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Title:
KNIFE HOLDER OF A CUTTING GROUP FOR GRINDING MEAT IN A MEAT PROCESSING PLANT
Document Type and Number:
WIPO Patent Application WO/2014/188320
Kind Code:
A1
Abstract:
Knife holder for a cutting group of a meat grinding plant, comprising a central hub (6) and a plurality of radial arms (1) which are extended from said central hub and support knives (3a, 3b), wherein each radial arm (1) has a pair of knives (3a, 3b) mounted as a V on respective opposite edges of the arm (1), i.e. in a manner so as to define an angle between said knives (3a, 3b), and wherein the blades (2a, 2b) of the knives each have a constant thickness and are inserted in the body of the radial arm (1) in a suitable oblique housing groove. The blades are retained in said oblique housing groove by means of threaded grub screws (4) which do not affect a free bending zone of the respective blade (2a, 2b). In this manner, the blades maintain their capacity to be deformed and can bend independently from each other.

More Like This:
WO/2014/162225CUTTING DEVICE
Inventors:
QUADRANA MARCELLO (IT)
Application Number:
PCT/IB2014/061526
Publication Date:
November 27, 2014
Filing Date:
May 19, 2014
Export Citation:
Click for automatic bibliography generation   Help
Assignee:
EVOLUZIONE SRL (IT)
International Classes:
B02C18/36; A22C17/00
Foreign References:
US8257148B12012-09-04
US20070001040A12007-01-04
DE504975C1930-12-03
Other References:
None
Attorney, Agent or Firm:
FIAMMENGHI, Eva et al. (Via Quattro Fontane 31, Roma, IT)
Download PDF:
Claims:
Claims

1. Knife holder for a cutting group of a meat grinding plant, comprising a central hub (6) and a plurality of radial arms (1) which are extended from said central hub (6) and which support knifes (3a, 3b), characterized in that each radial arm (1) has a pair of knives (3a, 3b) mounted as a V on respective opposite edges of the arm (1), i.e. in a manner so as to define an angle between said knives (3a, 3b), and in that the blades (2a, 2b) of the knives have a constant thickness and are inserted in the body of the radial arm (1) in a suitable oblique housing groove, being retained in said oblique housing groove by means of retention means (4) that do not affect a free bending zone of the respective blade (2a, 2b).

2. Knife holder according to claim 1, characterized in that each knife (3a, 3b) forms a single piece.

3. Knife holder according to claim 2, characterized in that each knife (3a, 3b) forms a single blade.

4. Knife holder according to claim 2, characterized in that each knife (3a, 3b) comprises multiple blades (2a, 2b) that bend in an independent manner under the pressure load of the meat and which are separated from each other by means of partial parallel cuts that do not affect a fitting zone for the knife (3a, 3b) in said oblique housing groove.

5. Knife holder according to claim 1, characterized in that each knife (3a, 3b) comprises more than one blade (2a, 2b), wherein the single blades (2a) and the single blades (2b) of each knife (3a, 3b) form separate pieces that are arranged in side-by-side positions in said oblique housing groove.

6. Knife holder according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that one or more blades (2a, 2b) have windows (5), i.e. openings for the passage of the meat.

7. Knife holder according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said retention means (4) are threaded grub screws (4) that cross through both a part of the body of the radial arm (1) and, perpendicularly, a hole on a respective blade (2a, 2b) at said oblique housing groove.

8. Knife holder according to claim 5, characterized in that the single blades have thicknesses that are equivalent to each other.

9. Knife holder according to claim 5, characterized in that the single blades have thicknesses that are different from each other.

10. Knife holder according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the knives (3a, 3b) or the single blades (2a, 2b), respectively, of these knives, have a flat, blunted surface at the free ends thereof, such flat blunted surface being tilted with respect to a plane defined by the single knife or by the single blade, respectively, and the two flat blunted surfaces of these two knives (3 a, 3b) are parallel to each other.

11. Cutting group comprising one or more knife holders, and perforated discs, which are alternated with each other in order to form the cutting group, characterized in that at least one knife holder is obtained according to any one of the preceding claims.

Description:
"Knife holder of a cutting group for grinding meat in a meat processing plant"

Description

Field of the art

The present invention generally refers to the field of the meat grinding industry, and particularly, but not only, to that of grinding pork meat for producing mortadella or other sausages.

Substantially the invention regards a knife holder of the cutting group for a meat processing plant.

Prior art

Known in the art are meat processing plants which operate in closed temperature-controlled environments (e.g. 16°C) and serve for progressively reducing the meat into increasingly smaller particles, forming a kind of pasty material directly usable for producing sausages, for example.

The meat is loaded into one such plant by means of a load hopper for the pieces of cooled meat (about 4°C), which are hard and have large size, and the plant comprises various cutting groups that grind the meat mass, rendering it increasingly soft and finally directly usable at the outlet of the plant for various purposes. The meat is made to pass through stainless steel ducts of the plant; encountering a cutting group, situated inside the duct, it is reduced into increasingly smaller particles, with respect to the size of the particles upstream of the cutting group, when it exits downstream of the cutting group considered. By repeating such operation multiple times, with two or more cutting groups, one finally obtains the desired soft mass that exits from the final cutting group of the plant (definable for example as the external head group that remains visible).

Specifically, each cutting group of the prior art comprises fixed or stationary perforated discs, which (by means of their holes) calibrate the size of the meat particles, as well as knives which grind the meat, cooperating with said fixed discs. The knives are inserted on supports, or knife holders, and they press the meat against the perforated discs in order to give rise to the aforesaid grinding effect.

