US2131851A - Vegetable slicing machine - Google Patents

Description

Oct. 4, 1938. M. R. ANSTICE VEGETABLE SLICING MACHINE Filed April 18, 1936 4 Sheets-Sheet l Oct. 4, 1938. M, R. ANSTICE VEGETABLE SLICING MACHINE Filed April 18, 1936 4 Shee'gs-Sheet 2 Oct. 4, 1938. M. R. ANSTICE 2,131,851

VEGETABLE SLIGING MACHINE Filed April 18, 1936 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Q i N% Rw r Law mm t WNQ W a m w U w u N WW 5 Y3K mg q\ 51 m W 8. W 'vwm 1938- M. R. ANSTICE VEGETABLE SLICING MACHINE Filed April 18, 1956 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 tical section illustrating one of the knife clearing Patented Oct. 4, 1938 that the. knives will at all times have a predeter- VEGETABLE SLIQING MACHINE Mortimer It. Anstice, Rochester, N. Y., assignor to Josiah." Anstice & Company, 1110., Rochester, N. Y., acorporation of New .York

; Application April 18, 1936, Serial No."75,216

4 Claims. (Cl. '14698) The present invention has beenv conceived and designed to provide a machine whichis comparatively. simple of construction yet is highly efficient in the slicing of various fruits and various vegetables such as carrots, beets, potatoesaor the like into strips of what are often termed shoestring.or julie nne shapes.

One of thenovel features and objects of the invention is to providean improved manner of mounting and supporting cutting knives in respect to the bed or conveyor of the machine so mined engagement with the bedior conveyor.

and permit the passage'beneath them of any foreign substance; which may accidentally reach the knives and which would have a tendency to break, nick, or otherwise injure them. d I

Another objectof the inventionis the provision of a machine so designed that the: connector for the adjacent ends of the conveyor is protected against being cut or damaged by the'knives and in turn the knivesare protected against damage from the connectors in the event the same should be of a metallic nature.- V i A. still furtheriobject of the invention is the provision of automatic means for clearing the knives of strips cut from the vegetables or other produce-upon which the knives are operating;

Another and still further object of .the invention is to provide ayieldable supporting means for the slicing knives whereby the knives are freely movable towards and away from the con- Other furtherobjects, noveljfeatures of construction and improved results will appear in the following descriptionwhen read in the light of the accompanying drawings.

In the drawing d Fig. 3 is a. fragmentary enlarged-detail viewin' vertical section taken on the line 33 of, Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional View through aportion of the machine bed or conveyor showing invertical section the engagement of several of the knives with said bed.

Fig. 5 is .an enlarged detail View partly in verfingers and theengagement of one of the knives with the conveyor.

Fig. 6 is 'av fr agm mounted shafts l and 2.

partly in vertical section illustrating the .manner it in which the knives will pass over the thickened portion of the conveyor at the point where the conveyor ends are joined together.

Fig. '7 is a view in end elevation of a modified form of the invention.

Fig. 8 is a'view in side elevation of the machine a pearing in Fig. 7. I

Fig.9 is a View in side elevation of a further form of slicer.

Fig. '10 is a detail View partly in vertical section illustrating the cage carrying the cutting knives of the machine illustrated in Fig. 9.

Fig. 11 is a fragmentary view in elevation of a modified form of supporting the knives in the modified form of machine appearing in'Figs. '7 and 8 of the drawings. v i

One form of the machine embodying the present invention appears in Figs. 1 to 6 inclusive,

wherein it will be seen that A represents a metalhe frame of approximately arectangular configuration upon the opposite ends of which are A drum or roller is mounted upon each of the shafts and is rotatable therewithand over these drums an endless conveyor B is trained. Suitable flanges 3 at the drum ends guard against longitudinal displacement of the belt.

The conveyor is in the form of a belt which preferably has a rubber surface, and as appears in Fig.3 of the drawings the belt may be of a laminated nature in that its rubber surface 4 maybecarried upon a suitable base such as fabric 51' The belt may be of a form wherein it is truly endless in the sense that its ends are vulcanized together, or the'belt may be of the form illustrated'in Fig.6 of the drawings where the belt ends 6 and i are secured together by suitable metallic fastening means 8.

