MXPA99003442A - Method and apparatus for cutting a product into pieces - Google Patents

Abstract

Se describe un método para cortar productos agrícolas u hortícolas, específicamente lechuga,que comprende las etapas de:alimentar los productos a un primer sitio, en el primer sitio cortar los productos en una primera dirección en rebanadas que tienen una primera orientación, transferir los productos a un segundo sitio, en el segundo sitio cortar las rebanadas en una segunda dirección que encierra unángulo con su primera orientación y descargar los productos cortados dos veces, en donde los productos son alimentados, transferidos y descargados por medio de la fuerza de la gravedad.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The invention is generally concerned with the field of food processing / more specifically with a method and apparatus for cutting, dicing, slicing, cubing successively agricultural or horticultural products such as these. like lettuce in desired pieces and of variable shapes and sizes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION There is presently a huge growing market for pre-cut and pre-packaged lettuce. There is a wide variety of types of lettuce used, which include the so-called "green vegetables" that tend to be thin leaf lettuce so different from the lettuce. »However, a main component of many pre-cut salads, pre -packaged is the lettuce, the main one of which is the long lettuce. Lettuce is a very sensitive agricultural product. It can be easily bruised or crushed during handling, which makes it essentially non-salable. Impact cutting, which involves moving a blade blade, wire or other implement against a head of lettuce tends to bruise or shred the lettuce in the cut. In addition, the lettuce needs to be cut in what is called a REF. 30043"salad cut" which are square pieces of about 3.8 cm (1 1/2 inch) on one edge. The international patent publication WO 96/26283 describes a device for cutting hard meat and vegetable products into cubes or strips. This prior art cutting device comprises an upper assembly and a lower horizontally reciprocating knife cartridge assembly, with each cartridge carrying halves of interlaced knives and the blades of the upper cartridges being perpendicular to those of the lower cartridges. The products to be cut are fed by gravity through the device. Since the cutting motion is horizontal, the shearing force does not have a stretching component in the products to be cut, so that the device is not suitable for cutting light weight products such as lettuce. A similar device is described in the European patent specification 0 366 441. The food cutting apparatus of this prior art document, which is specifically designed to cut relatively hard vegetable products such as tomatoes or cucumbers, comprises a compression element for force or propel the products through the reciprocating blades and thus is not suitable for use with fragile products such as lettuce.

Finally, US Pat. No. 3, 587, 687 describes an apparatus for cutting lettuce heads into random or disordered sizes and shapes for use in salads in such a way that the cut pieces appear cut by hand. This prior art apparatus comprises an upper assembly and a lower assembly of rotating cutting blades resembling propellers arranged at right angles to each other. Neither is this device designed nor is it suitable for cutting lettuce into regular pieces or pieces.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION One of the important objects of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus that allow the fibers of soft, medium or hard fibrous products to be cut, sliced, cut into platelets and / or cubes without crushing or bruising the products to the eliminate the stages of "impact or retention of momentary pressure". The invention also aims to provide an apparatus that is particularly efficient in cutting, slicing, cutting into platelets and / or cubes of pre-packaged salad ingredients, such as long lettuce, cabbage or cabbage, radishes, carrots, endives or endives, leaf lettuce, romaine, etc. Additional objects of the invention reside in providing an apparatus that offers advantages with respect to the design and construction, result, efficient cutting, slicing, cutting into platelets and / cubes without any bruising or crushing, inherent in the prior art, due to impact or momentary pressure retention stages and hitherto to unknown heights of product uniformity. It is among the objects of the invention to provide a high speed cutting assembly that provides a clean cut for products suitable for pre-cut lettuce, pre-packaged for salads. It is another object to provide a cutter that can be put into operation essentially continuously in a processing plant operation or in the field. According to a first aspect, the invention provides a method for cutting agricultural or horticultural products, specifically lettuce, in which the products are fed to a first site where they are cut in a first direction into slices having a first orientation. Then the products are transferred to a second site where slices are cut in a second direction that covers an angle with its first orientation, after which the products cut twice are unloaded. In the method of the invention the products are fed, transferred and discharged by means of the force of gravity. The products are preferably washed during the cutting thereof.