Object of the present invention is to provide an improved cutting group, which has different characteristics that allow blades to be suitably deformed under the pressure load of the meat, and which also allow a quick mounting of the blades of the knives, above all by using a mounting system that does not alter the capacity of the blades to be deformed under load. The blades must be able to be elastically deformed, in order to then ideally assume their initial form, i.e. possibly without undergoing a permanent deformation.

The knife holder belonging to the cutting group forms the "heart" of the invention. The mounting system of the blades on the single spokes or arms of the knife holder must be quick, the single blades must be very simple and hence inexpensive in order to reduce the overall costs of the knife holder.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will be clearer from the following description of several particular embodiments of the invention.

Such objects will be obtained as described and claimed in the present patent application.

Brief description of the drawings

The figures show:

Figure 1 : a perspective view of a first knife holder embodiment of the present invention; Figure 2: a perspective view of a second knife holder embodiment of the present invention. Description of several preferred embodiments of the invention

With reference to Figs. 1 and 2 enclosed with the present patent application, these show in perspective and schematic view a knife holder according to the present invention, in two possible solutions. The knife holder forms a kind of disc wheel having a plurality of arms 1 converging towards a hub 6. The central hub 6 of the knife holder, where the various arms 1 converge, has a non-circular hole so that it can be rotated by a drive shaft 7 of complementary section and hence also non-circular.

The invention regards the configuration of a typical support arm 1 for the knives, and the same blades 2a and 2b of such knives, also part of the present invention. The blades are those used for grinding the meat. A first row of blades 2a is in contact, during the rotation of the knife holder, with a first stationary perforated disc (not shown) of the cutting group, while a second row of blades 2b is in contact, during the rotation of the knife holder, with a second stationary perforated disc (also not shown) of the cutting group. This will be better described hereinbelow. The knife holder is then arranged as a sandwich between said two stationary perforated discs (not shown) and reduces the size of the meat particles since the mass of meat passes (under the thrust of a supply screw arrange in the mounting duct of the perforated discs) first through the first stationary perforated disc, having larger holes, and then through the second stationary perforated disc, having smaller holes. The meat grinding plant can comprise multiple separate cutting groups of the described type. Each cutting group can possibly comprise a pack formed by an alternation of elements of DF-PC-DF-PC- DF-... -PC-DF type, where DF stands for "fixed perforated disc" and PC for "knife holder". In the simplest case, the cutting group is defined as DF-PC-DF unit with a single knife holder arranged as a sandwich between two stationary perforated discs. The drive shaft 7 that rotates the knife holder is supported by suitable bearings, not illustrated.

It is observed that each row of blades 2a or 2b forms a respective knife 3a or 3b, which is mounted in a tilted manner at a respective edge of the arm 1, such that the knives 3 a and 3b form an angle between them, i.e. a "V". The single blades 2a and 2b are separately inserted in their oblique seats of the arm 1 and are locked by means of threaded grub screws 4: the latter are extended within blind holes made in the body of the arm 1 and perpendicularly cross through the through holes made in the blades themselves. This mounting system is quick and inexpensive and of course assumes that the thickness of the blades is constant in the part of the single blade inserted in the arm 1, otherwise inadmissible air spaces would be formed. In reality, in order to reduce costs even more, the present invention provides for blades 2a, 2b having a constant thickness over the entire extension thereof.

The blades have a flat, blunted surface, at the free end thereof, as is seen in the drawing. Such flat surfaces are in direct contact with the geometric plan of the surface of a respective perforated disc, and this means that, given that the stationary perforated discs (of the cutting group) are parallel to each other, also the flat, blunted surfaces at the free ends of the blades 2a will be parallel to the flat, blunted surfaces formed at the free ends of the blades 2b.

At least some of the blades 2a, 2b can have an opening 5 in order to allow the meat to pass through the respective blade, from a zone of greater pressure towards a zone of smaller pressure, so as to make the load uniform within the space between the stationary perforated discs. Of course, such openings 5 (in order to be able to perform their function) will not enter (see Figures 1 and 2) into the fitting zone of the blade in the respective arm 1.

The knives 3a and 3b are formed (in the particular embodiment of the invention represented in Fig. 1) by three blades 2a and by three blades 2b separated or independent from each other. This allows the blades to be deformed in an independent manner from each other, and such characteristic is advantageous since the pressure load exerted by the meat varies from the center of the knife holder (hub 6) towards the outside (i.e. towards the free ends of the single radial arms 1 of the knife holder).

The single blades could also have thicknesses that are different from each other, although the thickness of a single blade will always be constant along its length and width.

Embodiment variants of the knives 3a and 3b are also possible. For example, a knife 3a or 3b could also be formed by a single blade (single piece), as in Fig. 2, or by two or four independent blades, rather than by three blades as in Fig. 1. In general, there could be "N" independent blades for each knife 3a and/or 3b.

In another embodiment variant, the independence of the deformability of the single blades could also be obtained by means of the parallel cuts that separate the single blades but which (unlike the embodiment shown in Fig. 1) do not affect the lower fitting zone. Although the knife in this case is obtained in a single piece, the blades could be independently deformed since these partial parallel separation cuts have been created between the various blades 2a (or 2b).

The main characteristic of the present invention is therefore the simplicity of the form of the blades which considerably lowers the production costs. Another characteristic of the invention is the mounting system of the blades by means of the threaded grub screws, which is quick and does not affect their capacity to be deformed. A further characteristic is the possible holes for rendering uniform the pressure load in the system. Finally, the blades can be independently deformed (if the embodiment of Fig. 2 of the invention is not selected, in which the knife forms a single piece without partial parallel cuts); in this case, the blades can be better adapted to the variability of the pressure load of the meat with respect to the longitudinal (radial) direction of the arm 1, i.e. from the center 6 (or hub) of the knife holder towards the "circular" periphery.