Classifications

• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A22—BUTCHERING; MEAT TREATMENT; PROCESSING POULTRY OR FISH
  • A22C—PROCESSING MEAT, POULTRY, OR FISH
  • A22C17/00—Other devices for processing meat or bones
  • A22C17/0006—Cutting or shaping meat
  • A22C17/0026—Mincing and grinding meat
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B02—CRUSHING, PULVERISING, OR DISINTEGRATING; PREPARATORY TREATMENT OF GRAIN FOR MILLING
  • B02C—CRUSHING, PULVERISING, OR DISINTEGRATING IN GENERAL; MILLING GRAIN
  • B02C18/00—Disintegrating by knives or other cutting or tearing members which chop material into fragments
  • B02C18/30—Mincing machines with perforated discs and feeding worms
  • B02C18/36—Knives or perforated discs
  • B02C18/362—Knives

Definitions

• the present invention generally refers to the field of the meat grinding industry, and particularly, but not only, to that of grinding pork meat for producing mortadella or other sausages.
• Substantially the invention regards a knife holder of the cutting group for a meat processing plant.
• the meat is loaded into one such plant by means of a load hopper for the pieces of cooled meat (about 4°C), which are hard and have large size, and the plant comprises various cutting groups that grind the meat mass, rendering it increasingly soft and finally directly usable at the outlet of the plant for various purposes.
• the meat is made to pass through stainless steel ducts of the plant; encountering a cutting group, situated inside the duct, it is reduced into increasingly smaller particles, with respect to the size of the particles upstream of the cutting group, when it exits downstream of the cutting group considered. By repeating such operation multiple times, with two or more cutting groups, one finally obtains the desired soft mass that exits from the final cutting group of the plant (definable for example as the external head group that remains visible).
• each cutting group of the prior art comprises fixed or stationary perforated discs, which (by means of their holes) calibrate the size of the meat particles, as well as knives which grind the meat, cooperating with said fixed discs.
• the knives are inserted on supports, or knife holders, and they press the meat against the perforated discs in order to give rise to the aforesaid grinding effect.
• Object of the present invention is to provide an improved cutting group, which has different characteristics that allow blades to be suitably deformed under the pressure load of the meat, and which also allow a quick mounting of the blades of the knives, above all by using a mounting system that does not alter the capacity of the blades to be deformed under load.
• the blades must be able to be elastically deformed, in order to then ideally assume their initial form, i.e. possibly without undergoing a permanent deformation.
• the knife holder belonging to the cutting group forms the "heart" of the invention.
• the mounting system of the blades on the single spokes or arms of the knife holder must be quick, the single blades must be very simple and hence inexpensive in order to reduce the overall costs of the knife holder.
• Figure 1 a perspective view of a first knife holder embodiment of the present invention
• Figure 2 a perspective view of a second knife holder embodiment of the present invention. Description of several preferred embodiments of the invention
• FIGs. 1 and 2 enclosed with the present patent application show in perspective and schematic view a knife holder according to the present invention, in two possible solutions.
• the knife holder forms a kind of disc wheel having a plurality of arms 1 converging towards a hub 6.
• the central hub 6 of the knife holder, where the various arms 1 converge, has a non-circular hole so that it can be rotated by a drive shaft 7 of complementary section and hence also non-circular.
• the invention regards the configuration of a typical support arm 1 for the knives, and the same blades 2a and 2b of such knives, also part of the present invention.
• the blades are those used for grinding the meat.
• a first row of blades 2a is in contact, during the rotation of the knife holder, with a first stationary perforated disc (not shown) of the cutting group, while a second row of blades 2b is in contact, during the rotation of the knife holder, with a second stationary perforated disc (also not shown) of the cutting group. This will be better described hereinbelow.
• the knife holder is then arranged as a sandwich between said two stationary perforated discs (not shown) and reduces the size of the meat particles since the mass of meat passes (under the thrust of a supply screw arrange in the mounting duct of the perforated discs) first through the first stationary perforated disc, having larger holes, and then through the second stationary perforated disc, having smaller holes.
