FOOD SLICING DEVICE WITH PRE-COOLING DEVICE

• US 20160271822A1
• Filed: 03/18/2016
• Published: 09/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Weber Food Technology GmbH
• Original Assignee: Weber Maschinenbau GmbH Breidenbach (Weber Food Technology GmbH)
• Inventors: Burk, Alexander, Knauf, Michael, Kahl, Philip, Nietsch, Christian, Schneider, Thorsten, Gerlach, Jochen, Runkel, Andreas
• Granted Patent: US 10,695,932 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 2210/02 for cutting food products, e.g. food slicers
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 5/00 Arrangements for operating and controlling machines or devices for cutting, cutting-out, stamping-out, punching, perforating, or severing by means other than cutting
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 7/0616 by carriages, e.g. for slicing machines
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 7/0625 by endless conveyors, e.g. belts
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 7/0683 specially adapted for elongated articles
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 7/08 Means for treating work or cutting member to facilitate cutting tensioning band cutters B26D1/48
• CPC Class Codes: B26D 7/10 by heating with Laser B23K26/00; severing by heating B26F

Abstract

There is disclosed a food slicing device for slicing food products which has a pre-cooling device for cooling the food product before the slicing and a cutting device with a cutting blade. A temperature registration device for measuring the temperature of the food product and a control unit are provided, wherein the control unit is designed to calculate, based on the temperature measured by the temperature registration device, an instruction for the operation of the pre-cooling device, wherein the pre-cooling device is controllable depending on this instruction. The disclosure furthermore relates to a method for slicing a food product in which the food product is pre-cooled in a pre-cooling device, the temperature of the food product is measured after the pre-cooling and before or after the slicing of the food product, and the operation of the pre-cooling device is adjusted depending on the measured temperature level of the food product.

Claims

1. Feed-A food slicing device for slicing food products, comprising:

a pre-cooling device for cooling the food product before the slicing, and

a cutting device with a cutting blade,

characterised by

a temperature registration device for the measurement of the temperature of the food product, and

a control unit that is designed to calculate, based on the temperature measured with the temperature registration device, an instruction for the operation of the pre-cooling device,

wherein the pre-cooling device can be controlled depending on this instruction.

2. The food slicing device according to claim 1, wherein the pre-cooling device is designed to adjust the dwell time or the throughput speed of the food product in the pre-cooling device and/or the cooling capacity depending on the instruction.

3. The food slicing device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit is designed to determine the difference between the measured temperature and a pre-definable value for the specific freezing point of the food product.

4. The food slicing device according to claim 1, wherein the pre-cooling device and control unit are designed and connected in such a manner that automatic regulation of the pre-cooling device by the control unit takes place.

5. The food slicing device according to claim 1, wherein the temperature registration device is provided downstream of the cutting blade.

6. The food slicing device according to claim 1, wherein the temperature registration device is provided between the pre-cooling device and the cutting blade.

7. The food slicing device according to claim 1, wherein the temperature registration device is designed to be pierced into the food product and then removed again.

8. The food slicing device according to claim 1, wherein the cutting device has a gripper that is designed to grip the upstream end of the food product at least at the end of the cutting process, wherein the temperature registration device is provided on the gripper.

9. the food slicing device according to claim 8, wherein the temperature registration device is provided on a gripper spike of the gripper, said gripper spike piercing into the food product for gripping.

10. The food slicing device according to claim 8, wherein the temperature registration device is provided as an additional sensor element on the gripper, and is movable with respect to the gripper in order to make contact with the food product or to be pierced into the food product.

11. The food slicing device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit has a device-specific and product-specific database whose data are taken into consideration when calculating the instruction and/or pre-definable parameters for the cutting operation.

12. A method for slicing a food product, comprising:

pre-cooling of the food product in a pre-cooling device, and characterised by

measurement of the temperature of the food product after the pre-cooling and before or after the slicing of the food product,

adjustment of the operation of the pre-cooling device depending on the measured temperature level of the food product.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the specific freezing point of the food product is pre-definable and the operation of the pre-cooling device is adjusted depending on the difference between the measured temperature and the specific freezing point.

14. The method according to claim 12, wherein operation of the pre-cooling device is automatically or manually adjusted.

15. The method according to claim 12, wherein a surface temperature of the food product is measured in the measurement of the temperature of the food product.

16. The method according to claim 12, wherein a core temperature of the food product is measured in the measurement of the temperature of the food product.

17. The method according to claim 12, wherein the measurement of the temperature takes place via a texture analysis, by measuring the deformation of the food product using a deformation probe, or by measuring the penetration depth using a penetration probe.

18. The method according to claim 12, wherein the measurement of the temperature takes place at the end of the slicing process or at the end of the dwell time of the food product in the cutting device.

19. The method according to claim 12, wherein the slicing of the food products takes place in parallel in a plurality of tracks and the measurement of the temperature is carried out for each track, wherein the measured temperature levels are evaluated together by a control unit.

20. The method according to claim 12, wherein the measured temperature levels of a plurality of measurement times or a plurality of measurement points on one or more food products are saved and processed and/or evaluated by a control unit.