Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B26—HAND CUTTING TOOLS; CUTTING; SEVERING
  • B26D—CUTTING; DETAILS COMMON TO MACHINES FOR PERFORATING, PUNCHING, CUTTING-OUT, STAMPING-OUT OR SEVERING
  • B26D3/00—Cutting work characterised by the nature of the cut made; Apparatus therefor
  • B26D3/28—Splitting layers from work; Mutually separating layers by cutting
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A23—FOODS OR FOODSTUFFS; TREATMENT THEREOF, NOT COVERED BY OTHER CLASSES
  • A23L—FOODS, FOODSTUFFS, OR NON-ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES, NOT COVERED BY SUBCLASSES A21D OR A23B-A23J; THEIR PREPARATION OR TREATMENT, e.g. COOKING, MODIFICATION OF NUTRITIVE QUALITIES, PHYSICAL TREATMENT; PRESERVATION OF FOODS OR FOODSTUFFS, IN GENERAL
  • A23L19/00—Products from fruits or vegetables; Preparation or treatment thereof
  • A23L19/03—Products from fruits or vegetables; Preparation or treatment thereof consisting of whole pieces or fragments without mashing the original pieces

Definitions

• the present invention relates to food cutters. More particularly, although not exclusively, the invention relates to a motorised cutting appliance adapted to reconfigure a solid food piece to include a continuous sliver or slivers.
• the invention is more specifically, although not exclusively, designed to create continuous noodle-like strips from substantially homogeneous fruit or vegetables pieces such as potato, carrot, parsnip, apple, and melon pieces, etc.
• Manual food cutters include handheld fruit skin peelers and these can be used to provide continuous swarfs of skin or fruit flesh. However, this is a time-consuming, manual procedure requiring concentration.
• a cutter for solid food pieces comprising: an rotational elongate food piece impaler, a cutting blade, an advance mechanism for moving the cutting blade towards the impaler, and a motor or motors configured to . rotate the impaler and activate the advance mechanism such that the blade is moved thereby toward the impaler whilst cutting a length of edible ribbon from a food piece impaled upon the impaler in use.
• the - cutting blade comprises one or more strip- cutting features thereon for dividing the ribbon into individual parallel strips as the ribbon passes the blade.
• the cutter comprises only one said motor
• the advance mechanism comprises a threaded shaft driven to rotate by the motor and upon which there is mounted a carriage to which the blade is affixed, the advance mechanism adapted to move the blade at a uniform speed linearly toward the impaler and wherein the blade extends in a direction substantially perpendicular to the threaded shaft.
• the cutter comprises two said motors
• the advance mechanism comprises a cam driven to rotate by one of the motors to bear on a carriage to which the blade is affixed, the advance mechanism adapted to move the blade at a uniform speed linearly toward the impaler .
• the blade has a leading edge that remains substantially parallel to the impaler at all times.
• the blade is mounted to pivot about a fixed pivot point .
• the features for dividing the ribbon into individual parallel strips as the ribbon passes the blade comprise parallel slots extending into the blade from a leading edge thereof.
• the slots are unevenly spaced across the leading edge of the blade to produce strips of food of differing width.
• the impaler comprises a threaded skewer.
• the cutter further comprises a gearbox transmitting torque from the motor to the impaler.
• the gearbox receives torque from the motor via intermeshing gears - one of which is mounted upon an output shaft of the motor and another of which is mounted upon an input shaft of the gearbox.
• the gearbox is a right angle gearbox having an output that drives the advance mechanism.
• the threaded shaft extends upwardly from a shaft bearing housing.
• the advance mechanism comprises a motor for turning a threaded shaft to thereby move the blade perpendicularly with respect to the impaler.
• solid food piece is intended to encompass substantially homogeneous pieces of food that can be sliced into continuous flexible strips.
• solid food pieces include potato, carrot, parsnip, apple, pear, melon, pumpkin and other fruit and vegetable pieces.
• Citrus fruits, celery and string beans for example would not be included in the definition, but tofu, some cheeses, beetroot and sweet potato would be included in the definition.
