Cutting Apparatus With Periodic Knife Patterns
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing size reduction equipment for food products, such as the DiversaCut 2110, primarily produces uniform slices, strips, and diced products, but lacks the capability to create unique shaped slices with varying thickness, limiting versatility in food processing.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus with a casing and impeller that uses a slicing knife with a periodic pattern of rounded peaks and valleys, an adjustable slice gate, and crosscut knives to produce slices with varying thickness, strips, and further reduces them into unique shaped products by aligning the periodic patterns to create consistent and adjustable cuts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional slicing knives and slice gates are used, then uniform slices are produced efficiently, but the ability to create unique shaped slices with varying thickness is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The slicing knife and slice gate are equipped with periodic patterns of rounded peaks and valleys that create locally varied cutting characteristics. This allows different portions of the slice to have different thicknesses and shapes, transforming uniform cutting into varied cutting without changing the overall device structure
Solution Approach 2:
The periodic patterns on the slicing knife and slice gate feature rounded peaks and valleys with curved surfaces. These curved geometries create the desired unique shapes in the slices by varying the gap distance between the knife and gate during rotation, producing slices with aesthetically pleasing rounded edges and variable thickness
2Manufacturing precision
If the slice gate is made adjustable to vary gate opening width, then slice thickness can be controlled, but the periodic pattern alignment between knife and gate becomes more difficult to maintain
Solution Approach 1:
Both the slicing knife and slice gate are equipped with periodic patterns of rounded peaks and valleys. When the slice gate is adjusted to different positions, the periodic patterns remain aligned with each other, ensuring that the varying gap distance consistently produces the desired periodic variation in slice thickness. This periodic structure makes the alignment more predictable and easier to maintain across different adjustment positions
3Productivity
If circular knives and crosscut knives are positioned outside the casing, then they can process slices after they are cut, but the overall device size increases and processing efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The circular knives and crosscut knives are integrated inside the casing with the slicing knife, merging multiple cutting functions into a single compact chamber. This allows slices to be immediately processed by subsequent cutting stages without leaving the casing, reducing device size and improving processing efficiency by eliminating intermediate handling steps
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
Enables the production of food products with unique shapes and varying thickness, enhancing the versatility and quality of size-reduced products while maintaining consistent processing efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
Centrifugal force holds the product 16 against the inner wall of the casing 12 as paddles 20 of the impeller 14 carry the product 16 past a slicing knife 22
Data Source
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AI summary
An apparatus and method suitable for performing cutting operations on a product to yield a reduced-size product. The apparatus includes a casing, an impeller adapted for rotation within the casing about an axis thereof, and knives that perform, in sequence, slicing, strip-cutting and crosscutting on a product to produce reduced-size products. The apparatus is capable of performing a method by which a product is introduced into the impeller and the impeller is rotated to slice the product with a slicing knife and produce therefrom slices having peaks and valleys on opposite surfaces thereof and a cross-sectional shape that periodically varies in thickness. Strips are then produced from each of the slices by forming parallel cuts, each coinciding with a peak of each slice so that each strip has a width substantially identical to a wavelength of the slice.