AU619727B2 - Decorative form hydraulic cutting blade assembly - Google Patents

Abstract

A cutter blade assembly (10) having a plurality of strip knives (15) for cutting away peripheral segments (19) of a potato (17) in order to define a decorative geometric shape for the residual cross-sectional core area (18) of the potato, for use in a hydraulic food cutting apparatus for use in cutting potatoes (17), wherein said hydraulic food cutting apparatus has a water tank (20), centrifugal food pump (21), nozzle gun (22), deceleration loop (23) and drain separator (24).

Description

AU-AI-80207/87 WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ORGANIZATION Internitionafl Bureau

PCT

$r '6 INTERNATIONAL APPLICATIO u4 UBE!9 (51) International Patent Classification 4 Internalic B26D 3/24 H/B26D 1/00 Al (43) Internatc ;P7ENT COOPERATION TREATY (PCT) a1 nal Publication Number: )naik Publication Date: WO 88/ 09711 )ecember 1983 (15.12.88) (21) International 4pplication Number: PCT/US87/02263t (22) International Filing Date: 9 September 1987 (09.09187) (31) Pr',qrity Application Number: (32) Priority Date: (33) Priority Country: Parent Ap,-lication or Grant (63) Related by Continuation us Filed on 059,614 8 June 1987 (08,06.87) us 059,614 (CIP) 8 June 1987 (08,06.87) (74) Agent: DYKAS, Frank, 2 10 W. Mallard Dr., Suite C, Boise, ID 83706 (US).

(81) Designated States: AT (European patent), AU, BE (European patent), CH (European patent), DE (European patent), DK, FR (European patent), GB (European patent), IT (European patent), JP, LU (European patent), NL (European patent), NO, SE (European patent), US.

Published With internat~onal ;arch report.

With amended claims and statement, A- Q. J. P. 9 MAR 09§

AUSTRALIAN

'4JAN 1989 LPATENT OFCp (71)(72) Applicant and Inventor-, MENDENHALL, George, [US/US]; 4252 S. Eagleson Road, Boise, ID 83705

(US),

(54) Title: DECORATIVE FORM HYDRAULIC CUTTING BLADE ASSEMBLY 14 6 16 1 16 15 15 16 14 14 16 16 14 5 16r 13 16 16 11 16 12 14 (57) Absti-act A cutter blade assembly (10) having a plurality of strip knives (15) for cutting away peripheral segments (19) ora po.

tato (17) in order to derine adecorative geometeic shape 'tortde residual cross-sectional core area (18) of the potato, ror use In a hydraulic food cutting apparatus ror use iA cutting potatoes wherein sold hydraulic rood cutting apparatus has a water tank. centrifugal food pump (21y; -nozzle gun deceleration loop (23) and drain separator SWO 88/09711 pCT/US87/02263 -1 TITLE OF INVENTION: DECORATIVE ORM HYDRAULIC CUTTING BLADE ASSEMBLY D E S CR I PT I ON BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Technical Field. This invention relates to cutting blade assemblies for hydraulic food cutting apparatus, More particularly it relates to a cutter blade assembly which defines a core area and a peripheral scrap area wherein the core area of the food product is cut into a recognizable decorative form.

Backaround Art. Many food products, and particularly vegetables and fruits are processed prior to sale either by canning or freezing. Unless the product involved is of a naturally occurring edible size, for example -3eas, the product is usually trimmed and sliced, or diced, to edible size prior to preservation processing such as canning or freezing.

These slicing, dicing and other cutting operations have traditionally been accomplished with mechanical dutters. However, relatively recent advances in food product cutting technologies has resulted in the common use of hydraulic cutting apparatus which can be used to t' cut relatively huce quantltles of food prcduct at verhigh speeds. Cutting capacities of 12,6 0 0 kilograms to 22. 70 kilograms per hour are not unusual.

In a typical hydraulic cutting apparatus wherein potatoes are to be cut, they are dropped into a tank filled with water and then pumped through conduit into an i0 alignment chute wherein the potatoes are aligned and accelerated to high speed before impinging upon a cutter blade assembly where the potato core is cut into a plurality of smaller pieces, Hydraulic cutting apparatus, or as they are known in the trade, hydroknives, can be utilized to cut extremely high volumes of potatoes if the potatoes can be properly aligned and accelerated to high speed immediately prior to impact with the cutter blade assembly.

