Movable Cutting Tool Geometry for Wear-Compensated Food Separation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing meat grinders and cutting devices suffer from high wear of cutting elements, leading to a limited service life, complex designs, and high maintenance costs, particularly due to the need for replacing worn components like screw conveyors and cleaning, which affects the quality and efficiency of food processing.
Innovation Solution
A cutting device with a movably arranged cutting tool on a rotating body, featuring channels and grooves that allow the cutting tool to adjust to the product flow, maintaining a consistent gap with the drum surface despite wear, and enabling easy replacement, thus extending the tool's service life and reducing maintenance costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If a fixed cutting tool is used on a rotary body, then the initial comminution quality is high, but the service life is limited due to wear-induced gap increase
Solution Approach 1:
The cutting tool is made movable relative to the drum surface through a guide channel, allowing dynamic adjustment of the gap dimension. This enables the system to adapt to wear by moving the cutting tool closer to the drum surface, thereby maintaining comminution quality throughout the service life of the cutting tool.
2Manufacturing precision
If the cutting tool is moved closer to the drum to compensate for wear, then comminution quality is maintained, but the risk of contact and damage increases
Solution Approach 1:
A guide channel acts as an intermediary element between the cutting tool and the drum surface. This guide channel provides a controlled path for the cutting tool's movement, ensuring that the tool approaches the drum surface in a controlled manner and preventing uncontrolled contact that could cause damage.
Solution Approach 2:
The system is designed with the capability to detect and respond to wear before catastrophic failure occurs. By continuously allowing adjustment of the cutting tool position within the guide channel, the system prevents the harmful effect of excessive gap dimension while avoiding the harmful effect of direct tool-drum contact.
3Manufacturing precision
If frequent replacement of worn cutting tools is performed, then comminution quality is maintained, but maintenance time and costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of replacing the cutting tool when wear occurs, the system dynamically adjusts the position of the cutting tool along the guide channel to compensate for wear. This extends the usable life of each cutting tool significantly, reducing the frequency of replacements and associated maintenance time.
4Duration of action of moving object
If a complex adjustable mechanism is added to maintain gap dimension, then service life is extended, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The guide channel structure allows the cutting tool to be positioned and adjusted using the existing mechanical structure of the separator itself, without requiring external complex adjustment mechanisms. The system uses its own structural elements to provide the adjustment functionality, thereby extending service life while minimizing additional complexity.
Data Source
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Figure 3
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AI summary
A cutting device, a separator and a method for separating food components using a separator are proposed, wherein the effects of increasing wear of a cutting tool (8) arranged on a rotating body (2) on the comminution of a food are compensated by the fact that the cutting tool (8) is movably arranged on the rotating body (2).