Meat Grinder Hopper with Varying Slope Side Walls
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Solution Overview
Problem
Meat grinders with conveyors in the hopper area often experience meat bridging, leading to a non-continuous flow towards the cutting mechanism, causing the mincer to malfunction.
Innovation Solution
A meat grinder design featuring a funnel with a rotating conveyor and side walls with varying slopes, creating a trapezoidal cavity that allows meat to slide smoothly towards the cutting mechanism, preventing bridging by maintaining an angle of enclosure less than 110°, typically around 85°, ensuring continuous meat flow.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the conveyor is arranged in the bottom area of a funnel with side walls adjoining the base area, then the meat can be conveyed towards the cutting mechanism, but the meat forms bridges and does not slide further in the direction of the conveyor
Solution Approach 1:
The side wall of the funnel is designed with different slopes in different sections: a first section with a steeper slope and a second section with a shallower slope. This local variation in geometry creates a transition zone that prevents bridging while maintaining efficient meat flow towards the conveyor.
Solution Approach 2:
The funnel side wall employs an asymmetric profile with varying slopes rather than a uniform angle. The transition from the steeper first section to the shallower second section creates an asymmetric geometry that disrupts bridge formation and ensures continuous meat flow to the conveyor.
2Reliability
If additional stirring elements are added to prevent bridging, then meat flow can be improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent eliminates the need for additional stirring elements by integrating the bridging prevention function directly into the funnel side wall geometry. The varying slope design inherently prevents bridging through its structural configuration, removing the need for separate active stirring components.
Solution Approach 2:
The funnel side wall structure serves multiple functions: it guides meat flow, prevents bridging, and directs meat towards the conveyor, all through its geometric design alone. The structure is self-sufficient and does not require additional active components to prevent bridging.
3Quantity of substance
If the side walls have a large angle of enclosure, then the meat can be contained in the funnel, but the meat forms bridges and flow becomes non-continuous
Solution Approach 1:
The side wall employs different slope angles in different sections to balance containment and flow. The steeper first section provides containment while the shallower second section promotes continuous flow, preventing bridging without sacrificing meat retention in the funnel.
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 design ensures a continuous flow of meat towards the cutting mechanism, preventing bridging and ensuring efficient operation of the meat grinder.
Implementation Method 1
a conveyor, which transports the meat in the direction of a cutting mechanism
Implementation Method 2
Due to the different slope of the side wall, it is possible to provide a hollow space at the side of the conveying means, which is triangular or trapezoidal, for example, and into which the meat to be minced can easily slide
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a meat grinder (1) with a hopper (2), the bottom region (7) of which accommodates a conveying means (5), which transports the meat towards a cutter unit, which grinds said meat. A side wall (4) of the hopper has sections (4.1, 4.2), with a different pitch.