It is to be understood however that the belt need'not be of a laminated nature as it could be composed'entirely of rubber, and furthermore it will'be understood that it is not absolutely essential that the belt be composed of rubber, although rubber has been found to be the preferable material to use.

A shaft 9 is rotatably supported in bearings Hi formed at one end of the arms II which are pivotally mounted as at 12 to the supporting frame.

These arms extend upwardly from their pivotal supports at each side of the frame and at each sideof the conveyor belt, as appears clearly from belt and above the drum at the right hand end of the machine.

A plurality of circular knives 13 are loosely mounted upon the shaft and are spaced from one another by suitable spacers l4 also loosely mounted upon the shaft 9. These circular knives and spacers are disposed between rollers C which are loosely mounted upon the shaft. Tubular bushings l5 extend through these rollers and have engagement at their inner ends with the spacers l6 positioned between the outermost knives and the rollers while their other ends are engaged by right and left hand threaded nuts I1. These bushings extend outwardly beyond the outer faces of the hub portions I 8 of the rollers whereby the nuts can be tightened upon the bushings. With the construction described the knives and bushings can be tightly clamped for rotation with the shaft by tightening the nuts 11 and I8 without tightening against the rollers.

At this point attention is directed to the fact that the knives are of a slightly greater diameter than the diameter of the rollers with the result that their peripheral cutting edges extend into a plane beyond the plane of the faces I 9 of the rollers. This constructional feature is of importance in the present invention as will be hereinafter more specifically pointed out.

A supplemental arm 28 extends outwardly from the upper end of each of the pivotally mounted main arms II and across the ends of these arms is positioned a weight 2|.

,A pair of bars 22 also extend across the space between the supplemental arms 20 and these rods are arranged in separated parallel relationship. A series of fingers D are carried loosely by these rods and have portions 23 which extend into the space between the knives 13. With their loose mounting, the fingers can move axially of the rods and properly center themselves between the knives. Bars of an angular shape in crosssection could be substituted for the round rods illustrated. This series of fingers constitute a comb which functions in a manner hereinafter to be more fully described.

The shaft 2 at the right hand end of the machine extends outwardly beyond the supporting frame and is provided with a pulley 24 which is adapted for driving connection with any suitable source of power drive. Rotation of the shaft 2 and its drum will through the conveyor B rotate the shaft I and its drum. Rotation of the shaft 2 is in a clockwise direction with the result that the conveyor rotates also in a clockwise direction, as is clearly indicated by arrow on Fig. 2 of the drawings.

The shaft l at the opposite end of the machine is extended outwardly and carries a pulley 25 and the shaft 9 is extended outwardly and carries a pulley 26. A driving belt 21 interconnects these two pulleys with the result that the shaft 9 is driven off of the shaft I and therefore by the main source of power drive connected to the main drive pulley 24. The drive for the shaft 9 is so arranged that this shaft rotates in a counter-clockwise direction, as indicated by arrow in Fig. 1 of the drawings.

Preferably, although not necessarily, the shaft 9 and its knives may be rotated at a greater speed than the travel of the belt conveyor. It has been found that better results in the slicing of certain vegetables can be obtained by speeding up the rotation of the knives in respect to the movement of the vegetables on the belt conveyor.

A slicer is diagrammatically illustrated at E and is positioned above the belt conveyor adjacent the left hand end of the machine. Detailed description of this slicer is considered unnecessary in that it constitutes merely some conventional form of device for slicing vegetables, fruits or the like into slabs or slices of any desired thickness.

By reason of the pivotal mounting of the knives and the rollers C these members are yieldably supported upon the conveyor belt. The weight 2| assures against the knives lifting rather than cutting through any vegetable or fruit slices carried to the knives by the belt conveyor. This particular form of mounting is advantageous in that it will permit the knives to rise and ride over any foreign substance which may fall upon the conveyor and be carried to them. In this manner the knives are protected from being broken or injured as might be the case could they not lift and ride over foreign substances.

As mentioned, the speed of the knives will vary due to the toughness of the vegetable or the thickness of the slice.

