GB2500277A

GB2500277A - Cheese Grater

Info

Publication number: GB2500277A
Application number: GB201209872A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Robert Zeiderman
Original assignee: LONDON CHINA Co Ltd
Current assignee: LONDON CHINA Co Ltd
Priority date: 2012-02-04
Filing date: 2012-06-01
Publication date: 2013-09-18
Also published as: GB201201950D0; GB201209872D0

Abstract

The present invention provides a compact/ hand held grater/mill for grating cheese or other food items, wherein the grater has a body housing a motor M and an axial drive shaft 7 coupled to a cutting head H, preferably a rotary mesh foil/ cutting blade with apertures, the body housing one or more batteries within the body to power the motor. The one or more batteries are advantageously rechargeable batteries and with a recharging socket on/ within the body to energise the batteries. The batteries are housed parallel to/ alongside the axis of the drive shaft and may be housed in a module that also houses the motor. The device has a drive train/ gear assembly G that is housed in the body coupled to the drive shaft whereby the grater has an enhanced torque and is enabled to grate even soft cheeses.

Description

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Cheese Grater

Field of the Invention

The present invention concerns improvements in and relating to hand-held/ compact graters for grating cheese or other food items.

Background of the Invention

Hand-held cheese graters are generally compact devices with a proximal handle section for grip and with a grating head at one end, normally the distal end remote from the handle end, the grating head usually having a mesh foil/ cutting blade structure with apertures for grated cheese to pass through to enter a holding chamber or drop to a bowl or plate placed below the device in use. Commonly the device is hand-powered with the mesh foil/ cutting blade being cylindrical and made to revolve around a cheese block being pressed into it.

Electric motor-powered cheese graters are generally bulkier machines that generally are multifunctional food processors and reliant on mains power to drive them. In recent years compact, handheld battery-powered cheese graters have been developed but a major problem with the existing compact, handheld battery-powered cheese graters is that they lack the power, speed and stamina to be a popular kitchen accessory. They are appreciated by some, including the disabled, for their convenience in grating hard cheeses but they are not much more efficient than manually driven graters, are useless for soft cheeses and regularly take too long to do the job and can run out of power too easily.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved compact battery-powered grater for grating cheese or other food items that addresses the problems of the prior art.

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Summary of the Invention

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a compact/ hand held grater/mill for grating cheese or other food items, wherein the grater has a body housing a motor and an axial drive shaft coupled to a cutting head (preferably a rotary mesh foil/ cutting blade with apertures), the body housing one or more batteries within the body to power the motor. The one or more batteries are advantageously rechargeable batteries and preferably with a recharging socket on/ within the body to energise the batteries. The batteries are preferably housed parallel to/ alongside the axis of the drive shaft and may be housed in a module that also houses the motor. The batteries are preferably of the order of 300mA capacity and hold enough charge to grate cheeses for 50 minutes to an hour.

A particularly important feature of a preferred embodiment of the device is a drive train/ gear assembly that is housed in the body coupled to the drive shaft to increase the torque delivered from the battery-powered electric motor to the cutting head. With the drive train/ gear assembly the grater is able to grate not only the harder cheeses such as parmesan or mature Cheddar but also much softer cheeses that normally respond badly to a rotating or reciprocating cutting head and tend to smear and congeal the blade apertures.

The drive train/ gear assembly suitably has three or more gears and the gears preferably are of nylon which may be of the order of 3mm thick. The torque achieved at the drive shaft/ cutting head is of the order of 200 to 300Nm free running or 80 to 150 when cutting foods such as cheese. The motor suitably is 2.5-3W and 15,000 to 16,000rpm while the gear assembly reduces the drive shaft rotation to of the order of 15 rpm at the cutting head. In other words the gear assembly/ drive train's overall gear ratio suitably provides step down in rotation speed in the order of 1000 to 1. The drive shaft suitably is of the order of 90mm long and 6mm diameter.

The body of the grater is a modular assembly comprising a plurality of modular compartments that slot together in the axial direction of the grater drive shaft. The drive shaft itself extends along the central axis of the body and projects

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down through a food holding chamber of the grater. Further inventive features of the grater will become apparent from the description and drawings that follow.

The invention as described and illustrated provides an affordable, compact, relatively efficient and powerful and reliable solution to the aforementioned problems major of the prior art.

Brief Description of the Drawings

A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be more particularly described, solely by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a side view of the cheese grater;

Figure 2 is a longitudinal sectional through the cheese grater along the line X-X in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a perspective view of a motor compartment module of the cheese grater body;

Figure 4 is a perspective view of an intermediate body casing module of the cheese grater body, the turrets of which hold compression plungers;

Figure 5 is a perspective view of a cheese compressing module of the cheese grater body with spring-loaded plungers;

Figure 6 is a perspective view of a cheese holding module of the cheese grater body, to hold the cheese that is compressed by the compression plates of the compression plungers against the disc-shaped rotating cutting head;

Figure 7 is a perspective view of the cheese grater with cap and intermediate casing module removed and motor compartment module part cut-away to show the drive train/ gear assembly; and

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Figure 8 is a perspective view corresponding to Figure 7 and with the food holding module removed.

Description of the Preferred Embodiment

Referring firstly to Figure 1, the illustrated embodiment comprises a substantially circular cylindrical body 1 that houses the grater mechanism and which is divided into a series of modules/ compartments. The modules/ compartments slide together end-to-end and apart again after use for ease of assembly and disassembly, facilitating cleaning of the cutting end and maintenance of the electric motor drive end and replacement of the rechargeable batteries B that power the electric motor M.