FISHER, ET AL., Patent No. 4,372,184, discloses a cutter blade assembly for use in corilng a potato.

Quite obviously there are a variety of applications for hydraulic cutter knives other than just for potatoes.

Some of these would include beets, pickles, carrots, apples, pineapples and literally a host of other edible food products.

None of the prior art discloses or teaches a melthod of utaliig a hydrloknife apparatus for cutting the core of a potato into a decorative form so as to enhance the SUBSTITUTE

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i\ WO 88/09711 PCT/US87/02263 3 marketing value of the processed food product, such as fish-shaped french fries for fast food seafood restaurants. Or, to enhance the edible appeal of the product in relationship to a particular market group such as alphabet french fries for small children.

Decorative shaped food products have been developed and successfully marketed for many years. However, as a universal rule, they are formed products as opposed to directly cut from food product in original cellular form. Examples include cookie and pasta dough which is then either extruded and than cross sliced or sheet cut by cookie cutter type apparatus. The direct cutting of a decorative shape of a product core, which can then be cross sliced has not been attempted before.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to produce a cutter blade assembly which can be utilized in a hydraulic cutting apparatus to cut the core of food product passing through the cutter blade as'sembly into a decorative, recognizable shape.

:iy; B 4 DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION This object is achieved by apparatus for the cutting of food products into decorative forms, having a product receiving tank adapted to be filled with a fluid medium, means to discharge said products into said tank, a food pump for withdrawing said medium and said products from said tank, a product feed line, said pump discharging said products into said product feed line, a tapered section in said feed line to separate, align, 10 accelerate and feed said products into a cutter blade 6 assembly, and means posterior to said cutter blade assembly, to discharge cut product, characterized by a 6* cutter blade assembly having: a perimeter frame having an inner longitudinal passage of size and shape for the longitudinal passage of product and fluid medium therethrough; a plurality of sequentially arranged strip knives disposed one after another within the longitudinal passageway of said perimeter frame and S. further disposed and configured to define a multisegmented peripheral volume of said longitidinal passageway and a residual cross-sectional core 'area in the shape of a decorative food product; said plurality of strip knives being of size and shape so as to define said multi-segmented ii 1 i It i peripheral volume of the longitudinal passageway which results in the cross-sectional shape of the core having a decorative shape.

Because of the dynamic forces associated with the impact of the product against the strip knives, and the need to frequently sharpen the strip knives, it is not practical to fabricate the complete form from a single strip knife in cookie cutter fashion. Instead, the perimeter frame is subdivided into a number of 10 parallel sequential planes, each containing strip knives which define particular segments of the peripheral area.

End tabs on the strip knives are inserted into notches in the perimeter frame and are held firmly in position to minimize wobble by compression of said tabs 15 inserted into the perimeter fraiie from the strip knifes when the various sections of the perimeter frame are bolted together.

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i :~rr WO 88/09711 PCT/US87/02263 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a schematic representation of a hydraulic cutting apparatus.

Fig. 2 is the top plan view of a cutter blade assembly for cutting a decorative M.

Fig. 3 is a representational perspective view of a partially cut potato core in the shape of an M.

Fig. 4 is a representational perspective view of the cutter blade assembly for cutting a decorative core

M.

Fig. 5 is a representational side view of a cutter blade ring and blade, Fig. 6 is a representational view of the cutter blade assembly for cutting a single decorative fish shaped core.

Fig. 7 is a representational view of the cutter blade assembly for cutting two decorative fish shaped cores.

Fig. 8 is a representational view of the cutter blade assembly for cutting a decorative A shaped core.

Fig. 9 is a representational view of the cutter blade assembly for cutting an decorative X shaped core.

Fig. 10 is a representational view of the cutter blade assembly for cutting a decorative K shaped core.