It has been mentioned that the belt conveyor itself be rubber, have a rubber surface or have a surface of some similarity to rubber. It is of the utmost importance, for the purpose of assuring a clean and complete cut of the vegetable slices by the knives, that the knives actually penetrate the conveyor belt. It is also highly important that provision be. made that the knives penetrate the conveyor belt, only a predetermined distance, for otherwise it will be readily understood that the conveyor belt would be quickly destroyed. This feature has been taken care of in what is considered to be a particularly novel manner by the provision of the rollers C which are of a predetermined lesser diameter than the diameter of the knives.

By reference to Fig. 3 of the drawings it will be seen that the faces I!) of these rollers bear upon the marginal edges of the conveyor belt, which slightly compress it. By this arrangement the knives actually penetrate into the surface of the belt a distance which is equal to the distance which they extend beyond the rollers, which is of course the actual difference in diameter of the knives and the rollers. The penetration of the cutting edges of the knives into the belt is diagrammatically illustrated in Fig. 4 of the drawings. After the machine has been in operation for some time the belt actually becomes grooved to receive the cutting edges of the knives, as is desig nated at 29.

The problem of definitely providing for the penetration of the knives a predetermined distance into the belt is one which although fully taken care of in a simple manner in the present invention was not a problem simple of solution. This is true because belts are not guaranteed to be of uniform thickness throughout their lengths. The present arrangement however will assure penetration of the knives a predetermined distance into the belt irrespective of variance in the thickness of the belt. Additionally when the belt ends are joined, as illustrated in Fig. 6 of the drawings it is customary to place a protective covering such as 30 over the connectors or lacings. If metallic connecting meansis utilized this covering is necessary to protect the knives against injury, and if a type of lacing is used which'is susceptible of being cut by the knives it is necessary to protect-the'lacing against. the knives. Consequently in either event the protecting cover element is necessary with the result that the thickness of the belt is materially increased at the point where the belt ends are connected. j I V The improved arrangement heretofore described however is s'uch as to-assure-a predetermined penetrationof the knives even at this point where the belt is greatly thickened. Fig. 6 of the drawings illustrates the manner in which the rollers will follow the thickened contour of the belt and lift the knives the necessary distance to maintain the predetermined engagement of the knives withthebeltj It is to be understood that thenumber of knives and their spacing can be varied as desired to provide for varying conditions of operation and to provide for cutting the vegetables into strips of any desired width. For the purpose of protecting the knives as well as protecting the operator of the machine, a removablehood or guard 3| is provided.

From the description thus far given it will be seen that the knives are pivotally mounted in respect to the conveyor which is 'the bed against which they cut. The machine is designed primarily for sale to canners to provide a device by which vegetables or fruits can be readily and cheaply cut into strip or shoestring form. However the canner maybe called upon to fill an order where the customer desires the product out only into slices or slabs, and to enable the cannerto use the slicer E for this purpose the present machine is provided with a pivotally mounted bracket arm 32 which may be swung upwardly for engagement with one of the supplemental bracket arms 20 to holdthe knives in an elevated position'abo-ve and out of engagement with the belt so that the vege table slices delivered to the belt by the slicer E may pass ofithe conveyor at the right hand end of the machine without being operated upon by the circular knives l3. j

- In operation the vegetables, fruit or other foodstuff desired to be cut into strips are fed to the slicer E which will cut them into slices or-slabs and drop them out upon the conveyor B'which will carry them toward and to the revolving knives. If the vegetables have been cut into slices oneeighth inch thick the knives I3 wouldpreferably have been spaced to cut the slices into strips one eighth inch wide so that the finished strips would be approximately square in cross section.

The rotation of the knives will be such as to be proper for the type of vegetable being operated upon. The weight 2! will assure that the knives will cut the vegetableslices irrespective of their toughness or thicknessl The rollers C are rotating freely on their supporting shaft 9 and are constantly engaging the conveyor belt and at all times assure proper and'definite relationship between the knives and the conveyor belt.-

The vegetable slices will pass through the knives and be cut intothe desired strip form and will be delivered into a receptacle or the like placed at the right hand end of themachine for their reception. Any vegetable or fruit strips whichmight adhere to the knives will be'removed from them by the combs or fingers D which'willcause them to fall downwardly upon the conveyor for delivery into the waiting receptacle.

