Food product slicer with gauge plate based shutdown operation
AssigneePremark FEG L.L.C.
InventorsSamuel A. Rummel, Shahram Shariff
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A food product slicer includes a carriage assembly is mounted to the base for reciprocal movement back and forth past a cutting edge of a knife. An adjustable gauge plate provides variable slice thickness for food product carried by the carriage assembly. During automatic slicing, when the gauge plate is moved from the open position to the closed position, a slicer controller automatically shuts down the carriage drive in a controlled manner that causes the carriage to stop at its most forward position.
Claims9
In a slicer including a rotatable knife, a carriage assembly mounted for reciprocal movement back and forth past a cutting edge of the knife, the carriage assembly having a full stroke length that extends from a most forward position toward a front side of the base and a end of stroke turnaround position toward a rear side of the base, a drive for automatically moving the carriage for automated food product slicing, and a gauge plate having closed and open positions, a method of operating the slicer, comprising the steps of:
- automatically moving the carriage assembly back and forth for automated slicing while the gauge plate is open;
- detecting closure of the gauge plate;
- responsive to detected closure of the gauge plate, automatically effecting a shutdown operation during which the drive is controlled to bring the carriage assembly to a stop at a location substantially corresponding to the most forward position of the carriage assembly.
In a slicer including a rotatable knife, a carriage assembly mounted for reciprocal movement back and forth past a cutting edge of the knife, a drive for automatically moving the carriage for automated food product slicing, and a gauge plate having closed and open positions, a method of operating the slicer, comprising the steps of:
- (1) automatically moving the carriage assembly back and forth for automated slicing while the gauge plate is open;
- (2) detecting closure of the gauge plate during step (1);
- (3) responsive to detected closure of the gauge plate, automatically bringing the carriage assembly to a stop at a location substantially corresponding to a most forward position of the carriage assembly.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.