Machines and methods for cutting products to produce reduced-size products therefrom
AssigneeUrschel Laboratories, Inc.
InventorsNicholas Alan Underwood, Shawn Christopher Boylstein, Mark Allen Martin, Luc Van Buynder, James A. Fant
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Machines and methods suitable for performing cutting operations on a product to yield a reduced-size product, for example, slicing and strip-cutting elongate food products. Such a method includes introducing a product into an impeller, rotating the impeller to form at least a first longitudinal cut through the product with a slicing knife and produce therefrom a sliced product, and producing strip-cut products from the sliced product by forming at least a second longitudinal cut that is substantially perpendicular to the first longitudinal cut made with the slicing knife.
Claims8
A machine for cutting products, the machine comprising:
- a casing comprising a circumferential wall, a circumferential opening in the wall, an adjustable slice gate that partially closes the opening, and a slicing knife oriented parallel to an axis of the casing and having a cutting edge, the slice gate having a gate edge that is adjacent the cutting edge of the slicing knife, the cutting edge and the gate edge having a radial distance therebetween to define therewith a gate opening, the slice gate having a surface facing an interior of the casing and having a plurality of channels defined therein that are circumferentially oriented with respect to the casing and continuous to and including the gate edge;
- an impeller within the casing and having a rotational axis about which the impeller rotates within the casing to cause a product within the impeller to be held by centrifugal force against the wall of the casing and held by centrifugal force within one of the channels of the slice gate 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
- 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.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.