General Mills, Inc.

Clifton H Morrison

Stanley C Rustad

Takuzo Tsuchiya

Glenn Rasmussen

Larry Huston

John T Lyons

Floyd Lobash

Leo W Eiden

Donald W Morse

Gerald J Elander

The disclosed apparatus includes a magazine for containing a plurality of frozen blocks of fish therein, the lower surfaces of the blocks resting on a table that is vertically adjustable relative to a reciprocable blade. A pusher unit is provided for each of the plurality of blocks, the pusher units ejecting the cut slabs each time the blade is retracted after completing a cutting stroke. During the cutting stroke the blocks are securely clamped.

Apparatus and method for cutting slabs from a frozen fish block

Frozen slabs of fish are introduced one at a time to one end of a conveyor having a bed of laterally spaced plastic strips forming slots therebetween. Beneath each slot is an endless chain having a series of upwardly directed fingers thereon. The fingers are engageable with the various slabs so as to advance the slabs to a location beneath an assembly of water jet devices, each device including a pivotal arm having a nozzle at one end thereof. A barrel cam has a plurality of tracking grooves, the pivotal arms having cam followers depending downwardly therefrom into the tracking grooves of the barrel cam. As the slabs are successively advanced beneath the liquid jet devices, the jets cut the particular slab into individual portions. Advancement of the now severed portions cause the portions to be moved onto a plurality of tilt strips which prevent the cut edges from freezing together. The individual portions are then delivered onto a spreader conveyor assembly comprised of three angularly oriented sets of rollers, two of the sets flanking the first or central set and causing the individual portions to traverse a diverging path for subsequent processing.

Apparatus and method utilizing a water jet for cutting frozen fish slabs

A plurality of frozen fish columns having a rectangular cross section are contained in a corresponding number of transversely aligned and laterally spaced tubes constituting a magazine. The lower ends of the columns rest on pushers which are slidable on a number of plastic anvils or blocks comprising part of a vertically adjustable table assembly. A single-edge blade is advanced and retracted at a 30.degree. angle through the lower ends of the frozen columns to sever portions therefrom having a thickness determined by the vertical adjustment of the table assembly. Pushers, which are synchronized with the blade movement, shove the severed portions from the cutting station beneath the lower ends of the tubes onto a conveyor. By controlling the speed of the conveyor the various severed portions, while still uniformly oriented, are transferred in an appropriately spaced end-to-end relationship to another location for processing.

Method for severing portions from a plurality of frozen columns of fish

Method and apparatus for severing portions from a plurality of frozen

A number of pairs of frozen fish slabs are arranged vertically in an equal number of laterally spaced vertical tubes or chutes constituting a magazine, each tube or chute having a partition dividing it into two open-ended compartments with a slab being slidably contained in each compartment. A cutter assembly comprising a blade carrier and a vertically adjustable table move as a unit at an acute angle beneath the magazine. The carrier has fixedly mounted at another acute angle thereon a plurality of flat blades equal in number to the number of tubes or chutes, each blade having a knife edge extending along opposite sides thereof so that when the cutter assembly is advanced in one direction the lower end of one of the slabs of each pair of slabs is severed and when retracted the lower end of the other of the slabs of each pair is severed to form individual fish sticks having a thickness determined by the distance the table is spaced below the plane in which the blades move. Whereas the thickness of the fish sticks is determined by the height of the table, the length and width thereof are determined by the cross section of the frozen slabs. The table has appropriately located openings therein so that the fish sticks gravitationally drop into angled troughs after they have been severed from the slabs. The fish sticks are then pushed from the angled troughs onto a conveyor in a uniformly-oriented manner suitable for food processing operations, such as breading and battering.

Fish stick cutting method and apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Saint Paul, MN, United States of America

Clifton H Morrison