Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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sAcKGRouND OF THE I~VENTION
(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a meat cut-
ting band blade and more particularly to a band blade for
slice cutting soft meat and wherein the displaceable
meat support table is inclined rearwardly downward to
- facilitate the cutting of slices in soft meat and the
removal of such slice from a piece of meat being cut.
(b) Description of Prior Art
The usual practice employed by meat cutters
for cutting soft boneless meat such as liver, steaks,
etc. is to utilize a hand knife as such type of meat is
difficult to manipulate on the commonly known band saws.
Some of the problems encountered are that the saw blade
teeth rip a channel cut in the meat resulting in a loss
of meat and also the slices cut are not of uniform thick-
ness, as the softness of the meat makes it difficult to
manipulate under such saw blades as such soft meat often
will stick to the meat table or the slices cut will not
readily peel off from the piece of meat.
Further, the cutting of such meat by the use
of hand knives is a time consuming operation and it is
very difficult to obtain slices of uniform thickness
from a piece of meat. Band saws are also not very
sanitary when soft meat is cut thereon as the saw blade
will pick up minute particles of meat in the cutting
process and render it unsanitary. This is due primar-
ily to the stickiness of such soft meat and the use of
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toothed band blades.
SUMMARY OF I~VENTIO~
It is therefore a feature of the present in-
vention to provide a machine having a meat cutting band
blade for slice cutting soft meats and which substantially
overcomes all of the abovementioned disadvantages of the
prior art.
According to a broad aspect of the present
invention, there is provided a meat cutting machine for
slice cutting soft meats. me machine comprises a base
and a vertical band blade support frame secured to the
base. Blade support means is secured in the band blade
support frame. A flat band blade is supported by the
support means which is drivingly connected to a drive.
An opening is provided in the band blade support frame
to expose a meat cutting area along a straight path of
the band blade. A stationary table is secured below the
meat cutting area. A horizontally displaceable meat
support table is displaceable on an axis parallel to the
plane of the flat band blade to displace an end portion
of a piece of meat placed on a support surface thereof
against a cutting edge of the band blade. The horizon-
tally displaceable meat support table has its support
surface inclined rearwardly downward with the band blade
extending at substantially a right angle with respect to
the support surface of the displaceable meat support
table.
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
A preferred embodiment of the present inven-
tion will now be described with reference to the accom-
panying drawings in which:
FIGURE l is a perspective view of the meat
cutting machine of the present invention,
FIGURE 2 is a side view of the meat cutting
machine,
FIGURE 3 is a front view of the meat cutting
machine,
FIGURE 4A is a fragmented section view of a
blade tension adjusting mechanism as utilized in the
machine of the present invention,
FIGURE 4B is a fragmented side view of a por-
tion of Figure 4A,
FIGURE 5 is a section view illustrating the
construction of the adjustable band blade guide,
FIGURE 6 is a front view of a blade scraper
as utilized with the band blade, and
FIGURE 7 is a plan view of a rotatable
cleaning brush as used in the band blade to clean
the blade.
DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Referring now to the drawings, and more par-
ticularly to Figures l to 3, there is shown generally at
10, the meat cutting machine of the present invention
for slice cutting soft meats. The machine comprises a
base ll supported on legs 12 and having inwardly and
upwardly tapering side walls 13 whereby the base is of
substantially transverse triangular cross section to
provide more working space under the stationary table
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14 supported thereabove and secured to the vertical
band blade support frame located in housing 15.
The band blade support frame housing 15 is a
narrow elongated housing projecting centrally above the
base housing 11. Both housings 11 and 15 have removable
shrouds (not shown) for access to the interior thereof.
The stationary table 14 extends beyond opposed side
walls of the narrow elongated housing 15 which, as shown
in Figure 3, contains a pair of band blade support wheels
16 rotatably supported in a spaced apart manner in the
frame, and constituting a blade support means. A flat
band blade 17 is supported about both wheels 16 and the
lower wheel 16' is rotatably driven by drive means,
herein motor 17', located in the base 11. A drive sheave
18 is secured to the motor shaft 19 and imparts a rota-
tion to a drive belt 20 secured between the drive sheave
18 and driven sheave 21 which is secured to the driven
central shaft 22 of the lower wheel 16'~ The driven
sheave 21 and part of the drive belt 20 extend in a de-
tachable housing 23 secured to one of the lower side
walls of the housing 15.
An opening 24 is provided in the band blade
support frame to expose a meat cutting area 25 along a
straight path of the band blade 17. A horizontally
displaceable meat support table 26 is secured forwardly
of the cutting area and has a support surface extending
in the same plane as the support surface of the sta-
tionary table 14. The displaceable support table 26 is
displaceable on an axis parallel to the plane of the
flat band blade to displace an end portion of a piece
of meat placed on its support surface against a straight
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knife-like cutting edge of the band blade.
As clearly shown in Figures 1 and 3, both
the stationary table and horizontally displaceable
meat support table have their support surfaces inclined
- 5 rearwardly downward with the band blade in the meat
cutting area 25 extending at right angles to at least
the support surface of the displaceable meat support
table 26. The purpose for this inclination is to pro-
vide for the slice being cut in the soft meat to peel
off from the remaining piece of meat on the displace-
able table ~6 as it is slid passed the blade 17 in the
meat cutting area 25. Also, the inclination facilitates
the placement of the end piece of meat to be cut against
a thickness gauge plate 27 and is displaceably secured
above the stationary table 14 and extends parallel to
the plane of the blade 17 on the opposite side of the
displaceable table 26.
