Hybrid Tooth Roller Alignment for Meat Skinner
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional handheld meat skinners experience short roller life and teeth misalignment due to repetitive sanitation, leading to inefficiencies and reduced productivity in the meat processing industry.
Innovation Solution
A handheld meat skinner with a hybrid tooth roller configuration, where teeth rings are mounted on a plastic arbor using pins, keys, or splines, ensuring proper alignment and preventing rotation, thereby increasing the roller's life expectancy and allowing for improved maneuverability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If teeth rings are manually pressed onto the plastic arbor, then assembly is simple, but teeth misalignment occurs and roller life decreases
Solution Approach 1:
A metal insert is introduced as an intermediary component between the plastic arbor and the tooth rings. The insert provides precise alignment features (such as alignment pins or keys) that ensure accurate positioning of the tooth rings relative to the arbor, eliminating the misalignment problems associated with direct manual pressing onto plastic.
Solution Approach 2:
The roller assembly uses a composite structure combining plastic (for the arbor body), metal (for the insert and tooth rings), and potentially other materials. This composite approach leverages the advantages of each material: plastic for corrosion resistance and lightweight, metal for precision and strength in critical alignment and load-bearing areas.
2Productivity
If conventional plastic arbors are used with metal tooth rings, then sanitation is possible, but the plastic arbor expands and contracts causing tooth ring loosening
Solution Approach 1:
The metal insert serves as a stable intermediary that is not susceptible to thermal expansion and contraction like plastic. It provides a consistent, dimensionally stable mounting surface for the tooth rings during repeated sanitation cycles, preventing the loosening problem caused by plastic arbor dimensional changes.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the material parameter (thermal stability) of the critical mounting structure from plastic to metal. This parameter change ensures that the arbor-insert-tooth ring assembly maintains its mechanical integrity and alignment through the thermal cycles of sanitation without expanding and contracting like pure plastic structures.
3Ease of manufacture
If single tooth configuration rollers are used, then manufacturing is simple, but maneuverability and skinning efficiency are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The roller is segmented into multiple independent tooth rings, each capable of having different tooth configurations. This segmentation allows each ring to be optimized for specific skinning tasks while maintaining the simplicity of individual ring manufacturing. The multiple rings work together to provide both simple manufacturing and high productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The roller assembly is designed with multi-functionality by incorporating tooth rings with different tooth patterns and configurations. This universal design allows a single roller assembly to handle various skinning requirements (different animal types, skin conditions, etc.), thereby improving productivity without significantly complicating the overall manufacturing process.
Data Source
AI summary
A handheld teeth skinning tool is provided with a head assembly having at toothed roller with interchangeable teeth rings, with the rings having different tooth configurations. The teeth rings are securely mounted on the insert arbor using male and female connections. The teeth rings may include pointed teeth for aggressively gripping the skin for direction into the blade of the head assembly, while square teeth allow for easy manual maneuverability of the head assembly on the meat carcass or head. The roller provides increase life expectancy and improved handling for lower costs and higher productivity.