Food Processor Cutting Tool with Recovery Region to Reduce Torque
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing food processing apparatuses require high torque to maintain rotational speed due to constant contact with the foodstuff, leading to inefficiency and the need for powerful drive units.
Innovation Solution
The apparatus features a cutting tool with a processing region and a recovery region, allowing the cutting tool to pass through the processing region once per revolution while recovering rotational speed in the recovery region, minimizing torque requirements and enabling use of a low-powered drive unit like a hand blender.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the cutting tool is in constant contact with the food stuff during rotation, then the food stuff is continuously processed, but a large torque is required to maintain rotational speed
Solution Approach 1:
The cutting tool is designed to intermittently contact the food stuff during rotation, creating periodic cutting action. The tool rotates through a full 360 degrees but only contacts the food stuff during a portion of the rotation cycle, allowing the motor to recover speed during non-contact portions. This periodic contact pattern reduces average torque requirements while maintaining processing capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from static continuous contact to dynamic intermittent contact. The cutting tool's rotational motion is optimized so that contact with the food stuff occurs only during specific angular positions, allowing the system to adapt between high-torque cutting phases and low-torque recovery phases, thereby reducing overall power consumption.
2Productivity
If the cutting tool rotates at high speed to process food stuff efficiently, then productivity increases, but the motor requires high power to overcome resistance
Solution Approach 1:
The cutting tool implements periodic contact with the food stuff during rotation, where the tool engages the food stuff for a limited angular portion of each revolution and then disengages. This allows the motor to operate in alternating high-power (during cutting) and low-power (during recovery) modes, reducing average power consumption while maintaining adequate processing efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the operational parameters by varying the contact angle and rotational speed dynamically. Instead of maintaining constant high-speed contact, the tool rotates at optimized speeds with controlled contact duration, changing the temporal parameters of the cutting action to reduce overall power requirements while preserving productivity.
Data Source
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AI summary
The present application relates to an apparatus for processing a food stuff. The apparatus has a housing (2), and a cutting tool (5) rotatably mounted in the housing (2) having a cutting edge (35) and a trailing edge(31). The cutting tool (5) is arranged to pass once per revolution through a processing region (43) in the housing in which a food stuff is receivable, and to pass through a recovery region (45). The recovery region is defined in the housing between the trailing edge passing from the processing region and the cutting edge passing into the processing region as the cutting tool rotates, and the cutting tool is free to rotate in the processing region without contacting the food stuff. Therefore, the cutting tool (5) acts on a food stuff as the cutting tool rotates through the processing region, and recovers the rotational speed lost due to acting on a food stuff in the processing region as the cutting tool (5) rotates through the recovery region. The present application also relates to a food processor and to a method of processing a food stuff.