The angle of inclination 28 of the support
surface of the stationary table 14 and the displaceable
table 26 is preferably at an angle of about 6 from the
vertical axis. However, this precise angle is not cri-
tical and satisfactory results may be obtained with
angles lying within the range of from 5 to lS. Also,
as shown in Figure 1, the wheels 16 and 16' secured to
the band blade support frame in housing 15 have their
centers rotatably secured on an axis which is also in-
clined rearwardly from the vertical axis on an angle
which is the same as the angle of inclination of the
table support surfaces whereby the blade is inclined
in the area 25.
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The spacing of the thickness gauge plate 27
with respect to the side wall of the blade is adjust-
able by means of a rotatable knob 29 preferably having
a scale thereon to indicate the spacing between the
plate 27 and the blade 17 and may be locked in position
- by means well known in the art. The displaceable plate
26 is secured on guide means, herein a pair of guide
rails 30 permitting reciprocal displacement of the
displaceable table therealong. The displaceable meat
support table 26 is also provided with a vertical pusher
plate 31 to push the end portion of a piece of meat
placed on the support surface against the cutting edge
of the band blade 17.
Other features of the meat cutting machine
of the present invention will now be described with
reference to the remaining drawings. As shown in
Figures 4A and 4B, a blade tension adjusting mechanism
40 is provided in a top portion of the blade support
frame housing 15 and is provided with an adjusting knob
41 which lies above the top wall 15' of the housing 15.
By rotating the knob 41, the tension in the band
blade is adjusted. This is accomplished by having the
center shaft 43 of the top wheel 16 secured to a verti-
cally displaceable support member 42. An adjusting bolt
44 is secured to displaceable support member 42 at a
lower end thereof and its upper end is threaded to a
threaded bore 45 provided in an inner face of the knob
41. By rotating the knob 41, the threaded end 46 of
the bolt 44 will move upwardly into the knob 41 pulling
the wheel 16 upwardly-and applying more tension to the
band blade passing thereabout.
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The knob 41 is rotatably connected to the
top wall 15' on a seating member 47 which receives a
ball bearing 48 on a top face thereof which is held in
place by a tension spring 49 biased thereagainst and
an inner annular wall 50 of the knob. Thus, the knob
is biased upwardly by the spring 49 applying an axial
tension on the bolt 44. The bolt is prevented from
axial rotation by means of guide plates 51 conveniently
secured in the vertical frame housing lS. A stop mem-
ber 52 is welded to the rod between the plates 51 to
engage against a side wall of either of the plates when
axial rotation is imparted to the rod 44 by rotating
the knob 41.
The blade of the machine of the present inven~
tion does not have cutting teeth but a straight cut-
ting edge whereby a knife-like cut may be made in the
meat with less loss of meat as compared to conventional
band blades. A~so, a cutting edge may be provided on
both edges of the blade. As shown in Figure 5, an adjust-
able guide means is provided in the vertical housing lS
immediately above the opening 24 therein whereby to
maintain the blade substantially stationary in the meat
cutting area 25. The guide means consists of a pair
of opposed adjustable carbide guide shoes 55 defining a
flat blade receiving slot 56 therebetween guiding opposed
flat side walls of the blade 17 extending therebetween
to maintain the blade along a desired straight path and
to prevent oscillations therein. The guide shoes 55
are mounted on displaceable support members 57 which are
displaceably secured to an adjustment knob 58 to adjust
their spacing.
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Also, conveniently located within the upper
part of housing 15 is a blade scraper 60 as shown in
Figure 6 whereby to continuously scrape the opposed
faces of the blade. The scraper comprises opposed
resiliently biased scraper plates 61 secured to leaf
spring 62 whereby the knife-shaped scraping edges 63
are biased against each other with the blade extending
therebetween. The scraper plate 61 is preferably con-
structed of a hard plastics material and the assembly
is mounted on a securement plate 64 capable of being
conveniently secured. Any foreign matter scraped from
the blade will fall into the housing 15, in a convenient
area or container therein, and will be removed therefrom
from time-to-time by removing the removable shroud.
Also, as shown in Figure 7, a rotatable brush 65 may
be secured on each side face of the blade 17 to further
remove miniscule foreign matter on the blade to provide
for a sanitary blade continuously passing in the meat
cutting area 25. These rotatable brushes 65 would be
conveniently secured along a straight path of the blade.
Blade sharpending means (not shown) may be secured within
the housing 15 whereby the blade would sharpen itself
automatically as it passes through blade sharpeners.
Preferably, the blade scraper 60 and the brushes 65
would be located downstream of the blade sharpening to
remove any miniscule particles of metal that may be
deposited on the blade as it passes through the sharpener.
It is further within the ambit of the present invention
to provide the front support legs 12' of the base as
adjustable legs whereby the angle of inclination 28 may
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be adjusted by simply adjusting the length of the front
legs 12' higher than the rear legs 12~
It is within the ambit of the present inven-
tion to cover any other obvious modifications thereof
provided such modifications fall within the scope of
the appended claims. For example, the stationary table
does not necessarily have to be inclined or be at the
same angle of inclination as the displaceable table.
It is also pointed out that the cutting blade
may be a reciprocal straight blade supported at opposed
ends to a reciprocating frame which constitutes the blade
support means. Thus, it is not intended to restrict the
blade and drive to an endless blade supported about two
wheels rotatably driven.
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