Cutting – Means to drive or to guide tool – Plural tools selectively engageable with single drive
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-09
2001-03-27
Bray, W. Donald (Department: 3725)
Cutting
Means to drive or to guide tool
Plural tools selectively engageable with single drive
C083S627000, C083S628000, C083S932000, C099S537000, C099S538000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06205900
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a slicing or sectionizing apparatus, and more particularly to an apparatus for automatically and continuously cutting food products.
In the commercial preparation of food products, especially fruit products for the food service industry, it is often necessary or desirable to cut the fruit or other products into some predetermined form or shape. For example, in the case of citrus fruit, it is common for a commercial kitchen to employ hand laborers to slice fruit into wedges or segments for presentation with a meal. Also, it is common for restaurants, hotel kitchens, or other institutional kitchens to slice citrus fruit transversely into “wheels” for presentation in or as a garnish with beverages. This is particularly common in providing “lemon wheels” for presentation in ice water at upscale hotels and restaurants.
Since preparation of fruit sections or wheels is highly labor intensive, it is desirable to provide a mechanism that can perform this task automatically. Prior devices that have been used for this purpose have been of two general types. Manual sectionizers are slow, single fruit devices with one cutting barrel or cup. While these devices are adaptable to cut either sections or slices, they cannot produce the volume of production required in a modern commercial kitchen. Automatic devices, while faster than the manual sectionizers, are still too slow. They are stop-and-go single or multiple plunger units, usually requiring special air supplies to operate. Moreover, they are large and cumbersome and consume significant space in commercial facilities, making them less adaptable to existing layouts. Stop-and-go units typically require multiple power sources with special mechanisms to ensure alignment of the cutting barrel and plunger.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a novel food product cutting apparatus that overcomes the problems experienced with prior devices.
A primary object of the invention is to provide an automatic food cutter that is effective and efficient in the setting of a commercial foodservice operation, such as an institutional kitchen.
Another object of the invention is to provide a food cutting device that is capable of continuous, smooth and quiet, high volume operation that uses a single conventional power source to provide both the high speed operation and the motive force to cut the food products.
Another object of the invention is to provide a food cutting device that is capable of performing a variety of different cutting operations and which is capable of operating at a wide variety of different speeds.
Another object of the invention is to provide a versatile food cutting device that can operate on a variety of food products, is moveable, requires a minimum of space, and is easily adaptable to current equipment layouts.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a food product cutting apparatus that is capable of achieving the above objects and is still easy to clean and maintain, and is efficient in operation.
These and other objects of the invention are achieved by providing an automatic food product cutting device that employs a continuously rotating table arranged with multiple cutting cups, each cup being aligned with a plunger that rotates with the table. The plungers are driven to force product through the cup and to withdraw from the cup by cam following rollers that follow a generally elliptical cam track. The cam track is concentric to, but does not rotate with, the rotating table. With this arrangement, a single drive motor is used to power both the rotation of the table and the plunging force to push the product through the cutter cups, thereby achieving smooth, continuous operation.
In the cutting apparatus of the present invention, the table rotates through a loading station and a cutting station, and the plungers are caused to move away from the cutter cups at the loading station and toward, into, and through the cutter cups at the cutting station. The cam track is not perfectly elliptical, but instead is arranged to hold the plungers at or near their maximum distance from the cutters while the cutters pass through the loading station, and to accelerate the product downwardly through the cutters at the cutting station. For safety purposes, the cam track includes a ledge to prevent a plunger from moving toward the cutters as the cutters pass through the loading station, and the loading station is provided with contact switches at each side to stop operation of the apparatus if the switches are contacted. The cutting apparatus is also provided with a receptacle to receive cut product and a conveyor to remove the cut product from the receptacle. If desired, the apparatus can be provided with a product feeding mechanism to supply product to the loading station automatically.
In addition, the cutters of the present invention are comprised of removable cups that contain an array of cutting blades. A flexible support membrane extends across the top of the cup to releasably receive and support the product for cutting. The cups are removable and replaceable to permit use of different configurations of the array of cutting blades. The plungers are provided with plunger heads that contact and push the product through the cutters. These plunger heads are also removable and replaceable to accommodate different configurations of the blade arrays. The apparatus includes a pair of guide plates mounted on the same axis as the table for synchronous rotation with the table and for the purpose of guiding each plunger toward and away from its respective cutter cup.
These and other aspects of the invention will be more apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiment thereof when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings and appended claims.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2612853 (1952-10-01), Bale, Jr.
patent: 3143912 (1964-08-01), Vogel et al.
patent: 5038649 (1991-08-01), Hopglin
patent: 5293803 (1994-03-01), Foster
patent: 5415083 (1995-05-01), Nagaoka
patent: 5467707 (1995-11-01), Kanamaru
Affeldt Henry A.
Heck Richard D.
Bray W. Donald
Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP
Sunkist Growers Inc.
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