If a foreign substance, such as a block or stick upper ends of the arms. or uprights 41.

, delivers the fruit or vegetable slices to a rotatablymounted drum F the face of which has a rubber coating 32'or its equivalent. The knives I3 which are exactly similar to those hereinbefore described, are mounted in spaced relationship upon a shaft 33 provided with 'a pulley 34 having belt connection drive 35with the supporting shaft 36 of the drum, which shaft is provided with a pulley 31 intended to have driving connection with any suitable source of power. V

The knife'assembly is carried by the arms 35 and 39 which are joined'by a shaft which is piv- .otally or rotatably mounted in suitable brackets M positioned at each side of the drum and connected to the drum supporting base H.

The knife assembly is provided with rollers C such as hereinbefore described, which engage the coated surface of the drum and are of slightly less diameter than the knives to assure a predetermined penetration of the knives into the drum coating in a manner exactly similar to that hereinbefore described. Weights 42 are adjustable upon extension arms 43 of the main knife assembly arms 38 and 39.

Just as in the first described form of machine, the knife assembly is pivotally and yieldably in engagement with the conveyor against which it operates in actually'slicing the vegetables. A modig fled manner of providing adjustable means for holding theknife assembly in engagement with the drum is illustrated in Fig. 11 of the drawings where it will beseen that the shaft 44 which carries the knivesl3 and the rollers C is journalled at its opposite ends in blocks 45 which are reciprocable within openings 45 provided in the The weight of the knives and the rollers will in itself maintain them inproper engagement with the face 32 of the drum and the upward movement ofthe shaft and the knives is adjustably under the control of the set screws 48.

In respect to this particular embodiment of the machine provision is made whereby theknives are rotated in a direction opposite to the direction of rotation of the drum and the fingers or comb heretofore mentioned in respect to the first is designated by the same letter. namely D.

In Figs. 9 and 10 of the drawings a still differformof invention described is also utilized and ent machine isillustrated for accomplishing the cutting of vegetables or the like into strips. The

principle of operation of this machine is similar to the machines previously described but a slightly different specific form ofconstruction in that the knife blades are arranged at right angles to the direction of movement of the conveyor rather than in alignment with thedirection of movement of the conveyor. 7

Describing this particular embodiment of the invention, R. and S designate bases or pedestals arranged in separated relationship. The shaft 59 carrying a drum5l is rotatably mounted on the pedestal R while a shaft 52 carrying a drum 53 is rotatably mounted on the pedestal S. The endless conveyor belt B extends around these drums.

The drum 5| at oneend has its stub shaft 54 mounted in a horizontal plane above its stub shaft 55 at its opposite end. By this construction the drum is arranged at an angle to the horizontal, as clearly appears in Fig. 10 of the draw ings.

The knife assembly is in the form of -a squirrel cage designated as an entirety by T. This squirrel cage comprises a series of knife blades 56 mounted in separated parallel relationship between the rollers C. The knife blades extend slightly beyond the periphery of the rollers.

This cage is rotatably supported on stub shafts 5? and 58 which are suitably journalled in depending arms 59 of the pivotally mounted arms 60. Each of the arms 60 is provided with an extension portion 6! upon which is adjustably mounted a weight 62.

The arms 66 are illustrated as being pivotally mounted upon the shaft 52 and the arms are of such a length that the squirrel cage rests upon the belt conveyor immediately above the inclined drum or roller 5|. The squirrel cage is given the same inclination as the drum by mounting its stub shaft 5'! in a horizontal plane above its opposite end stub shaft 58.

The rollers C engage the belt conveyor and permit the cutting edges of the knife blades to penetrate or cut into the conveyor belt only a predetermined distance, namely the distance which said blades extend beyond the peripheries of said rollers.

The conveyor is driven through a pulley 63 and the squirrel cage through a pulley G4. Slices of vegetables are delivered to the conveyor by a suitable slicer E.

In operation the vegetable slices fall from the slicer E onto the conveyor which carries them to the slicer blades 56. As the slices pass between the blades and the conveyor belt they are cut into strips, which strips enter into the hollow cage and due to the inclination thereof are discharged through the openings 65 provided in the roller C at the low end of the cage and at the low side of the conveyor.

