Manufacture of vegetable chips
AssigneeFrito-Lay Trading Company GmbH
InventorAhmed Khan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for cutting vegetable slices that includes a central impeller coaxially mounted with a cutting head for rotation about an axis within the cutting head for delivering vegetables radially outwardly from a center of the impeller toward the cutting head. A water jet spray device is mounted at the base of the impeller, aligned with the axis, and includes a raised mound having an outer wall surrounding an inner wall defining a central depression, the outer wall extending downwardly and outwardly from an annular rim between the central depression and the outer wall, and a plurality of substantially radially oriented channels serially provided around the raised mound, each channel extending outwardly from a channel inlet within the central depression to a channel outlet in the outer wall.
Claims19
An apparatus for cutting vegetable slices comprising:
- an annular-shaped cutting head, a plurality of knives serially mounted around the cutting head, each knife having a cutting edge extending substantially upwardly and spaced from the cutting head to provide a gap, extending in a radial direction, between the cutting edge and the cutting head,
- a central impeller coaxially mounted with the cutting head for rotation about an axis within the cutting head for delivering vegetables radially outwardly from a center of the impeller toward the cutting head, the impeller having a base with an upper surface across which vegetables are, in use, delivered to the cutting head, a cover having a vegetable supply opening fitted above the base, and a plurality of radially oriented impeller blades serially mounted within the impeller between the base and the cover to define a plurality of cutting zones located around the impeller, each cutting zone being between adjacent radially oriented impeller blades, and
- a water jet spray device mounted at the base of the impeller and aligned with the axis, the water jet spray device comprising a raised mound having an outer wall surrounding an inner wall defining a central depression, the outer wall extending downwardly and outwardly from an annular rim between the central depression and the outer wall, and a plurality of substantially radially oriented channels serially provided around the raised mound, each channel extending outwardly from a channel inlet within the central depression to a channel outlet in the outer wall.
A method of producing vegetable slices for the manufacture of vegetable chips, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing an apparatus according to any foregoing claim;
- (b) feeding vegetables into the impeller through the vegetable supply opening, the impeller rotating to deliver the vegetables radially outwardly toward the cutting head by a centrifugal force into the cutting zones;
- and
- (c) feeding a stream of water into the impeller to direct the stream downwardly onto the water jet spray device, wherein the stream impacts the central depression to form a plurality of water jets, each water jet passing radially outwardly through a respective channel;
- and
- (d) cutting each vegetable into slices by the plurality of knives.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.