• the meat grinding plant can comprise multiple separate cutting groups of the described type. Each cutting group can possibly comprise a pack formed by an alternation of elements of DF-PC-DF-PC- DF-... -PC-DF type, where DF stands for "fixed perforated disc” and PC for "knife holder". In the simplest case, the cutting group is defined as DF-PC-DF unit with a single knife holder arranged as a sandwich between two stationary perforated discs.
• the drive shaft 7 that rotates the knife holder is supported by suitable bearings, not illustrated.
• each row of blades 2a or 2b forms a respective knife 3a or 3b, which is mounted in a tilted manner at a respective edge of the arm 1, such that the knives 3 a and 3b form an angle between them, i.e. a "V".
• the single blades 2a and 2b are separately inserted in their oblique seats of the arm 1 and are locked by means of threaded grub screws 4: the latter are extended within blind holes made in the body of the arm 1 and perpendicularly cross through the through holes made in the blades themselves.
• This mounting system is quick and inexpensive and of course assumes that the thickness of the blades is constant in the part of the single blade inserted in the arm 1, otherwise inadmissible air spaces would be formed.
• the present invention provides for blades 2a, 2b having a constant thickness over the entire extension thereof.
• the blades have a flat, blunted surface, at the free end thereof, as is seen in the drawing.
• Such flat surfaces are in direct contact with the geometric plan of the surface of a respective perforated disc, and this means that, given that the stationary perforated discs (of the cutting group) are parallel to each other, also the flat, blunted surfaces at the free ends of the blades 2a will be parallel to the flat, blunted surfaces formed at the free ends of the blades 2b.
• At least some of the blades 2a, 2b can have an opening 5 in order to allow the meat to pass through the respective blade, from a zone of greater pressure towards a zone of smaller pressure, so as to make the load uniform within the space between the stationary perforated discs.
• openings 5 in order to be able to perform their function will not enter (see Figures 1 and 2) into the fitting zone of the blade in the respective arm 1.
• the knives 3a and 3b are formed (in the particular embodiment of the invention represented in Fig. 1) by three blades 2a and by three blades 2b separated or independent from each other. This allows the blades to be deformed in an independent manner from each other, and such characteristic is advantageous since the pressure load exerted by the meat varies from the center of the knife holder (hub 6) towards the outside (i.e. towards the free ends of the single radial arms 1 of the knife holder).
• the single blades could also have thicknesses that are different from each other, although the thickness of a single blade will always be constant along its length and width.
• a knife 3a or 3b could also be formed by a single blade (single piece), as in Fig. 2, or by two or four independent blades, rather than by three blades as in Fig. 1.
• the independence of the deformability of the single blades could also be obtained by means of the parallel cuts that separate the single blades but which (unlike the embodiment shown in Fig. 1) do not affect the lower fitting zone.
• the knife in this case is obtained in a single piece, the blades could be independently deformed since these partial parallel separation cuts have been created between the various blades 2a (or 2b).
• the main characteristic of the present invention is therefore the simplicity of the form of the blades which considerably lowers the production costs.
• Another characteristic of the invention is the mounting system of the blades by means of the threaded grub screws, which is quick and does not affect their capacity to be deformed.
• a further characteristic is the possible holes for rendering uniform the pressure load in the system.
• the blades can be independently deformed (if the embodiment of Fig. 2 of the invention is not selected, in which the knife forms a single piece without partial parallel cuts); in this case, the blades can be better adapted to the variability of the pressure load of the meat with respect to the longitudinal (radial) direction of the arm 1, i.e. from the center 6 (or hub) of the knife holder towards the "circular" periphery.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Food Science & Technology (AREA)
• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Wood Science & Technology (AREA)
• Zoology (AREA)
• Crushing And Pulverization Processes (AREA)
• Knives (AREA)
• Food-Manufacturing Devices (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=48703732

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (2)

Cited By (4)

Citations (3)

• 2013
  • 2013-05-24 IT IT000302A patent/ITRM20130302A1/it unknown
• 2014
  • 2014-05-19 WO PCT/IB2014/061526 patent/WO2014188320A1/en active Application Filing

Patent Citations (3)

Also Published As

Similar Documents

Legal Events