The proximal/ topmost end of the device body 1 as seen in Figure 1 is a demountable domed first/proximal end casing/ cap 2. Nested into this domed cap 2 under the dome is a motor compartment module 20 that has mounted in it the electric motor M. The electric motor M drives the cutting head H of the grater at the distal end of the device via a drive shaft 7 and drive gear assembly G (shown schematically in Figure 2 and in detail in Figures 7 and 8).

Motor compartment module 20 has an integral partition wall structure 20b spanning across the body 1 that has a central aperture 20c for the drive shaft 7 and a pair of turret formations 20d that flank either side of the drive shaft. In an arc around one side of the motor compartment module 20 is a battery holder BH for holding a set of rechargeable batteries B for powering the electric motor M.

The batteries B are charged/ re-charged with energy from a mains electric power supply by a cable that is inserted into a charging socket S in the body of the grater that in this embodiment is accessed by removing the cap 2. The charging socket S may be configured to provide electrical power to the electric motor directly even if the batteries B are removed. The operation of the grater is activated by an on-off push button S3, which in this embodiment is in a turret S2 that projects upwardly from a central region of the motor compartment module 20 up to the cap 2.

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The motor compartment module 20 is supported by an intermediate casing module 3 of the body 1 that has a circular cylindrical outer casing wall 3a and which also has an integral partition wall structure 3b spanning across the body 1 with a central aperture 3c for the drive shaft 7 and a pair of turret formations 3d that flank either side of the drive shaft 7. The intermediate casing module 3 houses the drive gear assembly G that steps up the torque from the motor M for enhancing the grating/ milling action of the grater. The turret formations 3d of the intermediate casing module 3 nest into the turret formations 20d of the motor compartment module 20 and each houses a tubular plunger column 8a of a plunger module 8 (see Figure 5).

Plunger module 8 moves axially down the grater body 1 in use and the plate at the lower end of each plunger column 8a serves to push the cheese or other food to be grated/ milled into the cutting head H of the grater. Plunger module 8 may be driven to move downwardly by resilient biasing means/ compressed springs bearing down on the upper/ proximal ends of the columns 8a. In other variants it may be driven, eg by the gear assembly G, to be screwed down toward the cutting head H of the grater, or may be configured to be pushed down towards the cutting head H of the grater by the user, telescoping the device to collapse together and compressing the cheese into the cutting blades of the cutting head H.

The distal end of the grater body 1 comprises a cheese/ food holding module 9, forming a chamber to hold the cheese that is compressed by the compression plates of the compression plunger module 8 against the disc-shaped rotating cutting head H with its bladed cutting apertures so that the cheese is grated and dispensed through the cutting head H. Cheese/ food holding module 9 has a circular cylindrical outer casing wall 9a and an integral vertical partition wall structure 9b spanning across the body 1 with a central turret with aperture 9c for the drive shaft 7 to pass through. The vertical partition wall 9b/ baffle divides the food chamber of cheese/ food holding module 9 for better holding of the cheese to prevent its rotation as the rotary cutting head H grinds down against the cheese. When combined with the enhanced torque from the gear assembly, the

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grating efficiency of the apparatus is exceptional and even soft cheese can be grated.

A cylindrical distal module 4 forms an outer wall that encompasses the cheese/ food holding module 9 therewithin. Below the distal module 4 and food holding module 9 is a bottom end cap 60 or preferably, in use, a cylindrical container 6 (Figure 1) to catch the grated cheese as it falls from the device.

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Claims

1. A compact/ hand held grater/mill for grating cheese or other food items, wherein the grater has a body housing a motor and an axial drive shaft coupled to a cutting head the body housing one or more batteries within the body to power the motor, the one or more batteries being rechargeable batteries and with a recharging socket on/ within the body to energise the batteries.

2. A compact/ hand held grater/mill as claimed in claim 1, wherein the batteries are housed parallel to/ alongside the axis of the drive shaft.

3. A compact/ hand held grater/mill as claimed in claim 2, wherein the batteries are housed in a module that also houses the motor.

4. A compact/ hand held grater/mill as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the grater/mill has a drive train/ gear assembly that is housed in the body coupled to the drive shaft to increase the torque delivered from the battery-powered electric motor to the cutting head.

5. A compact/ hand held grater/mill for grating cheese or other food items, wherein the grater has a body housing a motor and an axial drive shaft coupled to a cutting head the body housing one or more batteries within the body to power the motor, and having a drive train/ gear assembly housed in the body coupled to the drive shaft to increase the torque delivered from the battery-powered electric motor to the cutting head.

6. A compact/ hand held grater/mill as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the body of the grater is a modular assembly comprising a plurality of modular compartments that slot together in the axial direction of the grater drive shaft.

7. A compact/ hand held grater/mill as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the drive train/ gear assembly has three or more gears.

8. A compact/ hand held grater/mill as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the drive train/ gear assembly has gears of nylon.

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9. A compact/ hand held grater/mill as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the drive train/ gear assembly provides torque at the drive shaft/ cutting head of the order of 200 to 300Nm free running or 80 to 150 when cutting foods such as cheese.

10. A compact/ hand held grater/mill as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the drive train/ gear assembly provides an overall step down in rotation speed from the motor to the cutting head in a ratio of the order of 1000 to 1.

11. A compact/ hand held grater/mill substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.