Hard material collector assembly for a grinder

Abstract

A meat grinder including an orifice plate mounted to a housing outlet. The orifice plate having a series of outer grinding passages through which soft material passes and a series of spaced hard material collection passages toward the center of the orifice plate. A ramped entryway is formed in the orifice plate adjacent each collection passage and defines a structure for facilitating the routing of hard material into the collection passages. A bushing is mounted within the opening formed in the orifice plate for receiving a centering shaft which is interconnected with a feed screw extending through the housing. A key-and-keyway structure is interposed between the bushing and the orifice plate. A retaining ring is threadedly engaged with the bushing for maintaining the bushing and an adaptor in position relative to the orifice plate. A discharge auger is mounted to the end of the centering shaft and extends through the collection cavity for rotation along with the feed screw and the centering shaft. The housing has ribs or flutes to ensure axial movement of the hard material upon rotation of the discharge auger. A discharge tube is removably connected to the collection housing and a series of nozzle inserts are engageable with the discharge tube for controlling the flow rate of the hard material therethrough by providing differently sized passages for restricting the discharge of the hard material from the collection housing.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.