Cheese shredder apparatus

An improvement in an apparatus for forming a block of cheese into a plurality of relatively small shreds, said apparatus including an elongated cheese chamber having longitudinally-extending side and floor surfaces for slidingly-engaging said block of cheese, an extrusion grid plate at the downstream end of said elongated cheese chamber, and ram means for forcing said block of cheese in a downstream direction at a predetermined speed through said extrusion grid plate, the improvement comprising both:

• (i) a rotatable shredder assembly sited immediately downstream of, and in longitudinal abutment with, said extrusion grid plate, said extrusion grid plate terminating in a flanged disc having a central longitudinally-extending hollow hub, said rotatable shredder assembly comprising the combination of a shredder disc support wheel which is secured to a shaft which is external to said elongated cheese chamber and which is rotatably disposed within said longitudinally-extending hollow hub downstream of said extrusion grid plate, said shredder disc support wheel including a plurality of circumferentially-spaced-apart tabs which project downwardly from the periphery thereof and are spaced from a front face of said shredder disc support wheel, and a shredder disc of essentially the same diameter as said shredder disc support wheel having a like plurality of flat circumferential areas, whereby said shredder disc is removably secured to said shredder disc support wheel by placing said shredder disc wheel on said front face of said shredder disc support wheel and rotating said shredder disc until said flat circumferential areas are locked behind said tabs, rotation of said combined shredder disc support wheel/shredder disc serving to shred each of said extruded cheese pieces as they emerge from said extrusion grid plate to divide said extruded cheese pieces into a plurality of discrete shreds;
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• (ii) said ram means comprising a combined, unitary hydraulic/pneumatic cylinder, including an upstream air chamber and a downstream hydraulic chamber in the same cylinder, divided by a piston having a downstream extending piston rod which is connected to a cheese pusher plate assembly, a connection from a source of air under pressure to said upstream air chamber to initiate a power pressure stroke, a hydraulic connection between said hydraulic chamber and a hydraulic reservoir, and a source of air under pressure to said downstream hydraulic chamber to urge said hydraulic fluid from said downstream hydraulic chamber into said hydraulic reservoir in a power return stroke.