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:
Nov. 12, 1996
Filed:
Jul. 12, 1995
Orville C Fager, Green Bay, WI (US);
Scott G Andrews, Green Bay, WI (US);
Dennis R Ferdon, Abrams, WI (US);
David J Garnett, Green Bay, WI (US);
Matthew T Stenzel, Green Bay, WI (US);
Schreiber Foods, Inc., Green Bay, WI (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for producing shredded food products, such as cheese, is disclosed. The method and apparatus permits the production of cheese shreds to be accomplished in a unified operation wherein a sheet of cheese is produced and that sheet of cheese is cut to desired dimensions directly from the casting line. An arrangement of the invention may comprise a sheet former, a casting line, and a shredding assembly, all of which function as a single unit. The shredding assembly, itself a unique arrangement, first slices the incoming sheet of cheese into ribbons, and then cuts each of these ribbons to length. The sheet of cheese may be sliced into ribbons by passing the cheese through a pair of rollers having grooves or slots machined into their surfaces, the width of the slots corresponding to the desired width of the cheese ribbons. The cheese ribbons are presented to a plurality of transversely mounted elongate blades, each of which revolves about a common axis. Each blade cuts off segments of desired lengths from the cheese ribbons.