Apparatus and methods for cutting cheese

In a method for cutting cheese blocks into portions, including:

• (a) making one or more longitudinal cuts to divide the width and/or depth of the block;
• and
• (b) making plural transverse cuts to divide the length of the block;
• the improvement comprising:
• making the one or more longitudinal cuts as the cheese blocks move in a longitudinal direction so as to form a set of longitudinal sticks;
• making the plural transverse cuts transverse in space to the longitudinal cutting direction by presenting the longitudinal sticks together as a set at a transverse cutting station which makes the transverse cuts through the set;
• making the transverse cuts successively so as to form successive sets of portions;
• and
• separating the sets of portions from a residue of the set of sticks.

Apparatus for cutting cheese blocks into portions, the apparatus comprising:

• conveyors adapted to receive an incoming cheese block and move the cheese block in a conveying direction along a processing path for cutting;
• measurement sensors for measuring the weight and dimensions of the cheese block on the processing path;
• a longitudinal cutting system arranged to make one or more longitudinal cuts dividing the width and/or depth of the cheese on the processing path, so as to create sets of side-by-side longitudinal sticks;
• a transverse cutter arranged to make plural transverse cuts dividing the length of each stick set at controlled spacings to create sets of portions, the conveyors including a stick set conveyor operable to convey successive sets from the longitudinal cutting system and present them as stick sets to the transverse cutter, wherein the transverse cutter is operable to make transverse cuts for a given stick set successively to create successive sets of portions;
• and
• a control processor operable to determine a disposition of cuts made by the longitudinal cutting system and/or the transverse cutter in dependence on the measured weight and dimensions, wherein the measurement sensors and the control processor determine at least a weight and length for the stick set and operate to determine the controlled spacings of the transverse cuts in dependence on those data.

In a method for cutting cheese blocks into portions, including:

• (a) making one or more longitudinal cuts to divide the width and/or depth of the block;
• and
• (b) making plural transverse cuts to divide the length of the block;
• the improvement comprising:
• making the one or more longitudinal cuts so as to form a set of longitudinal sticks;
• measuring the length and/or weight of each set of sticks and using a control processor to determine a spacing of the transverse cuts in dependence on those data;
• making the plural transverse cuts by presenting the longitudinal sticks together as a set at a transverse cutting station which makes the transverse cuts through the set;
• making the transverse cuts successively so as to form successive sets of portions;
• and
• separating the sets of portions from a residue of the set of sticks.