BEST MIODE FOP. CARRYING OUT INVENTION r ~Figl. 1 shows, in scheimazic-al form~nat, the mkain components of a hydrau'lic cutting apparatus for use in cutting potatoes. Potatoes 171 are dumped into the r~ter filled receiving tang' Z0, F~ood pump 1, uisually a sinale impeller centzifugal pump, draws its suction from receiving tank and pumps water and the suspended potatoes 17 from the tank, into n ozzle qLun C.4 Nozzle gjun '12 functions as a venturi Which is used to accelerate and align potatoes 17 immediately prior to impinging upon the k~nife blades Of cutter blade assembly 10, Depending uIpon the produict being cut its size, core& density and physical c:haracteris tics, normal speeds at the point of impiflgment uipon the knif-. blades of cutter blade assembly 10 range from 12.2 meterct per second to )83 meters per second, The cut prodtict, wihin this8 case is a decoratively shaped potato core 18, and thle peripheral scrap e.%*it cutter blade assembly 10 ilito deceleration loop 2 3 whijch in effect is tthe seoond half of tile Venturl, Th e deceleration loop retUrns to a point above receiving'l tank 2520 wher'e the water, cUt core$ 1la and scrap 19 are dep0,sit~ed onto chain separator 24. The water passes thrcatiqh chain separator 244 and returns to, receivil tank~ hain separator Z4 is typlcally an1 endl-ess loop.

p LIA 7cha:.n or dewaterirg shaker which is used to mechanically reriove the potat-nes from the hydraulic cutting appai-atus assembly. The decorative cores 18 and scrap 19 are then A usually mechanically separated 1jy means of a sizer cornveyor not shown, The cores 1^0 are then sliced. again -Usually me-chanically, into appropriate thicknesses for further processing by blanching, freezing and packaging A for sale, The cutter blade assemblies in use today normally run at capacities of 13,600 kilograms per hour to 22,700 kilograms per hour, and canl be operated at capacities of uip to 45,.360 kiJlograms, oif produ~ct per hour, During the course of anl eight hour work shift, that represents, a ,elatilvely buyea amount ofl food product passing thjroucqh the ctitter, blade assembly,. and as a result, strip kniVes are removed for resharpening about on'ce per eight hour Work shif t Referring to Figs. 2, 4 and 5, my cutter blade iqsambly, in anl embodiment designed to produce a potato cor'e inl the shape of al M, as showl inl Fig. 3, is disclosed, In order to Im.1duce the decorative K, as is 'Awni Fig$.; 2 and a plurality of strip knlivesg must b(e utili ed to cut away peripheral segments of the potato in order to defino 411 Ill the core area of the potato, The &nd tabs of stl*IP klllves 15 as is sOhown ill ,1 4' p. s WO 88/09711 PCT/US87/02263 -8- Figs. 4 and 5 are inserted into notches 14 of rings 11, 12 and 13, and together, define a multisegmented peripheral volume of the longitudinal passageway. By arranging a plurality of strip knives 15 to define various segments of the longitudinal passageway, the residual cross sectional core area can be shaped into a variety of recognizable decorative forms. In the Case of a decorative M as shown in Figs. 2, 3, and 4, six strip knives are required, and result in a core in the form of a decorative M and up to twelve separate peripheral areas. Referring to Fig, 2, whole potato 17 is schematically represented at the point where it is just about to impinge upon the cutter blade assembly It can be seen that potato 17 will be cut into a potato core having a cross sectional shape of an M and twelve separate peripheral scraps.

Fig. 5 is a representational side view which shows a feature of my invention which results in a minimization of wobble of the strip knives in the cutter blade assembly. The end tab sections of strip knife 15 are slightly elevated above the plane surface of ring 13 so that when all of the rings containing the strip knives are bolted together by use of bolts passing through holes 16, strip knives 15 will be tightly clamped into 23 place.

4.

WO 88/09711 PCT/US87/02263 -9- This design, as is shown in Figs. 4 and 5 results in a cutter blade assembly which can be quickly disassembled for purposes of removing and sharpening strip knives Figs. 6 through 10 show other configurations of the strip knives which are designed to produce decorative shaped cores in a variety of different configurations, Figs. 6 and 7 disclose strip knife configurations which result in a decorative core in the shape of fish. Fig.

6 uses six strip knives to configure the core in the shape of a single fish, It requires the use of three sectional rings to hold six strip knives, Fig. 7 discloses a strip knife configuration which results in the product core being cut into two decorative fish sections, and requires the use of eight strip knives and four Wi sections. Figs. 8, 9 and 10 disclose other configurations of strip knives which result in core shapes in the forms of an A, X and K. In practice it has been found that virtually all of the letters of the 0o alphabet as well as decorative geometric shapes such as stars and triangles can be easily produced by varying the configurations of the strip knives, While there is shown and described the present preferred embodiment of the invention, it is to be 21 distinctly understood that this invention is not limited i WO 88/09711 PCT/US87/02263 10 thereto but may be variously embodied to practice within the scope of the following claims.

