The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 13, 1993
Filed:
Nov. 09, 1990
Darrell L Covert, West Linn, OR (US);
Gary D Cuddeford, Tigard, OR (US);
Kenneth J Stanley, Aloha, OR (US);
John C Julian, Tualatin, OR (US);
Lamb-Weston, Inc., Tri-Cities, WA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus are disclosed for efficiently cutting food items, such as potatoes, into helical strips. The food items are provided seriatim to the cutting assembly from a conveyor system fed by a trough shaker or other singulator device. Food items on the conveyor are aligned longitudinally and are then impaled on small spikes protruding from the conveyor so that they maintain the longitudinal orientation during their travel to a feed roller portion of the system. The feed rollers firmly grip the food items by their peripheries and advance them into the rotary cutting assembly. This assembly includes a helically shaped cutting member defining at a leading edge thereof a slicing blade and supporting on its front surface a plurality of perpendicularly extending scoring blades. The helically shaped cutting member is mounted at its periphery by being threadedly received in a helical thread cut in an annular holder. This holder, in turn, is affixed to a toothed drive ring which is rotatably mounted in a cutting assembly housing. This composite assembly is removably mounted in the apparatus and the toothed drive ring driven by a drive gear that extends through an opening in the housing. The apparatus cuts food items quickly and efficiently and includes features designed to minimize cutting stresses that may impair the structural integrity of the resulting products.