US1309525A - Cheese-ctjed mill - Google Patents

Description

C. JUNKER.

CHEESE CURD MILL.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 5. 1919.

1,309,525. Patented July 8, 1919.

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UNITE CHARLES JUNKER, 0F MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN.

CHEESE-CURB MILL.

Application filed April 5, 1919.

T 0 all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, CHARLES JUNKER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Mil waukee, in the county of Milwaukee and State of WVisconsin, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Cheese- Curd Mills, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, formmg a part thereof.

This invention relates to machines of the class shown and described in United States Letters Patent No. 971,506 issued to me September 27, 1910, for cutting cheese curd into small cubes or pieces, preparatory to pressing in hoops.

The main objects of the invention are to reduce the weight of such machines and make them less cumbersome, so that they can be more easily transferred from one cheese vat to another; to more evenly distribute the load and make them lighter running and easier to operate; to provide for feeding the machine from either end; and generally to improve the construction and operation of machines of this class.

It consists in the construction, arrangement and combination of parts as hereinafter particularly described and pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawing like characters designate the same parts in the several figures.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a cheesecurd mill embodying the invention; Fig. 2 is a vertical cross section of the same on the line 2-2, Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a plan view of the mill; and Fig. 4 is a vertical longitudinal section of the mill on the line M, Fig. 3.

The mill comprises a portable frame consisting of two metal side members 1, which are provided with bearings for the mechanism of the mill, and cross-sills 2, which may be made of wood, connecting the side members 1 at the ends, and adapted to support the mill on cheese vats in connection with which it is used.

A main drive shaft 4, mounted in bearings on the frame members 1, is provided adjacent to the outer sides of said members, with fixed gears 5 and 6. This shaft is provided at one end with a crank, pulley or gear (not shown) for operating the mill by hand or power. A cylindrical roller 7 which may be made of wood or other suitable material, is loosely mounted on the shaft 4, between the frame members 1v At one end the roller 7 1s Specification of Letters latent.

Patented July 8, 1919.

Serial No 287,714.

provided with a gear 8, meshing with a similar gear 9, fixed on a shaft 10, mounted in bearings 11, on the frame members 1, horizontally opposite and parallel with the shaft 1. The gear 6 meshes with a larger gear 13, fixed on the shaft 10, driving said shaft at a slower rate of speed than the main shaft 4, as for example, one revolution of the shaft 10 to two revolutions of the shaft 4.

Circular slitting knives 15 are removably and adj ustably mounted on the shaft 10 with spacing collars 16 between them. The bear ings 11 are adjusted by screws 18 threaded in lugs on the frame members 1, and are socured in adjusted position by bolts 19, so that the cutting edges of the knives 15 will properly cotiperate with the roller 7, the knives and roller being rotated at the same peripheral speed by the gears 8 and 9.

A stationary doctor blade 21, is adjustably fastened at its ends to the frame members 1 by bolts 22, and is set with its upper edge close to the periphery of the roller 7 on its descending side below and parallel with the shafts 1 and 10.

A rotary cutter mounted on a shaft 25, below and parallel with the shafts 1 and 10, is driven by a gear 26 fixed on one end of the shaft 25, and meshing with the gear 5 on the drive shaft 1. This cutter comprises one or more in the present case two, spiral blades 2 detachably fastened by countersunk screws as shown, or by other suitable means, to a spiral spider or body 28, fixed on the shaft 25, coaxially therewith. Each blade 27 makes one or more complete turns around its axis, and its lateral cutting edge crosses the lower edge of the stationary blade 21, and is adapted to cooperate therewith, as shown in Fig. 2, at a number of points, in the present case two points, simultaneously, the blade 21 being adjusted so that the cutting edges of the blades 27 will run in contact with or close to its lower edge and coiiperate thereith to make progressive shearing cuts.

A hopper 30, mounted on the frame, has two oppositely and downwardly inclined bottom plates or walls 31, terminating at their inner lower edgcs at a distance from each other above the roller 7 and the knives 15 respectively, so as to support and guide the sheets in which the curd is formed, to and between said roller and knives, and provide for feeding the curd to the mill from either end, whichever may be most conven;

iently located therefor with relation to the vat on which the mill is placed.

The gear 26 as shown, is smaller than the gear 5, and the rotary spiral cutter blades 27 are driven at a. more rapid rate than the slitting knives l5. Their rate of speed may be varied by substituting for the gears 5 and 26, gears of difi'erent sizes, and the rate of speed of the slitting knives 15 may be varied if desired, by substituting for the gears 6 and 1?), gears of different sizes.

To prevent the strips into which the sheets of curd are cut by the knives 15 from following the knives and winding around the collars l6, yielding spring stripper arms attached at their upper ends to the bottom wall 31 of the hopper above the shaft 10, extend downwardly therefrom between the knives and terminate at their lower ends adjacent to the blade 21, which serves to separate the curd from the roller 7, and with the stripper arms 33, to guide and hold the strips in position to be severed by the blades 2-7.

In the operation of the mill, the sheets of curd are fed on one or the other of the inclined bottom walls 31 of the hopper between the roller 7 and knives 15, by which they are cut into narrow strips. As these strips pass downward between the roller 7 and knives 15, they are cut into cubes or small pieces, say from one-half to threefourths of an inch in size, by the spiral blades 27 and the stationary blade 21, several strips being simultaneously severed by the blades 27, thereby distributing the work or load, and facilitating the operation of the spiral blades. The heavy flywheel with which these machines as heretofore constructed, have necessarily been provided on account of the more or less intermittent-ac- 'tion of the cross cutting blades, is thus dispensed with, makingthe mill less cumbersome, much lighter, and easier to transfer from one vat to another.

The two-way hopper, enablingthe' mill to be fed from either end, increases its adapta- 7 its cutting edge crossing and adapted to cooperate with the stationary blade at a number of points simultaneously.

2. In a cheese-curd mill the combination with a series of coaxial circular slit-ting knives, an opposing roller having its axis parallel with that of said knives, and a sta tionary blade below and parallel with the axes of said knives and roller, of 'a rotary cutter comprising spiral blades having a common axis parallel with vthestationary blade and each making a number of complete turns crossing and adapted to cooperate with the stationary blade at a number of points simultaneously.

3. In a curd mill the combination with a portable frame, a series of coaxial circular slitting knives, an opposing roller having its 1 axis parallel with that of said knives, a sta tionary doctor blade located close to the periphery of said roller below and parallel with itsaxis, a rotary cutter comprising a spiral blade having a lateral cutting edge crossing and adapted to cooperate with the lower edge of the doctor blade, and a two way hopper having oppositely and downwardly inclined bottom walls terminating at the lower edges at a distance from each other above and parallel'with the axes of the slitting knives and roller respectively and adapted to support and guide sheets of curd fed from either end of the machine to and between said slitting knives and roller.

In witness whereof I hereto affix'my signature.

CI-IARL ES JUN Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by. addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

' Washington, D. ,6."

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