GB1454087A - Food cutting apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

1454087 Cutting fruit and vegetables HOBART CORP 23 Oct 1973 [23 Oct 1972] 49368/73 Heading A4C [Also in Divisions B1-B2] Apparatus for cutting fruit and vegetables, particularly potatoes, or other food articles comprises a slicer blade 25, removable strip blades 40 for cutting the food slices into strips and a removable rotatable cutter 45 having L-shaped knives 46 on its periphery for cutting the strips into cubes, a separation vane 50, Fig. 4, being provided to separate the cut food particles from food scraps, discharged on different trajectories. Food articles 31, Fig. 1, are rotated by driving means 27 around a chamber 11 in scoops 34 of a feed member 30 and pressed against and cut by slicer blade 25 located adjacent a passage 20 through a door 15 over a port 16 in the chamber, the blade guiding the slices through a discharge outlet 36 of the passage, a comb blade 39 directing them to circular strip blades 40 removably mounted on door 15 adjacent discharge 36. The cutting edges of knives 46 of cutter 45, also mounted on door 15 are circumferentially spaced at distances greater than the food slices thicknesses so that the food cubes fall from the knives. The cubes are discharged from the rotating cutter on one trajectory and the food scraps discharged subsequently from a different rotational position of the cutter, and thus on a different trajectory, cubes being discharged generally vertically and scraps generally horizontally. The separation vane 50 is pivoted at 51 relative to the cutter 45. Alternatively, the vane may be mounted in a housing near the cutter 45 to provide a first opening at a first position round the cutter to receive food cubes and a second opening at a second position to receive food scraps. The Specification states that the cutter 45 may be removed to produce strips only, or the strip blades 40 removed, the cutter producing crosswise strips which may be separated from scraps by the vane. Both the cutter and the strip blades are said to be removable to produce slices only.