Tomato Slicer With Integral Pick And Placer
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing food slicers face challenges in efficiently slicing tomatoes with minimal bruising and liquid loss, maintaining cleanliness without disassembly, and ensuring uniformity and speed of operation.
Innovation Solution
An integrated tomato slicer with parallel cutter blades and a pick-and-placer system that oscillates and uses pushers to gently slice tomatoes, while allowing for simultaneous cleaning and sanitizing without disassembly, and optimizing the feeding mechanism for rapid operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If manual slicing is performed in restaurants, then flexibility in preparation is maintained, but slicing uniformity, worker safety, and efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The slicer is designed to be self-feeding through the integral pick and placer that automatically positions tomatoes onto the cutting blades, eliminating the need for manual placement while maintaining operational simplicity. The machine performs both feeding and slicing functions autonomously.
2Productivity
If prior art slicers are used, then slicing speed is improved, but cleaning complexity and disassembly requirements worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The pick and placer mechanism is integrated directly with the slicer body, merging two separate functions into one unified structure. This integration eliminates the need for disassembly during cleaning, as all components can be accessed and cleaned in place while maintaining high slicing productivity.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If gentle slicing is used to reduce bruising, then product quality is improved, but processing speed deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The cutting blades are designed to oscillate dynamically rather than move in straight lines, allowing the blades to adapt to the contours of each tomato. This dynamic cutting action reduces bruising by following the natural shape of the produce while maintaining high slicing speed through continuous blade motion.
Solution Approach 2:
The oscillating blades perform periodic cutting motions that gently engage with the tomato surface, reducing impact forces that cause bruising. The rhythmic back-and-forth motion allows for controlled, gradual cutting rather than forceful single-pass slicing, preserving product quality at high speeds.
4Manufacturing precision
If parallel cutter blades are used, then slicing uniformity is improved, but the ability to handle varying tomato sizes worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The pick and placer mechanism provides localized adjustment capabilities, positioning each tomato individually on the cutting blades according to its specific size and shape. This localized adaptation allows the parallel blade system to maintain uniform slicing precision while accommodating variations in tomato dimensions.
Data Source
AI summary
Tomatoes (11) or other articles are placed over moving cutter blades (20) in article openings (46) of an article locator (44) of the article slicer (10). Article pushers (24) move downwardly and have downwardly extending pusher fins (26) for pushing the tomatoes though the cutter blades (20). The article pushers (24) have laterally extending front openings (36) for receiving a high pressure fluid spray for cleaning the fins (26) and cutter blades (20) without disassembling the components of the slicer. The article pushers (24) are carried by a movable support plate (78) between retracted positions behind the cutter blades (20) and extended positions over the cutter blades (20). A pick and placer (76) is carried by the same movable support plate (78) and moves simultaneously in the same lateral directions as the article pushers (24), between positions over the on-coming line of tomatoes (11) on an entrance conveyor (64) and over the cutter blades (20).