GB2074882A

GB2074882A - A Food Pounder

Info

Publication number: GB2074882A
Application number: GB8112146A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd
Current assignee: Panasonic Holdings Corp
Priority date: 1980-04-23
Filing date: 1981-04-16
Publication date: 1981-11-11
Also published as: JPS56151012A; JPS6040291B2; GB2074882B

Abstract

A food pounder comprises a container 4 for receiving a material to be processed, and a rotary member 8 mounted on a rotary drive shaft 7 projecting into the container through the bottom thereof and provided with a plurality of blades 12, 13 with a small clearance between them and the inner peripheral surface of the container, each of the blades 12, 13 being inclined with respect to a vertical plane passing through its radially outer end and the drive shaft 7 in such a way that its radially outer end is positioned ahead of its radially inner end in the direction of rotation X of the rotary member 8. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION "Food Pounder" The present invention relates to a rotary food pounder in which a cooking material is stirred to be processed by turning a rotary member on a rotary shaft provided at the bottom of a container.

Various food processors of the above type have heretofore been devised for processing a cooking material, such as glutinous rice or wheat flour, by agitating it. However, such a processor if adopted to process potato or pulse in the same way, has the drawback of not being able to uniformly mash the material due to the lack of stickiness of the material; that is, some grains of the material remain uncrushed. Further the insufficient stickiness of the material allows itself to frequently scatter onto the inner surface of the container, consequently subjecting the rotary member to idle rotation. Thus the intended cooking of the material cannot be fully achieved with the conventional processor.

The primary object of the present invention, in view of the above drawbacks, is to provide a food pounder which is adapted for agitationprocessing potato and pulse in addition to a sticky material such as glutinous rice and the like.

In order to fulfil this object, the present invention provides a food pounder comprising a container for receiving a material to be processed, and a rotary member mounted on a rotary drive shaft projecting into the container through the bottom thereof and provided with a plurality of blades with a small clearance between them and the inner peripheral surface of the container, each of the blades being inclined with respect to a vertical plane passing through its radially outer end and the drive shaft in such a way that its radially outer end is positioned ahead of its radially inner end in the direction of rotation of the rotary member.

With the construction described above, since a cooking material, either of sticky or non-sticky nature, is directed toward the center of the container by the inclination of the blades while being effectively stirred by the blades, the pounder is free of idle operation and ensures the contemplated processing of the material.

Various features and effects of the present invention becomes apparent from the description of an embodiment given with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a view in vertical section of a food pounder embodying the invention, Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing the rotary member of the same, and Fig. 3 is plan view showing the principal portions of the same.

Referring to the drawings, a main body 1 supports a steam generating tank 3 via an angle plate 2. A container 4 fixedly provided under the botton thereof with a mounting cap 5 is detachably mounted on the tank 3 with a packing 6 interposed therebetween by bringing the peripheral portion of the cap 5 into bayonet engagement with the opening periphery of the tank 3. A rotary drive shaft 7 driven by an electric motor (not illustrated) extends through the tank 3 and cap 5 into the container 4 and has its upper end provided with a rotary member 8 adjacent the bottom of the container 4.

The rotary member 8, as best illustrated in Fig.

2, comprises as a unitary piece a base portion 9 to be mounted on the upper end of the shaft 7, arms 10 0 and 11 horizontally extending from the base portion 10 in opposite directions, and blades 12 and 13 extending vertically upward from the arms 10 and 11 respectively. The blades 12 and 13 are symmetrical with respect to the drive shaft 7.

As shown in Fig. 3, each of the blades 12 and 13 is inclined by an angle 0 (00 ( < 900) with respect to a vetical plane passing through its radially outer end and the drive shaft 7, i.e., through points POQ. Therefore the radially outer end of the blade is always positioned ahead of the radially inner end of the blade when the rotary member 8 revolves in the direction X. The distance A between the radially outer end of the blade and the inner peripheral surface of the container 4 is set smaller than the radial length B of the blade obtained by subtracting the distance between the radially inner end of the blade and the drive shaft 7 from the distance between the radially outer end of the blade and the drive shaft 7.The distance C between the radially inner ends of the two blades 12 and 13, on the other hand, is set not less than twice as large as the radial length B.

With the food pounder arranged as above, a cooking material 14, such as potato or pulse, is agitation-processed in the following manner.

The material 14 is first placed in the container 4 and heated with steam generated in the steam generating tank 3. Subsequently the material is pounded by the blades by energizing the electric motor to rotate the rotary member 8 in the direction X via the drive shaft 7. At this time, since the blades 1 2 and 13 are inclined as described hereinbefore, the material 14 is forced centerward and whirls between the radially inner ends of the blades. The whirling material is then forced upward and falls onto the blades to be mashed again. It is to be noted here that since the clearance A is set at a small value, there is substantially no possibility that the material stays on the inner surface of the container 4 after being scattered thereto, with the result that the rotary member 8 is in no way subjected to idle rotation and that the material is uniformly stirred and crushed.

The present invention is not limited to the illustrated example but can be modified in various ways within the scope of the appended claims in which the phrase "the radial length of the blade" should be understood to mean a length obtained by subtracting the distance between the radially inner end of the blade and the drive shaft from the distance between the radially outer end of the blade and the drive shaft.

Claims

1. A food pounder comprising a container for receiving a material to be processed, and a rotary member mounted on a rotary drive shaft projecting into the container through the bottom thereof and provided with a plurality of blades with a small clearance between them and the inner peripheral surface of the container, each of the blades being inclined with respect to a vertical plane passing through its radially outer end and the drive shaft in such a way that its radially outer end is positioned ahead of its radially inner end in the direction of rotation of the rotary member.

2. A pounder as defined in claim 1 wherein the blades are arranged at equal angular intervals arround the drive shaft.

3. A pounder as defined in claim 1 wherein said clearance is smaller than the radial length of the blade.

4. A pounder as defined in claim 1 or 3 wherein the distance between the drive shaft and radially inner end of the blade is not less than the radial length of the blade.

5. A pounder as defined in claim 1 wherein the blade extends vertically upward with respect to the bottom of the container.

6. A pounder as defined in claim 1 further comprising a steam generating unit beneath and in communication with the container for pretreating the material with steam.

7. A food pounder substantially as described herein with reference to and as illustrated in Figures 1 to 3 of the accompanying drawings.