Product Pushers for Food-Product Slicers and Food-Product Slicers Including Such Product Pushers
AssigneeEdlund Company, LLC
InventorRyan S. Whitney
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A food-product pusher that includes features that adapt and optimize the pusher to the configuration of the blade set used to cut food-product into multiple slices during a cutting operation. In some embodiments, the pusher includes a pusher head having pushing region configured to highly stabilize the food product during the cutting operation. In some embodiments, the pusher head is configured to minimize the amount of material needed for making the pusher head. Pusher heads having monolithic construction and pushers having modular construction are also disclosed.
Claims20
A food-product pusher designed and configured to be part of a food-product slicer that has a thrust axis and includes a blade set having a plurality of cutting blades spaced to create a plurality of slices of a food product during a cutting operation that occurs along a thrust axis, the food-product pusher comprising:
- a push axis;
- a base designed and configured for engaging the food-product pusher to the food-product slicer so that said push axis is parallel to the thrust axis of the food-product slicer;
- and
- a pusher head secured to said base and including a plurality of fingers designed, configured, and spaced apart in an interdigitating direction to allow said plurality of fingers to interdigitatingly extending through the blade set during the cutting operation when the food-product pusher is engaged with the food-product slicer, said plurality of fingers having a corresponding plurality of pushing ends defining a concave shape in a plane parallel to said interdigitating direction and parallel to said push axis.
A food-product slicer designed and configured to create a plurality of slices of a food product during a cutting operation, the food-product slicer comprising:
- a blade set that includes a plurality of cutting blades spaced to create the plurality of slices;
- a thrust axis along which cutting of the food product occurs during the slicing operation;
- and
- a food-product pusher that includes:
- a push axis;
- a pusher base engaging the food-product pusher to the food-product slicer so that said push axis is parallel to said thrust axis;
- and
- a pusher head secured to said base and including a plurality of fingers designed, configured, and spaced apart in an interdigitating direction to allow said plurality of fingers to interdigitatingly extending through said blade set during the cutting operation, said plurality of fingers having a corresponding plurality of pushing ends defining a concave shape in a plane parallel to said interdigitating direction and parallel to said push axis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.