Claims (12)

1. Apparatus for the cutting of food products into decorative forms, having a product receiving tank adapted to be filled with a fluid medium, means to discharge said products into said tank, a food pump for withdrawing said medium and said products from said tank, a product feed line, said pump dischargii.g said products into said product feed line, a tapered section in said feed line to separate, align, accelerate and 10 feed said products into a cutter blade assembly, and Goo@ OD" means posterior to said cutter blade assembly, to discharge cut product, characterized by a cutter blade assembly having: a perimeter frame having an inner longitudinal passage of size and shape for the longitudinal passage of product and fluid medium therethrough; a plurality of sequentially arranged strip knives disposed one after another within the 0*: longitudinal passageway of said perimeter frame and further disposed and configured to define a multi- segmented peripheral volume of said longitudinal passageway and a residual cross-sectional core area in the shape of a decorative food product; said plurality of strip knives being of 12 size and shape so as to define said multi-segmented peripheral volume of the longitudinal passageway which results in the cross-sectional shape of the core having a decorative shape.

2. The apparatus of Claim 1 wherein said plurality of strip knives define a multi-segmented peripheral volume of the longitudinal passageway resulting in the core cut area defining the shape of a fish. S 0oS 10

3. The apparatus of Claim 1 wherein said plurality of strip knives define a multi-segmented Sa*. peripheral volume of the longitudinal passageway resulting in the core cut area defining the shape of an alpha-numeric character. o 15

4. The apparatus of Claim 1 wherein said plurality of strip knives define a multi-segmented j peripheral volume of the longitudinal passageway resulting in the core cut area defining the shape of a o* O person.

5. The apparatus of Claim 1 wherein said plurality of strip knives define a multi-segmented peripheral volume of the longitudinal passageway C Q 1 l~ /(l'o I lj-- I: i ;i r I 13 resulting in the core cut area defining the shape of an animal.

6. The apparatus of Claim 1 wherein said plurality of strip knives define a multi-segmented peripheral volume of the longitudinal passageway resulting in the core cut area defining the shape of a recognizable geometric form.

7. The cutter blade assembly of Claim 1 wherein said plurality of strip knives are further arranged and 10 shaped to limit the length and number of blades eggs contacting any one segment of the food product at any given time during the passage of the food product through the longitudinal passageway to thereby minimize the frictional and shear forces imparted to the food eas,: 15 product being cut and the resulting deceleration of food product.

8. The apparatus of Claim 7 wherein said plurality of strip knives define a multi-segmented peripheral volume of the longitudinal passageway resulting in the core cut area defining the shape of a fish.

9, The apparatus of Claim 7 wherein said I, 14 plurality of strip knives define a multi-segmented peripheral volume of the longitudinal passageway resulting in the core cut area defining the shape of an alpha-numeric character.

10. The apparatus of Claim 7 wherein said plurality of strip knives define a multi-segmented peripheral volume of the longitudinal passageway resulting in the core cut area defining the shape of a person. eoo 10

11. The apparatus of Claim 7 wherein said plurality of strip knives define a multi-segmented peripheral volume of the longitudinal passageway resulting in the core cut area defining the shape of an animal. -soot: 0..o 15

12. The apparatus of Claim 7 wherein said plurality of strip knives define a multi-segmented peripheral volume of the longitudinal passageway resulting in the core cut area defining the shape of a recognizable geometric form. DATED this fifth day of November 1991. GEORGE A. MENDENHALL, by his Patent Attorneys, GRANT ADAMS OMPANY. i *I WO 88/09711 PCT/US87/02263 21 STATEMENT UNDER ARTICLE 19 In response to the citations by the examiner of the SIMPLOT and DESMOND patents, the language of applicant's Claim No. 1 has been amended and additional claims 7-11 have been added. Specifically, the amended language referring to the strip knives, was added to avoid the unitary structure of DESMOND. Additional claims 7-11 were added to distinctly claim necessary structure not taught by any combination of prior references. The applicant submits that this is fully within the scope of the disclosure and is supported on page 4, lines 12 through 15 and 9, lines through 16.