, therefore, indicated and limited only by its plain language and the full scope of available legal equivalents to its elements.