Size-reduction machines, feed units therefor, and methods of use
AssigneeUrschel Laboratories, Inc.
InventorsScott Alan Klockow, Nicholas Alan Underwood, Rudiger Heinrich Stenger
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Size-reduction machines, feed units, and methods capable of producing reduced-size products from a variety of solid and semisolid materials. Such machines have an impeller that rotates on an approximately horizontal axis and an opening at an axial end of the impeller. A feed unit includes a feed hopper for feeding products to an interior of the impeller through the opening of the machine, and a slicing knife is mounted to the impeller and radially protrudes across the opening of the machine to slice products into segments as they enter the interior of the impeller.
Claims14
A feed unit for a size-reduction machine, the machine having an impeller that rotates on an approximately horizontal axis and an opening at an axial end of the impeller, the feed unit comprising:
- a feed hopper for feeding products to an interior of the impeller through the opening of the machine;
- a shear plate between the feed hopper and the impeller, the shear plate having a passage therein that defines a passage opening in the shear plate through which the products enter the interior of the impeller from the feed hopper, the passage opening being smaller than the opening of the machine and offset from the horizontal axis of the impeller;
- and
- a slicing knife that is mounted to a plate ring of the impeller that surrounds the opening of the machine, the slicing knife being cantilevered from the plate ring and radially protrudes inward from the plate ring across a limited portion of the opening of the machine so that the slicing knife travels along a circular path and cyclically passes across the passage opening in the shear plate with each rotation of the impeller, the slicing knife having a cutting edge that slices segments from each product as the product enters the interior of the impeller through the passage.
A size-reduction machine comprising:
- an impeller that rotates on an approximately horizontal axis;
- an opening at an axial end of the impeller;
- a feed unit comprising a feed hopper for feeding products to an interior of the impeller;
- a shear plate between the feed hopper and the impeller, the shear plate having a passage therein that defines a passage opening in the shear plate through which the products enter the interior of the impeller from the feed hopper, the passage opening being smaller than the opening of the machine and offset from the horizontal axis of the impeller;
- and
- a slicing knife that is mounted to a plate ring of the impeller that surrounds the opening of the machine, the slicing knife being cantilevered from the plate ring and radially protrudes inward from the plate ring across a limited portion of the opening of the machine so that the slicing knife travels along a circular path and cyclically passes across the passage opening in the shear plate with each rotation of the impeller, the slicing knife having a cutting edge that slices segments from each product as the product enters the interior of the impeller through the passage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.