Cutter hub with replaceable knife blades for underwater pelletizer
AssigneeGala Industries, Inc.
InventorHovey S. Altenburg
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A cutter hub for use in an underwater pelletizer such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,123,207, issued Oct. 31, 1978, which includes a replaceable, double or single edged blade attached to each arm of the hub with a major portion of the length of the blade being attached to and supported by the arm on the hub thereby resulting in less axial deflection with increased cutting pressure, since the rigid hub arm carries the rotational stress without deflection of the critical blade cutting surface. This arrangement produces higher quality pellets, fewer knife adjustments, reduces the radial wear pattern on the pellet die plate, permits the use of thinner, less costly blades and permits the use of single edged or double-edged blade with a useable second side.
Claims9
A cutter hub for a pelletizer comprising a hub body adapted to be mounted on a drive shaft, a plurality of radially outwardly extending, circumferentially spaced supporting arms rigid with the hub body and a blade mounted on each of said arms and extending axially toward a die plate for cutting pellets extruded through the die plate, each blade including a beveled side edge defining a cutting edge for association with the die plate, each of said arms being elongated and engaging and supporting a blade over substantially the entire radial extent of the blade thereby rigidly supporting the blade and resisting axial deflection of the outer end portion of the blade away from the die plate.
In combination with an underwater pelletizer having a die plate with passageways arranged in generally circular configuration through which pellet forming material is extruded in an axial direction, a drive shaft generally aligned with the center of the die plate and a cutter assembly mounted on and driven by said shaft to cut pellets from one axial surface of the die plate, that improvement in which the cutter assembly comprises a hub provided with a plurality of outwardly extending arms in generally parallel relation to the die plate and extending outwardly to a point adjacent the die plate passageways, and a blade mounted on each arm and projecting axially therefrom toward the die plate, each blade including an elongated cutting edge paralleling and associated with the axial face of the die plate to cut the extruded material into pellets as the extruded material exits axially from the passageways in the die plate and the hub is rotated.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.