Flexible Guide Wire for Precision Food Coring
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing devices for hollowing out foods, such as sausages, lack precision and versatility in creating a targeted, circular or shape-specific hollow for filling with other ingredients, often resulting in incomplete or uneven removal of contents.
Innovation Solution
A tool comprising a support beam with a slot, a pulling device, and a knife or blade that can be circular, conical, or of various shapes, allowing for precise hollowing by guiding the knife along the support beam's path, with optional barbs for easy removal of contents and interchangeable components for different diameters and shapes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If a conventional coring device is used, then the hollowing process is simple, but the precision and circularity of the hollowed shape are poor
Solution Approach 1:
A flexible guide wire is introduced as an intermediary element that defines the precise circular path. The cutting blade follows this guide wire, ensuring accurate circular hollowing without requiring a complex rigid guiding mechanism. The guide wire acts as a mediator between the simple pulling motion and the precise circular cutting path.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the state of the guiding element from rigid to flexible. The guide wire can be easily inserted and removed, and its flexibility allows it to conform to the sausage shape while maintaining circular geometry. This parameter change enables precise hollowing with a simpler device structure.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a rigid support structure is used, then the tool is stable, but it cannot adapt to different sausage shapes and sizes
Solution Approach 1:
The guide wire is implemented as a flexible thin element that can adapt to different sausage shapes and sizes. Despite its flexibility, it maintains structural integrity and defines a stable circular path during the hollowing process. The flexibility allows adaptation to various food geometries while the tensioned state provides stability during cutting.
Solution Approach 2:
The tool transitions from a static rigid structure to a dynamic system where the guide wire can be inserted, tensioned, and removed. The flexible guide wire dynamically adapts to the sausage shape during insertion, then maintains a stable circular configuration during cutting, and can be easily removed afterward. This dynamic behavior provides both adaptability and stability.
3Ease of operation
If the cutting blade is pulled through the food, then the hollowing is complete, but the contents are difficult to remove
Solution Approach 1:
The guide wire is extracted from the food after cutting, and the hollowed contents are removed through the created opening. The flexible nature of the guide wire allows it to be easily pulled out, taking advantage of the clean circular cut to access and remove the contents without requiring complex retrieval mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of trying to push the contents out from the cutting end, the guide wire is pulled out from the same end, and the contents are accessed and removed through the opening created by the blade. This inverted approach simplifies the retrieval process by utilizing the clean circular path already created.
4Adaptability or versatility
If the support beam is made flexible, then it can be bent to match food shapes, but it may lack the rigidity needed for precise cutting guidance
Solution Approach 1:
The guide wire is implemented as a flexible thin element that can be bent to match the sausage shape during insertion. Once in place, its tensioned state and circular configuration provide sufficient rigidity to guide the cutting blade with high precision. The flexibility is used only during insertion, while the cutting phase benefits from the stabilized circular path.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide wire is pre-formed into a circular shape and inserted into the sausage before cutting begins. This preliminary action ensures that the cutting path is already defined with the desired circular geometry and appropriate size, allowing the blade to simply follow this pre-established path with high precision during the hollowing process.
Data Source
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Figure 4~5
Figure 6
AI summary
The invention relates to a tool for hollowing out foodstuffs along their entire elongated length in order to fill them with other foodstuffs. The foodstuff is pierced by a support bar (1) and a pulling device (22) with a point (9) on this device. Subsequently, a knife (5) guided on the outside of the support bar is pulled through the pierced foodstuff by the pulling device (22) to hollow it out. The knife, which is responsible for the desired hollowing result, is connected via a square blade (13) that runs in a slot (2) of the support bar to the pulling device (22), which runs in the cavity of the support bar (1).