Variable Angle Sickle Blade for Food Slicer

Solution Overview

Problem

Existing cutting blades for high-speed slicers face challenges in minimizing product compression, ensuring precise slice trajectory, and extending service life while being easy to manufacture and sharpen.

Innovation Solution

A sickle-shaped cutting blade with a cutting edge that varies in angle only in partial areas of its circumference, featuring discontinuous changes to simplify production and sharpening, and providing an additional impulse to slices for improved separation.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Manufacturing precision

If the cutting edge angle varies continuously over the entire circumference, then the slice trajectory and separation are improved, but the manufacturing complexity and sharpening difficulty increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveslice trajectory precisionVSAvoidblade manufacturing and sharpening ease

Core Design Contradiction:

Manufacturing precisionVSEase of manufacture

Solution Approach 1:

The cutting edge is divided into multiple circumferential sections, each with a specific cutting edge angle. This segmentation allows the blade to provide varied cutting angles for different slicing requirements while maintaining manufacturability, as each section can be manufactured and sharpened independently rather than requiring continuous angle variation across the entire circumference.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

Different sections of the cutting edge are assigned different cutting edge angles tailored to specific slicing needs. This local quality approach ensures that each part of the blade optimizes for its particular function while keeping the overall design simple enough for cost-effective manufacturing and sharpening.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

2Reliability

If the cutting edge angle varies to improve slice separation, then the slice trajectory is improved, but the production cost increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveslice separation reliabilityVSAvoidproduction cost

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSEase of manufacture

Solution Approach 1:

The cutting edge is divided into multiple circumferential sections, each with a specific cutting edge angle. This segmentation allows the blade to provide varied cutting angles for different slicing requirements while maintaining manufacturability, as each section can be manufactured and sharpened independently rather than requiring continuous angle variation across the entire circumference.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

Different sections of the cutting edge are assigned different cutting edge angles tailored to specific slicing needs. This local quality approach ensures that each part of the blade optimizes for its particular function while keeping the overall design simple enough for cost-effective manufacturing and sharpening.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

3Ease of manufacture

If the cutting edge angle is constant, then the manufacturing and sharpening are simpler, but the slice trajectory and separation are less effective

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvemanufacturing and sharpening simplicityVSAvoidslice trajectory precision

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of manufactureVSManufacturing precision

Solution Approach 1:

The cutting edge is divided into multiple circumferential sections, each with a specific cutting edge angle. This segmentation allows the blade to provide varied cutting angles for different slicing requirements while maintaining manufacturability, as each section can be manufactured and sharpened independently rather than requiring continuous angle variation across the entire circumference.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

Different sections of the cutting edge are assigned different cutting edge angles tailored to specific slicing needs. This local quality approach ensures that each part of the blade optimizes for its particular function while keeping the overall design simple enough for cost-effective manufacturing and sharpening.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

Data Source

PatentEP2948279B1Cutting blade with variable cutting angle

Publication Date: 2017.10.11 GEA FOOD SOLUTIONS GERMANY GMBH

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AI summary

The present invention relates to a cutting blade for machines for slicing food products, in particular for high-speed slicers, wherein the cutting blade is a sickle blade, which rotates about an axis of rotation during the cutting operation and which has a cutting edge that deviates from a circular shape, in particular that revolves around the axis of rotation in the manner of a spiral, at the radially outer perimeter of the sickle blade, which cutting edge lies in a cutting plane extending perpendicularly to the axis of rotation, wherein the cutting edge forms the radially outer end of the cutting surface, which forms part of the blade back side facing away from the product to be sliced during the cutting operation and includes a cutting angle with the cutting plane, and wherein the size of the cutting angle varies in the circumferential direction of the cutting blade. The present invention further relates to a cutting blade grinding device.