An apparatus and method for cutting blocks of frozen food into irregular shapes comprises a slicer unit carrying a cutting blade and chutes for feeding logs of frozen food to said blade. The chute extends from a chute inlet to a chute outlet, having a central longitudinal axis extending from the center of the chute inlet to center of chute outlet. The cutting blade is positioned below the chute outlets wherein said elongate blocks of processed food are fed into said chute inlet through the chute to the chute outlet, to said blade, said blade sectioning the blocks into smaller pieces. The chutes are angled greater than 15 degrees and less than 90 degrees from the plane of the cutting blade and the chute is rotated about its longitudinal axis between 0 to 180 degrees from a square orientation to the plane of the blade.

A cutting device includes a tool drive, cutting tool having first and second connecting parts respectively connected to first and second followers, and guiding device, including a first guiding unit with first and second guiding modules. The first guiding module includes first and second guiding wheels, which are held each by related bearing devices rotatable in a guiding plane, peripherally adjacent to each other at a first transfer position, include an outwardly open receiving opening suitable for receiving the first follower, rotatable by the tool drive in opposite directions with the same angular velocity, and arranged so that their receiving openings lie opposite one another at the first transfer position after each revolution, so that the first follower is transferable alternately from one receiving opening into the other at the first transfer position and is further guidable alternately along the periphery of the first or second guiding wheel.

The invention relates to a gripper for use in a slicing machine, in particular a high-performance slicing machine, said gripper being joined to the food product using an integral bonding process.

Methods and equipment suitable for slicing products into lattice-type slices or chips. The methods and equipment utilize a knife assembly that includes a corrugated knife, a knife holder, and a clamp. A leading edge of the knife holder is defined by fingers and notches therebetween, and the fingers of the knife holder engage valleys in a first surface of the corrugated knife. The clamp is mated with a second surface of the corrugated knife and secures the corrugated knife to the knife holder. The clamp has a leading edge defined by fingers and notches therebetween. The fingers of the clamp engage valleys on the second surface of the corrugated knife, such that the fingers of the clamp are interdigitated with the fingers of the knife holder.

Mist management systems are configured for a processing machine having a portioning station configured to portion a workpiece within an enclosed portioner housing having a first side wall extending along the portioning station, a second side wall, at least one hood portion between the first side wall and the second side wall, and at least one end wall between the first side wall and the second side wall, using at least one liquid jet cutter and a conveyor configured to move the workpiece in a longitudinal direction beneath the at least one liquid jet cutter.

In order to be able to implement a plurality of gripper functions acting independently of one another in a slicing machine without requiring a separate drive unit for each gripper function, a switching unit displaceable along an axial shifting distance is provided. Upon displacement of the switching unit along a first partial distance of a plurality of partial distances of the shifting distance, a caliber contact element is actuated in such a way that a caliber is pushed away from a caliber gripper, and upon shifting of the switching unit along a second partial distance, gripper claws of the caliber gripper are actuated in such a way that they are moved into an engagement position, in which they engage with the caliber, or into a release position, in which they release the caliber.

A blade mounting and removal tool, and system, for safely removing a blade from a food product slicer.

Systems and methods for cutting and cooking a substance are disclosed. Exemplary implementations may: convey, via a primary conveying subsystem, a layer of food substance along a conveyance path along which the layer of food substance is conveyed; cut, via a cutter, the layer of food substance into food pieces; apply, via a primary pressurized fluid outlet, primary pressurized fluid such that the food pieces are released from the cutter; heat, via the heating mechanism, a chamber; apply, via a secondary pressurized fluid outlet, secondary pressurized fluid so that the food pieces are held flat to the primary conveying substrate, and hold, via a secondary conveying subsystem, the layer of food substance flat between the primary conveying substrate and a secondary conveying substrate for at least a portion of the chamber.

A device 1 for the longitudinal cutting of a wide food band 4 of a soft food mass, in particular a cheese mass, which is moved in a conveyance direction F on a conveyor belt 3, into a number of narrow strips,

wherein a cutting cylinder rotating in the conveyance direction is provided, on which cutting cylinder a number of cutting disks 2 corresponding to the number of strips to be produced is mounted for the longitudinal cutting, wherein the cutting disks 2 are disposed coaxially to the rotational axis A and cut into the food band 4 with the edge thereof,

wherein a comb 5 having a plurality of comb tines 6 is provided, which comb tines, in an operating position, engage into the intermediate spaces 7 between the cutting disks 2 during the longitudinal cutting in order to hold down the cut strips on the conveyor belt,

wherein the comb 5 is held on a comb holder 8, which is held so as to be pivotable about the rotational axis A, wherein the comb holder 8 can be transferred from the operating position and a maintenance position by pivoting about the rotational axis A.

The invention concerns a conveyor system for formatting slice-shaped food products in product stacks. The conveyor system includes an inlet, a lower product conveyor, an upper product conveyor, a vertically swiveling distributor conveyor for distributing the incoming food products selectively to the lower product conveyor or to the upper product conveyor, an output conveyor receiving the food products partially stacked from the lower product conveyor and the upper product conveyor, and an outlet for outputting the stacked food products in product rows. The individual conveying tracks of the distributor conveyor can be swivelled vertically independently of one another in order to forward the incoming food products individually for each conveying track selectively to the lower product conveyor onto the upper product conveyor.