Cord-Pull Food Chopper Gearing for Hard and Fibrous Ingredients
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing food choppers face challenges in efficiently processing hard and fibrous vegetables, requiring excessive force and often resulting in unsatisfactory cutting results, with existing devices being costly, prone to malfunction, and difficult to operate safely, especially when handling wet materials.
Innovation Solution
A manual food processing device featuring a cord pull drive mechanism with a primary and secondary drive unit connected via gears, providing a transmission ratio of 1:1.5 to 1:4, allowing for high cutting speed and efficient processing of hard and fibrous materials, while being cost-efficient and easy to operate and clean.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a pushbutton actuating mechanism with spring is used to drive the cutter, then the device can process soft vegetables, but it requires great force to process hard vegetables and cannot effectively process fibrous vegetables
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the drive mechanism from a simple spring-loaded pushbutton to a cord pull mechanism with gear transmission. This parameter change enables the device to process hard and fibrous vegetables effectively while maintaining ease of operation through mechanical advantage provided by the gears with transmission ratio of 1:1.5 to 1:4.
2Speed
If double gearing is used in crank drive mechanisms to achieve higher shaft revolutions, then cutting speed increases, but production costs increase and the device becomes louder and more prone to malfunction
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts only the essential gearing function needed to achieve high cutting speed, using a single gear transmission with ratio 1:1.5 to 1:4 instead of double gearing. This eliminates unnecessary complexity, reduces production costs, and decreases malfunction probability while maintaining effective cutting speed.
3Productivity
If planetary gear is used in small manual devices to transfer rotary movement, then cutting performance improves, but manufacture and mounting costs become very costly
Solution Approach 1:
The invention replaces the expensive planetary gear system with a simpler, more cost-effective cord pull mechanism combined with basic gear transmission. This achieves satisfactory cutting performance while dramatically reducing manufacture and assembly costs, making the device economically viable for mass production.
4Volume of moving object
If the device is designed to be hand-held for operation, then the device size is compact, but the user cannot safely hold it with wet or greasy hands and cannot provide sufficient force for cutting hard materials
Solution Approach 1:
The invention transitions from a purely hand-held operation to a hybrid operation where the device is held in one hand while the cord pull is operated with the other hand. This dimensional change in operation mode allows safe handling with wet hands and enables sufficient force application through the extended cord pull mechanism.
5Productivity
If all four blades cut simultaneously in cord pull devices, then cutting efficiency is high, but blockage occurs when too much or too large-sized material is filled
Solution Approach 1:
The invention implements periodic cutting action where blades cut in sequence rather than simultaneously. This is achieved through the cord pull mechanism that rotates the shaft in discrete steps, allowing material to be progressively worked through the container without causing blockages, while still maintaining good cutting efficiency.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The device enables efficient processing of large quantities of hard and fibrous materials with reduced initial force requirement, maintaining a compact design and ensuring safe operation, even with wet hands, by leveraging a torque-proof connection and pivotable blades for effective cutting.
Implementation Method 1
The drive mechanism substantially comprises a primary and a secondary drive unit, which are in an operative connection via gears in such a way that a transmission ratio, preferably of 1:1.5 to 1:4, is achieved
Implementation Method 2
A manual food processing device featuring a cord pull drive mechanism with a primary and secondary drive unit connected via gears, providing a transmission ratio of 1:1.5 to 1:4, allowing for high cutting speed
Data Source
AI summary
A device for processing foodstuffs in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure includes an upper part, a drive mechanism and a lower part with a working container, in which a working unit can be manually driven and made to rotate by means of the drive mechanism. The drive mechanism includes a tractive cable drive and is operatively connected to the working unit by means of a releasable torque-coupled connection. The drive mechanism also includes a primary and secondary drive unit, which are operatively interconnected by means of a gear in such a way that a transmission ratio of between 1:1.5 and 1:4 and preferably between 1:1.8 and 1:1.9 is achieved. The primary and secondary drive units are axially parallel and dimensioned in such a way that at least one of the drive units intersects the rotational axis of the other respective drive unit. Despite the transmission ratio achieved, the dimensions of the drive mechanism can be kept small, allowing said mechanism to be housed without any problems in the upper part. The non-employment of two continuous axes, the eccentric arrangement of the drive wheel axis and the use of a drive wheel with inner gearing allow an axial wheel for indirectly driving the drive unit to be mounted on the central axis of the device in a preferred embodiment and the transmission to be achieved by the larger drive wheel, without causing the space required in the upper part next to the axial pin to increase by the diameter of the drive wheel.