An increasing number of food products are processed before arriving on a consumer's plate. A variety of fruits and vegetables, for example, are cut or shaped and then frozen or otherwise preserved for later use. In order to meet the demand for processed food products and efficiently produce large quantities of such products, the food industry utilizes various equipment for rapidly processing large amounts of foodstuff.
The Detailed Description is described with reference to the accompanying figures.
Aspects of the disclosure are described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and which show, by way of illustration, example features. The features can, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the combinations set forth herein; rather, these combinations are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope. Among other things, the features of the disclosure can be embodied as formulations, food products, processes, processes for making food products, and processes for making formulations. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense.
Referring generally to
As described, vegetables can be cut by the food cutter(s) 104 in a first direction (e.g., along a longitudinal axis 202 of a potato, as illustrated in
Components of the food product carrier 102 can be arranged circumferentially around an axis of rotation 106. Each food cutter 104 can have one or more cutting elements or knives 108 (e.g., ring knives 108 as illustrated in
In some embodiments, one or more knives 108 can be supported by a mounting plate 112. The knives 108 can be fastened (e.g., bolted, welded) to ribs 114 of the mounting plate 112. For example, ring knives 108 can be tack welded to ribs 114 of a mounting plate 112. Additionally, various components of the pusher 110 can be supported by another mounting plate 116. For example, the pusher 110 can include one or more ejector plates 118 connected to the mounting plate 116 by elongate supports/guide rods 120. The guide rods 120 and the ejector plate(s) 118 can be configured to travel between adjacent segments of a knife 108 (e.g., in the case of a spiral knife 108) and/or between multiple discrete knives 108 (e.g., in the case of a stack of ring knives 108).
In some embodiments, the mounting plate 112 can be supported by a mounting block 122 fixedly connected to the food product carrier 102, while the mounting plate 116 can be slidably coupled with the food product carrier 102. In some embodiments, the ejectors plate(s) 118 can be fixedly attached (e.g., bolted, welded) to the guide rods 120, and the guide rods 120 can be fixedly connected (e.g., bolted, welded) to the mounting plate 116. The guide rods 120 can also be slidably coupled with and supported by the mounting block 122 (e.g., using one or more bearings 124). It should be noted that the guide rods 120 and the ejector plate(s) 118 are provided by way of example and are not meant to limit the present disclosure. In other embodiments, different ejectors may be used, including ejector blocks that are mounted to a mounting plate 116 and move between adjacent segments of a knife 108 and/or between multiple discrete knives 108.
The food product 200 (e.g., a potato) can be moved from a food product supply device 126 (e.g., a tapered tube carrying a water-fed food product stream) and dispensed radially into engagement with the food cutters 104. In some embodiments, the water-fed product stream can be operated at between about nine hundred (900) gallons per minute (gpm) and about one thousand two hundred (1,200) gpm at pressures between about fifteen (15) pounds per square inch (psi) and about twenty (20) psi. In operation, the food product carrier 102 moves around the axis of rotation 106, pausing to allow the food product 200 to enter at the food cutter 104. In some embodiments, the food product carrier 102 can be paused for about one-half (0.5) second or more.
Then, the food product carrier 102 rotates, allowing the next food product 200 (e.g., another potato) to enter the next food cutter 104. In some embodiments, the food product carrier 102 can rotate at a rate of between about thirty (30) revolutions per minute (rpm) and about fifty rpm. As the food product carrier 102 rotates, an ejector (e.g., a cam) incrementally extends and pushes the potato out of engagement with the food cutter 104. For instance, a food product cutting system 100 can include one or more tracks 128 (e.g., an upper cam track, a lower cam track) oriented generally circularly with respect to the food product carrier 102 and about the axis of rotation 106. It should be noted that the operating ranges of the water-fed product stream and the pause time and rotation rate of the product carrier are provided by way of example and are not meant to limit the present disclosure. In other embodiments, food product cutting systems 100 can be operated at different flow rates, pressures, pause times, revolutions per minute, and so forth.
In embodiments, the track(s) 128 can be arranged at varying radial distances D1, D2, etc. (
In embodiments of the disclosure, the food product cutting system 100 includes one or more stationary slicing knives 136 disposed in a generally tangential orientation with respect to the direction of travel of the food cutters 104. The slicing knives 136 are configured for slicing the food product 200 as the food product carrier 102 rotates and the food product 200 is incrementally or gradually pushed out of engagement with the food cutter 104. In this manner, the food product 200 can be cut in the second direction (e.g., perpendicular to the longitudinal axis 202 of the potato) to form slices. The slicing knives 136 can have various blade shapes, including, but not necessarily limited to: straight blade shapes, curved or C-shaped blades, V-shaped blades, W-shaped blades and so forth. For instance, the potato shapes illustrated in
It should be noted that while the description provided herein uses examples where the food product carrier 102 of the food product cutting system 100 rotates relative to stationary slicing knives 136 on a stationary track 128, these examples are not meant to limit the present disclosure. The terms “stationary” and “rotation” shall be understood to refer to the relative motions of the food product carrier 102 and the slicing knives 136 with respect to one another and not with respect to another frame of reference, such as the ground. For example, in other embodiments, the food product carrier 102 may be fixed in place with respect to the ground, and the slicing knives 136 may rotate around an axis of rotation with respect to the ground. In other embodiments, both the food product carrier 102 and the slicing knives 136 may move with respect to another frame of reference, such as the ground.
Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.
The present application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/871,911, filed Jul. 9, 2019, and titled “HYDRO-MECHANICAL CUTTER.” The present application is also a continuation-in-part under 35 U.S.C. § 120 of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 29/694,748, filed Jun. 13, 2019, and titled “CUTTER FOR FOOD PRODUCTS;” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 29/694,753, filed Jun. 13, 2019, and titled “PUSHER FOR FOOD PRODUCTS CUTTER;” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 29/694,754, filed Jun. 13, 2019, and titled “CUTTER FOR FOOD PRODUCTS;” and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 29/694,758, filed Jun. 13, 2019, and titled “PUSHER FOR FOOD PRODUCTS CUTTER.” U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/871,911 and U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 29/694,748; 29/694,753; 29/694,754; and 29/694,758 are herein incorporated by reference in their entireties.
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Notification of Transmittal of the Internationalsearch Report and the Written Opinion of the International Searching Authority,or the Declaration dated Oct. 30, 2020 for App. No. PCT/US2020/041330. |
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20200391400 A1 | Dec 2020 | US |
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62871911 | Jul 2019 | US |
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Parent | 29694753 | Jun 2019 | US |
Child | 16924453 | US | |
Parent | 29694754 | Jun 2019 | US |
Child | 29694753 | US | |
Parent | 29694758 | Jun 2019 | US |
Child | 29694754 | US | |
Parent | 29694748 | Jun 2019 | US |
Child | 29694758 | US |