Foods and beverages: apparatus – Means to treat food – Subdividing into plural products
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-13
2001-01-23
Alexander, Reginald L. (Department: 1761)
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Means to treat food
Subdividing into plural products
C099S593000, C099S589000, C099S545000, C099S543000, C099S537000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06176177
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an apparatus for chamfering cuboid blocks of vegetables.
It is often requested that vegetables, such as carrots or potatoes be cut to provide bite-sized blocks of carrots or potatoes. Such blocks of carrots or potatoes have a cuboid form with ridges extending along its corners. These ridges give an unpleasant touch in one's mouth, and are easily broken when boiled, thus making the soup thick. Therefore, such bite-sized blocks are preferably chamfered to give a rounded shape as a whole before cooking.
The chamfered block looks like a Rugby ball, having convex sides. Assuming that cuboid blocks of vegetable are chamfered manually with a kitchen knife, even a skilled hasher can chamfer 200 to 400 pieces for one hour at best. If food is prepared for many people, such skilled hashers cannot be allotted such a less-important work.
In an attempt to facilitate such work a machine is proposed for chamfering cuboid blocks of vegetable (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.9-248791).
The vegetable block chamfering machine has a chamfering blade fixed to a crank-like axle with the edge of the chamfering blade aligned with the opposite lateral handles of the crank-like axle, and the opposite lateral handles of the crank-like axle are fixed rotatably to a stand frame of the chamfering machine, thereby permitting the chamfering blade to be tilted about the crank-like axle against a block of vegetable when the chamfering blade meets with the counter force caused by advance of the block of vegetable on the chamfering blade. Thus, the cuboid block of vegetable can be chamfered so that it may be contoured to be given a Rugby ball-like shape.
Attaching the chamfering blade about its pivot axle for free tilting, however, has the defect of abruptly increasing the resistance to the turning of the chamfering blade if vegetable debris is stuck to the pivot axle of the chamfering blade, preventing the smooth cutting, and what is worse, deforming blocks of vegetable and breaking the chamfering blade as a result of stress convergence at the blade-to-axle joint.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One object of the present invention is to provide a vegetable block chamfering machine having the pivot axle of the chamfering blade fixed to an associated link mechanism, thereby permitting the tilting of the chamfering blade to be controlled through the agency of the link mechanism, thus assuring that the vegetable block chamfering machine is free of such defects as described above.
According to a first aspect of the present invention a vegetable block chamfering machine is constructed as follows:
a single chamfering blade is placed in the path in which a selected cuboid block of vegetable is made to advance, and the chamfering blade is oriented with its edge directed to the block of vegetable; a pivot axle of the chamfering blade is placed in engagement with guide means, and is fixed to one end of a swingable rod via an intervening connection rod; a vegetable carrier having means for pinching a selected cuboid block of vegetable is set in front of the chamfering blade for carrying the block of vegetable toward the chamfering blade; and the vegetable carrier is operatively connected to the one end of the swingable rod, thereby permitting the swingable rod to swing about the other or pivot end of the swingable rod in unison with the advance of the vegetable carrier so that the chamfering blade may be tilted about its pivot axle while being guided by the guide means, thus chamfering the block of vegetable.
According to a second aspect of the present invention a vegetable block chamfering machine is constructed as follows:
two chamfering blades are placed at different levels with their edges directed to a cuboid block of vegetable for simultaneously chamfering the same, the two chamfering blades being in the path in which the cuboid block of vegetable is made to advance; the pivot axle of the first chamfering blade is placed in engagement with guide means, and is fixed to one end of a swingable rod via an associated intervening connection rod whereas the pivot axle of the second chamfering blade is placed in engagement with the guide means, and is fixed to the swingable rod via an associated intervening connection rod; a vegetable carrier having means for pinching a selected cuboid block of vegetable is set in front of the chamfering blade for carrying the cuboid block of vegetable toward the first and second chamfering blades; and the vegetable carrier is operatively connected to the one end of the swingable rod, thereby permitting the swingable rod to swing about the other or pivot end of the swingable rod in unison with the advance of the vegetable carrier so that the first and second chamfering blades may be tilted about their pivot axles while being guided by the guide means, thus chamfering the cuboid block of vegetable at the upper and lower levels.
According to a third aspect of the present invention a vegetable block chamfering machine is constructed as follows:
two chamfering blades are parallel-arranged with their edges directed to a cuboid block of vegetable for simultaneously chamfering the same, the two chamfering blades being in the path in which a selected cuboid block of vegetable is made to advance; the pivot axle of the first chamfering blade is placed in engagement with guide means, and is fixed at each end to one end of a swingable rod whereas the pivot axle of the second chamfering blade is placed in engagement with the guide means, and is fixed at each end to another swingable rod; a driving plate which can be moved back and forth on a linear passage, and is operatively connected to the one end of each swingable rod; a vegetable carrier having means for pinching a selected cuboid block of vegetable is set in front of the chamfering blades, carrying the block of vegetable toward the first and second chamfering blades; and the vegetable carrier is operatively connected to a driving plate, thereby permitting the swingable rods to swing about the other or pivot ends of the swingable rods in unison with the advance of the vegetable carrier so that the first and second chamfering blades may be tilted about their pivot axles while being guided by the guide means, thus chamfering the block of vegetable in the opposite planes parallel to the direction in which the block of vegetable is transported.
Finally according to a fourth aspect of the present invention a vegetable block chamfering machine is so constructed as follows:
five chamfering blades for effecting a required chamfering at one time, that is, a single inverted “V”-shaped blade for cutting and removing the opposite upper ridges of the cuboid vegetable block, two horizontal blades at different levels for cutting and removing the top and bottom of the cuboid vegetable block, and two vertical blades spaced apart from each other for cutting and removing the opposite sides of the cuboid vegetable block are placed sequentially in the path in which the vegetable block is made to advance, all chamfering blades being oriented with their edges directed to the vegetable block;
the pivot axle of the inverted “V”-shaped blade is placed in engagement with first guide means, and is fixed at each end to one end of one or the other first swingable rod; the pivot axle each of the second horizontal blades is placed in engagement with second guide means, and is fixed at each end to one end of one or the other second swingable rod; and the pivot axle each of the third vertical blades is placed in engagement with third guide means, and is fixed to one end of one or the other third swingable rod;
first and second driving plates which can be moved back and forth in linear passages, the first driving plate being operatively connected to the other ends of the first and second swingable rods whereas the second driving plate being operatively connected to the other ends of the third swingable rod;
a vegetable carrier having means for pinching a selected cuboid block of vegetable is set in front of the chamfering bl
Alexander Reginald L.
Jones Tullar & Cooper P.C.
Yamatenosan Co., Ltd.
LandOfFree
Apparatus for chamfering blocks of vegetable does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Apparatus for chamfering blocks of vegetable, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Apparatus for chamfering blocks of vegetable will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2505797