A second aspect of the invention is the provision of an apparatus for cutting agricultural or horticultural products, specifically lettuce, comprising a box consisting of at least one product supply opening and at least one product discharge opening. First cutting elements are mounted in the box at a first site and are arranged to cut the products in a first direction and second cutting means are mounted on the box at a second site which is at a lower level than the first site. and arranged to cut the products in a second direction that encloses an angle with the first direction. The first and second cutting elements each comprise at least one axis carrying a plurality of spaced apart, substantially parallel rotating cutting blades. In a preferred embodiment, the first and second cutting elements each comprise two spaced apart substantially parallel axes, each of the axes carrying the plurality of cutting blades. The cutting blades of the opposite axes intertwine and are counter-rotating. In addition, squeezing or cleaning elements are preferably arranged between adjacent cutting blades on each axis, the cleaning elements of the opposite axes jointly define a passage or passage for the products between the cutting blades which can be funnel-shaped in side view or substantially cylindrical. In a preferred embodiment of the invention the box comprises means or elements for introducing a washing fluid thereto. Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent after the description summarized hereinafter is considered in conjunction with the drawings appended hereto.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings which show various embodiments thereof, similar parts are indicated by the same reference numerals. In the drawings: Figure 1 is a schematic perspective view showing the principles of the apparatus of the invention; Figure 2 is an elevation view of a first embodiment of the lettuce cutter of the invention; Figure 3 is a front elevational view of the lettuce cutter shown in Figure 2; Figure 4 is a schematic perspective view of the squeezing or cleansing means of the cutter of Figures 2 and 3; Figures 5 and 6 are views corresponding to Figures 2 and 3 showing an alternative embodiment of the lettuce cutter; Figure 7 is a schematic perspective view of the cylindrical squeezing means of the cutter of Figures 5 and 6; and Figure 7A is a detailed perspective view of an alternative top portion of the squeezing or cleaning means of Figure 7.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The following detailed description illustrates the invention by way of example, not by way of limitation of the principles of the invention. The description will clearly enable those skilled in the art to make and use the invention and describe various embodiments, adaptations, variations, alternatives and uses of the invention, including what is considered herein as the best mode for carrying out the invention. With reference to Figure 1, the lettuce cutting apparatus 1 comprises a box 40 mounted on adjustable legs 46. Mounted above the box 40 of the cutter is a conveyor and optional preliminary cutting elements 3 in which a pre-cut knife 4 is included. The long lettuce heads 2 are fed to the hopper 30 (Figure 2) at the inlet end of the conveyor assembly 3. As shown in Figure 2, they travel from right to left where they could be cut into two halves 5 by the optional pre-cut knife 4. The pre-cut blade is a single blade mounted vertically on a horizontal axis and arranged on the V-shaped supply conveyor 26 in such a way as to bisect the V-shape of the conveyor as seen in Figure 3. The pre-cut sheet is driven by a motor 22. The two halves 5 or the whole heads of lettuce 2 are then projected from the conveyor 26 in the form of a mobile V to the opening 41 for supplying the product and from here to the first cutting elements 7. The first cutting elements comprise 2 sets of counter-rotating cutting blades 6. These are mounted as shown on axes 31, 31 'parallel horizontals which are energized by the motors 23, 23'. These leaves are generally very thin and quite large, they are normally of the order of 40.64-50.8 cm (16-20 inches) in diameter. The sheets can be provided with an antifriction coating. As best seen in Figure 3, the sheets are interlaced and counter-rotating such that the head of lettuce is fed into the space between rollers and accelerated. The angular cleaning or squeezing elements or guiding fingers 38, 39 help to ensure that the lettuce is contained within the intersecting space of the counter-rotating blade assemblies. The second cutting elements 8 are arranged below the first cutting elements 6 and also comprise 2 sets of interlocking counter-rotating blades 12 arranged on parallel axes 13, 14 and driven by motors 32, 33 respectively. The axes 13, 14 of the second cutting elements are perpendicular to the axes 31, 31 'of the first cutting elements and the same applies, of course, to the respective leaves 7 and 12. Below the second cutting elements the box comprises an opening or discharge outlet 10 of the product arranged in a side wall and a conveyor belt 9 of transverse discharge that is energized by a motor 25 and that leads to the outlet. As an example and how it looks best in the figure 3, the right set of blades on the first cutting elements includes five blades adjusted to 7.6 cm (3 inches) apart. The left set also includes five sheets that are interlaced between the right set such that the separation between the sheets is 2.5 to 3.8 cm (1 to 1 1/2 inch) that corresponds to the desired cut size for a salad cut pre-packaged After the lettuce has been cut once into strips of 3.8 cm (1 1/2 inches) it falls by gravity to the space between rollers of the counter-rotating blades 8 of the second cutting elements, which have a similar spacing . In it the already cut or sliced product is cut in a direction that is perpendicular to that of the first cutting elements. Then the lettuce is discharged on a side discharge conveyor belt 9 discharged through the outlet box 10 on a conveyor 11 starting. Figure 3 illustrates that the conveyor assembly 26 comprises two conveyor belts 36 and 27 which may be inclined at an angle of about 45 degrees to form a V to shake the head of lettuce 2 as it passes through the blade 4 of pre-cut. These two conveyors are energized by the motors 20 and 21. The preliminary cut assembly conveniently has an access door 47 for servicing the blade 4 and the conveyor assembly 26. Figure 3 also shows angular interlocked hands 38, 39 which are conveniently made of plastic or metal materials guiding the lettuce through the upper and lower cutting elements 6,8 respectively. The cleaning hands can be manufactured integrally from the sheet material 15 which includes slots 16, 17 for the sheets, as shown in Figure 4. The hands 38, 39 are formed in such a way as to define a funnel. Although not illustrated, similar hands can be arranged between the blades of the lower cutting means or second cutting elements. In an alternative embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 5, 6 and 7, the wiper elements can be part of a slotted cylindrical element 18 or 19 respectively. This cylindrical element, like the funnel-shaped hands of figures 2, 3 and 4, serve to guide the lettuce through the cutting blades. The upper cylindrical element 18 can also be provided with a funnel-shaped inlet portion 24 as shown in Figure 7A. In order to provide hygiene to the products in the cut, the apparatus 1 includes means 28 for introducing a washing fluid into the box 40, as shown in Figure 2. The fluid introduction means are for applying spray water, fog or rinse over products and leaves. The term "water" as used herein is also intended to cover chlorinated water or water that includes any other chemical compound approved for application to foods, for example ozone. The "water" is used not only for the hygiene of the products but also for the hygiene of all the parts of the appliance that come in contact with the products, in particular the leaves and also for rinsing any cutting juice that originates from the products cut. The "water" also serves to "lubricate" the cutting blades, to result in a more uniform cut. The speed of the blade is of the order of 500 revolutions per minute and the maximum travel speed of the input power band is approximately 30.5 meters (100 feet) per minute. Note that the counter-rotating blades 7 of the first cutting elements 6 are oriented 90 degrees to the direction of travel of the heads 2 coming from the strip 26 in Figures 2, 3, 5 and 6. It should be understood that various modifications within the The scope of this invention can be realized by those of ordinary skill in the art without deviating from the spirit of the present. For example, while preferably all the motors used in the device of this invention are hydraulic motors, equally preferred embodiments may use pneumatic or electric motors. Also the cutting surfaces of the sheets can have various configurations. Although smooth edge sheets are shown in the drawings, also the use of serrated sheets can be contemplated. Accordingly, it is desired that the invention be defined by the scope of the appended claims as broadly as the prior art allows and in view of the specification if necessary. It is noted that, in relation to this date, the best method known to the applicant to carry out the aforementioned invention, is that which is clear from the present description of the invention.

