Food processing vat
AssigneeDamrow Company, Inc.
InventorJeffrey L. Jay
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A cheese processing vat of the type having a pair of interconnected generally cylindrical wall portions with agitator panels rotating therein to sweep generally cylindrical volumes includes agitator panels which have radially inner edge portions spaced radially outwardly from the axis of panel rotation, and the axes of rotation of the two panels are spaced at a distance less than the radius of the volumes swept by the panels. In this manner, the overlap in the volumes swept by the respective panels permits the radially outer edge portion of one panel to pass through the normally quiescent space at and beyond the axis of rotation of the other panel. A unique divergent cutting blade orientation provides beneficial cross cutting of the cheese mass during processing.
Claims21
In a food processing vat having a pair of interconnected generally cylindrical wall portions with horizontally disposed axes, the axes of the generally cylindrical wall portion positioned in parallel horizontally spaced relation, and common upper and lower walls and opposite end walls forming with the generally cylindrical wall portions an enclosed vat having a generally oval cross section in a plane perpendicular to said axis, the improvement comprising:
- an open-framed agitator panel rotatably mounted on the axis of each wall portion to sweep a generally cylindrical volume, each of said panels having a radially outer edge portion positioned to move along and closely adjacent a cylindrical wall portion, and a radially inner edge portion generally parallel to said outer edge portion and spaced radially from the axis of panel rotation;
- and,
- the axes of rotation of the panels being spaced at a distance less than the radius of the volumes swept by the panels to provide an overlap in the volumes swept by the respective panels and to allow the radially outer edge portion of one panel to pass during rotation through the space between the radially inner edge portion of the other panel and the axis of rotation of said other panel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.