• Figure 1 is a schematic elevation of a cutting appliance
• Figure 2 is a further schematic side elevation of the cutting appliance of Figure 1
• Figure 3 is a schematic elevation of an alternative cutting appliance
• FIG. 4 is a schematic elevation of the cutting appliance of Figure 3
• FIG. 5 is a schematic side elevation of the cutting appliance of Figures 3 and 4,
• Figure 6 is a schematic perspective illustration of the leading edge of a cutting blade
• Figure 7 is a schematic perspective illustration of the leading edge of an alternative cutting blade
• Figure 8 is a schematic cross-sectional illustration of the appliance showing internal detail of the gearbox.
• Figure 9 is a schematic and elevation of an alternative advance mechanism. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
• the appliance comprises a frame 11 which might be formed integrally with a housing (not shown) .
• an electric motor 5 having an output shaft 50 upon which one of a pair of intermeshing gears 51 is mounted.
• the other of these intermeshing gears 51 is mounted upon an input shaft 52 of a right angle gearbox 53.
• Attached to the other end of shaft 52 (which is also a through- shaft of the gearbox 53) is a threaded impaling skewer 2.
• a solid food piece 4 is shown in the drawings impaled upon the skewer 2.
• a bevel gear 71 Within the gearbox 53 and mounted on shaft 52 is a bevel gear 71.
• Threaded shaft 55 Depending from the right angle gearbox 53 and driven by its bevelled pinion 54 (see Figure 8) is a threaded shaft 55 forming part of an advance mechanism 12. Threaded shaft 55 is mounted at its bottom end in a shaft bearing housing 6 affixed to the frame 11.
• a cutting blade 3 is mounted upon a carriage 32. The carriage has an internally threaded aperture 36 that is threadably engaged upon the shaft 55. The blade 3 extends parallel to the skewer 2. As seen in Figure 2, the cutting portion 31 of the blade 3 bears tangentially upon the solid food piece 4. When the solid food piece 4 is rotating in a clockwise sense as indicated by arrow A in Figure 2, a ribbon R of edible food is separated therefrom.
• the skewer 2 Upon activation of the motor 5, the skewer 2 rotates at a constant speed as does the advancing mechanism 12. As a result, the carriage 32 moves upward so that the cutting portion 31 of the blade 3 moves linearly toward the skewer 2 so as to continue cutting the ribbon of food therefrom.
• the additional cutting features such as upstanding sub-blades 60 ( Figure 6) , or slots 61 (figure 7) separate the food ribbon into strips S.
• FIG. 3 A further embodiment is depicted in Figures 3 to 5.
• the blade instead of providing linear movement of the cutting blade, the blade moves in an arc.
• the blade 23 is mounted upon a carriage 232 which is in turn pivot-mounted upon a pivot shaft 233.
• the shaft bearing housing 26 is also mounted pivotally to the frame 11 upon a pivot pin 27.
• FIG. 9 An alternative mechanism is depicted in Figure 9. This mechanism has separate motors 5a and 5b.
• Motor 5a drives gears 51 to effect rotation of the impaler 2.
• Motor 5b drives a gear train 62 - 67.
• the gear train comprises individual large/small gear sets resulting in low output rotational speed at the final gear 67.
• the carriage 32 extends in this embodiment from a cam box 69 having a transverse cam follower pin 70 affixed thereto. Upon slow rotation of the final gear 67 and cam 68, the profiled edge of cam 68 causes the pin 70 to move vertically and thereby move the cam box, carriage 32 and blade 3 vertically.

Landscapes

• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Forests & Forestry (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Nutrition Science (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Food Science & Technology (AREA)
• Polymers & Plastics (AREA)
• Debarking, Splitting, And Disintegration Of Timber (AREA)
• Food-Manufacturing Devices (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=29750280

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (2)

Cited By (3)

Citations (6)

• 2003
  • 2003-01-16 CN CN03223132U patent/CN2593985Y/zh not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 2004
  • 2004-01-16 WO PCT/CN2004/000057 patent/WO2004062386A1/en active Application Filing

Patent Citations (6)

Also Published As

Similar Documents

Legal Events