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:
Jun. 30, 1998
Filed:
Mar. 11, 1997
Thomas B Hunter, Collinsville, IL (US);
Kerry Ingredients, Inc., Beloit, WI (US);
Abstract
An extruder for producing a food piece in a shape of a natural food piece. The extruder has a pressure vessel for containing a mash, a manifold communicating with the pressure vessel, and at least one die and cutter assembly communicating with the manifold. The die and cutter assembly has an extrusion member with an extrusion wall, a closed extrusion end, an opened feed end attachable to the manifold, at least one extrusion die formed in the extrusion wall, and a tubular cutter member which is reciprocably slidable on the extrusion wall. An opened cutter end has at least one cutting surface. The improvement is where the extrusion die has a shape generally configured to a cross-sectional shape of the food piece and configured to provide a substantially constant transverse flow rate of the mash through the die at substantially all portions of the die. The cutter member is reciprocated at speeds sufficient that a pressure of the mash in the extrusion member is not substantially changed during a reciprocation. The cutting surface is configured to approximate the shape of the at least first one-quarter of the die first encountered by the cutting surface.