Mention has been made of the fact that axial movement of the rollers, T is limited by reason of the fact that these rollers are positioned at the inner sides of the flanges of the end closures of the roller or drum. This construction assures that each of the knives will continuously contact the belt conveyor on the same line which is of material importance to assure that the knives will eventually groove the conveyor in the manner hereinbefore described and that each of the knives will enter and run in its proper groove after the conveyor becomes grooved from continuous usage.

It is realized that a pre-grooved belt could be used, but it has been found to be more desirable not to use such a belt because the belt conveyor through its engagement with the knives tends to sharpen or hone them and thus maintain them in a bright and sharpened state. In other words, permitting the knives themselves to cut their own grooves is preferable to pre-grooving the belt conveyor.

Although it is probably obvious, mention is made of the fact that the machine can be reversed without departing from the spirit of the invention. The machine will be reversed when the knife assembly is moved to the opposite end of the machine to that in which it is illustrated in the drawings. Reversal in this manner would mean a reversal in the direction of movement of the conveyor as Well as a reversal in the direction of the cutting knives.

It should also be obvious that it is not necessary or essential that the slicer which cuts the vegetables or food-stufi into slices or slabs bepositioned immediately above or adjacent the conveyor. The slicer which performs this function could be positioned remote to the machine and the slices of vegetables or food-stuff brought to the conveyor in any suitable or convenient manner.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the present invention provides an extremely simple machine yet is capable of rapidly, efliciently and economically slicing all kinds of vegetables into strip or shoestring form. The machine is not limited to operation upon any particular vegetables or to vegetables of any particular shape as it will operate equally as well on carrots or any foods as it will on potatoes.

It will be further understood that machines built in accordance with the invention will be economical of operation because of the positive provision which is made to assure the knives out only a predetermined distance into the conveyor. With this attribute a. very considerable saving will be effected in the matter of the necessity of replacement of conveyors. The construction is such that the knives will completely out or sever the entire thickness of the vegetable slices yet at the same time will not detrimentally affect the conveyor against which the knives operate.

I claim:

1. In a slicing machine, an endless conveyor having a surface capable of being penetrated by knives, means to deliver slices of vegetables to said conveyor, a rotatable shaft carrying a plurality of knives rotatable with the shaft and arranged in spaced parallelrelationship, a pair of rollers carried by said shaft and of slightly less diameter than said knives, said shaft positioned above said conveyor and freely movable in respect thereto, said rollers being freely rotatable upon said shaft and adapted to engage said conveyor for definitely determining the degree of contact of the knives with said conveyor, means to rotate said conveyor towards said knives, and

. means to rotate said knives in a direction opposite to the movement of said conveyor.

2. A construction such as defined in claim 1, wherein means are provided for rotating the knives at a speed greater than the movement of the conveyor.

3. In a slicing machine, an endless conveyor having a surface capable of being penetrated by knives, means to deliver vegetables to said conveyor, a rotatable shaft carrying a plurality of knives rotatable with the shaft and arranged in spaced parallel relationship, a pair of rollers carried by said shaft and of slightly less diameter than said knives, said shaft positioned above said conveyor and freely movable outwardly in respect thereto, said rollers being freely rotatable upon said shaft and adapted to engage said conveyor for definitely limiting the inward movement of the knives to determine the distance they shall penetrate said conveyor, and the free outward movement of the knives acting to avoid injury thereof by foreign matter on the conveyor, and means for rotating said conveyor and said knives.

4. In a slicing machine, an endless conveyor having a surface capable of being penetrated by knives, means to deliver vegetables to said conveyor, a rotatable shaft carrying a plurality of knives rotatable with the shaft and arranged in spaced parallel relationship, a pair of rollers carried by said shaft and of slightly less diameter than said knives, said shaft positioned above said conveyor, said rollers being freely rotatable upon said'shaft, means holding said rollers in engagement with said conveyor for definitely limiting the inward movement of the knives to determine the distance they shall penetrate said conveyor,

and means for rotating said conveyor and said 5 knives.

MORTIlVIER R. ANSTICE.

Images