Vanmark Equipment LLC

Colter J Young

Thomas P Mathues

Christopher Paul Hebbeln

A distributor valve for a hydrocutting system. The valve automatically diverts a flow of liquid and solid food products flowing from a source to one or both of two destinations. An entry conduit receives the suspended food products in liquid, and an angled plate deflects the food products downwardly. The food products and liquid enter a drum that is perpendicular to the entry conduit, causing rotational circulation in the drum. The food products and liquid flow into one or both of two longitudinally opposite outlets, depending on whether the path downstream of the outlets is flowing. Upon actuation of a valve on one side, or essentially complete blockage of one side, the fluid and products flow to the other side automatically. No moving parts are needed in the valve to change the flow path; the only change is to the flow downstream, which automatically affects the flow in the valve.

Apparatus for diverting solid food pieces suspended in a flowing liquid

An improvement to hydrocutting systems includes a curved shape for the acceleration and deceleration sections of the system. In the acceleration and deceleration tubes, the curvature of the sidewall is non-linear along its length, and the water flowing therein accelerates, positively or negatively, at a substantially constant rate. In an embodiment, there is a second curvature, which may be offset from the first curvature by about 90 degrees, that accelerates the water at a second, different substantially constant rate, in order to align the food product both lengthwise and rotationally to a desired orientation.

Growing community of inventors

Boise, ID, United States of America

Colter J Young