Claims (14)

1. Claims Having described the invention as above, the content of the following claims is claimed as property: 1. A method for cutting agricultural or horticultural products, specifically lettuce, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: - supplying the products to a first site, - in the first place cut the products in a first direction in slices that have a first orientation, - transfer the products to a second site, - in the second site, cut the slices in a second direction that encloses an angle with its first orientation and - Download the products cut twice, where the products are supplied, transferred and unloaded by force of gravity.
2. 2. The method of compliance with the claim 1, characterized in that the second cutting direction is substantially perpendicular to the first direction.
3. 3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the products are washed during cutting thereof.
4. An apparatus for cutting agricultural or horticultural products, specifically lettuce, characterized in that it comprises: - a box comprising at least one opening for supplying the product and at least one opening for unloading the product, - first cutting elements mounted on the box in a first place and arranged to cut the products in a first direction and - second cutting elements mounted in the box in a second site which is at a lower level to the first site and arranged to cut the products in a second direction that it encloses an angle with the first direction, wherein the first and second cutting elements each comprise at least one axis carrying a plurality of rotational cutting blades spaced apart substantially substantially parallel.
5. The apparatus according to claim 4, characterized in that the second cutting elements are arranged directly below the first cutting elements.
6. 6. The apparatus according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that the cutting blades of the first cutting elements are arranged substantially perpendicular to the cutting blades of the second cutting elements.
7. The apparatus according to any of claims 4-6, characterized in that the first and second cutting elements each comprise at least 2 spaced apart, substantially parallel axes, each of the axes carries the plurality of cutting elements, Cutting blades of the opposite axes intertwine and are counter-rotating.
8. The apparatus according to any of claims 4-7, characterized in that cleaning or squeezing elements are arranged between adjacent cutting blades on each axis.
9. The apparatus according to claim 8, characterized in that the cleaning elements on opposite axes jointly define a passage or passage for the products between the cutting blades which is funnel-shaped in side view.
10. The apparatus according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that the wiper elements of the opposite shafts together define a substantially cylindrical passage for the products between the cutting blades
11. 11. The apparatus according to any of the claims 4- 10, characterized in that the box comprises means for introducing a washing fluid therein
12. 12. The apparatus according to any of claims 4-11, characterized in that it also comprises preliminary cutting means arranged upstream of the first cutting elements.
13. 13. The apparatus according to any of claims 4-12, characterized in that it further comprises means for supplying the products to the product supply opening, the supply means comprise at least one conveyor having an end on the opening of the product. supply of the product
14. 14. The apparatus according to claim 13, characterized in that the supply conveyor is V-shaped and the preliminary cutting elements comprise a pre-cut sheet arranged on the supply conveyor to bisect the V-shape of the conveyor.