A food slicer assembly includes a housing defining a first opening and a second opening perpendicularly arranged. A slicing blade received at the second opening enters the first opening of the housing. A coupling releasably couples a food product or a food product packaging to the housing. The first opening receives a food product therethrough, the second opening receives the slicing blade therethrough, and the slicing blade slices the food product arranged in the first opening such that the food product is divided into multiple portions using the food slicer assembly. The slicing blade may pass into the first opening from a first end, and upon reaching the second end, the slicing blade seals the food slicer assembly at the first opening. The assembly may be a cheese slicer assembly for slicing a block of cheese so that a slice of cheese can be removed from the first opening.

A conveyor system includes a frame, a plurality of rollers, a driving mechanism, a plurality of endless belts, and a lifting assembly. The plurality of rollers is rotatably attached to the frame. The driving mechanism is configured to rotate the plurality of rollers. The plurality of endless belts surrounds the plurality of rollers. The lifting assembly includes a plurality of surface and an actuator. The actuator is configured to move the plurality of surfaces between a raised position disposed above the plurality of belts and a lowered position disposed below the plurality of belts.

A blade assembly includes a blade support frame, and a plurality of V-shaped blades removably fastened to the blade support frame. The blade support frame has a food flow path extending downstream, and a plurality of blade mounts distributed around the food flow path. Each V-shaped blade has a first end portion connected to one of the blade mounts, a second end portion connected to another of the blade mounts, and an intermediate portion extending from the first end portion to the second end portion into the food flow path. At the first and second end portions of each V-shaped blade, a respective one of the blade mounts overlies both the upstream edge and the downstream edge of the V-shaped blade to inhibit the V-shaped blade from rotating when impacted by food.

The technology as disclosed herein includes a method and apparatus for deboning a meat item, and more particular for deboning a poultry item including performing an initial shoulder cut for removing boneless breast meat from the poultry carcass or frame. The method and apparatus disclosed and claimed herein is a combination of a robotic arm including an ultrasonic knife implement and a vision system for varying the cut path based on the shape and size of the poultry item. The combination as claimed including the ultrasonic knife can perform a meat cut while penetrating the meat with less force than the typical penetration that occurs when using a traditional knife.

A food article slicing machine includes a food article loading apparatus with a lift tray assembly for moving food articles from a staging position to an elevated position at a beginning of a food article feed path, a food article feed apparatus disposed over the food article loading apparatus having an upper conveyor assembly with an independently driven endless conveyor belt used in cooperation with a food article gripper for moving the food articles along the food article feed path, a food article stop gate that forms part of the food article feed path and opens to drop food article end portions, and a slicing station at an end of the food article feed path with a knife for slicing the food articles.

A telescopic compression device (10) for flat bed die-cutting, stripping and part separating machines is provided, comprising a socket (12), at least one guide element (14, 15) which is slidably guided in the socket (12) and an elastic bias means (34) which biases the at least one guide element (14, 15) towards a furthest extended position and an elastic security element (44) which has an inherent stiffness and secures the at least one guide element (14, 15) to the socket (12). Furthermore, an exchange tool (2) of flat bed die-cutting machines, flat bed stripping machines or part separating machines is provided.

A system 10 may be used to carry out methods for portioning substantially uniform food products 12 into a series of intentionally created unique variations of one or more predetermined reference shapes to resemble naturally occurring food product shapes. The method includes scanning the uniform food product and generating digital data based on the results of the scanning. This data is used to generate a series of unique variations of one or more predetermined reference shapes based on one or more specified physical parameters for the unique variation shapes. Cutting paths are generated for cutting the substantially uniform food product 12 into the digitally generated unique variation shapes 44. A control system 30 controls the operation of a cutting apparatus 22 cut the substantially uniform food product 12 along the generated cutting paths thereby portioning the substantially uniform food product into unique variations of naturally occurring food product shapes.

The improved detachable cutting assembly used in food cutting machines includes a rotating disc with a window and a pivot hole linked to the rotation axis of the cutting machine. A flap is connected radially to the rotation axis of the cutting machine by its insert ring. The insert ring includes a fixing area in which at least one nut is embedded and on which there is at least one fastening hole coinciding with at least one nut, and a lifting wedge on which a blade is partially embedded, leaving the cutting edge of the blade protruding on the upper face of the rotating disc through the window of the rotating disc. Existing in the fixing area of the rotating disc, there is at least one fastening hole coinciding with the fastening hole and the nut of the flap and capable of fixing the whole assembly by linking elements.

An apparatus for cutting slices from a food product includes a vertical housing defining a barrel that receives an elongated food product. A rotatable blade apparatus is disposed beneath the lower end of the housing and has a planar guide with a slot. A first blade is mounted to the top surface of the guide with a sharp blade edge adjacent the slot and facing radially outwardly. Drive means rotates the rotatable blade apparatus into the food product to form slices. A substrate is disposed beneath the rotatable blade apparatus for receiving slices formed by the rotatable blade apparatus. The substrate may be a pizza crust and the food product may be a pepperoni stick.

A food processing machine (10) and a method of cutting slices or portions from a food product (60) in a food processing machine are described. The food processing machine comprises an end gripper (40) for gripping a trailing end (62) of a food product travelling along a food product flow path towards the cutter. A gripper drive assembly (41) is arranged to move the end gripper from stowed position below the food product flow path to a raised position in the food product flow path after a food product has passed over the end gripper and then bring the end gripper into engagement with the trailing end of the food product.