A method and apparatus for operating a food waste recycling appliance includes a food waste recycling container, a condensate reservoir, a first fluid pathway fluidly coupling the food waste recycling chamber and the condensate reservoir, and a fan moving air from the food waste recycling chamber to the condensate reservoir along the first fluid pathway to define a first airflow.

Screens for conical mills and an improved gearbox and housing for such conical mills are shown and described. The screens are frusto-conically-shaped and include a tapered sidewall with a plurality of openings in the sidewall that may be of uniform size. Each opening is separated from adjacent openings by spacing distances which are shorter at the top of the tapered sidewall and longer at the bottom of the tapered sidewall to thereby reduce the residence time of the powder being milled at the top of the tapered sidewall and to increase the residence time of the powder being milled at the bottom of the tapered sidewall.

Grinding sections for food waste disposers, food waste disposers having grinding sections, and methods of manufacturing food waste disposers having grinding sections are disclosed herein. The grinding sections include an internal wall having a plurality of projections extending into the food receiving area. Grinding inserts are attached to each projection. The grinding sections may be made by molding the grinding section housing with the projections and attaching the grinding inserts into the projections.

A sharpening system for a meat grinder is provided. The sharpening system embodies two types of sharpening stones for sharpening the cutting edges of the knife blade and the hole plate, respectively, of the meat grinder, wherein each type of sharpening stone operatively associates to the drive arbor of the meat grinder. By interchangeably replacing the knife blade along the drive arbor with one type of sharpening stone so as to sharpen and resurface the hole plate, or replacing the hole plate along the drive with the other type of sharpening stone to sharpen and resurface the knife blade, the present invention provides hands-free sharpening with no additional machines or tools.

A sieve system for a grinding device permitting the processing of materials in terms of particle size, in particular the processing of solid or powder materials. The system includes a filtering portion having fine holes and designed to cooperate with a rotor of the grinding device in such a way as to press the material to be ground through said filtering portion; and a support portion having large holes, which is able to reinforce the filtering portion. The sieve can be coupled to a vibratory device. The sieve system allows for the grinding method to be operated in continuous mode, with a material flow rate through the sieve up to 50% higher than that reached with a conventional sieve.

A hydrate production apparatus according to the present invention comprises: a main body unit having a reaction space in which a hydrate is produced therein; an inlet pipe unit connected to one side of the main body unit so as to introduce, into the reaction space, a host material and a guest material for producing the hydrate; an outlet pipe unit connected to the other side of the main body unit so as to discharge the hydrate produced in the reaction space to the outside; and a pulverizing device unit provided inside the reaction space so as to increase a reaction area for producing the hydrate by pulverizing, into fine-sized particles, an object to be pulverized, which is at least one of the introduced host material and guest material.

Size-reduction machines, feed units, and methods capable of producing reduced-size products from a variety of solid and semisolid materials. Such machines have an impeller that rotates on an approximately horizontal axis and an opening at an axial end of the impeller. A feed unit includes a feed hopper for feeding products to an interior of the impeller through the opening of the machine, and a slicing knife is mounted to the impeller and radially protrudes across the opening of the machine to slice products into segments as they enter the interior of the impeller.

A method and apparatus for operating a food waste recycling appliance includes a food waste recycling container, a condensate reservoir, a first fluid pathway fluidly coupling the food waste recycling chamber and the condensate reservoir, and a fan moving air from the food waste recycling chamber to the condensate reservoir along the first fluid pathway to define a first airflow.

In one aspect, a waste disposal for processing waste may generally include a housing and a motor disposed within the housing. The housing may include an inlet defining an open area through the top of the housing. The motor may define a rotational axis. In addition, the waste disposal may include a cutter plate coupled to the motor. The cutter plate may include an upper surface, a side surface and an outer edge defined around an outer perimeter of the cutter plate. The upper surface may define a high point and may have a sloped portion angled downwardly from the high point towards the outer edge. The cutter plate may also define a cutter plate area directly below the open area defined by the inlet. The high point may be defined along the outer surface at a radial location between the cutter plate area and the outer edge.

Grinding sections for food waste disposers, food waste disposers having grinding sections, and methods of manufacturing food waste disposers having grinding sections are disclosed herein. The grinding sections include an internal wall having a plurality of projections extending into the food receiving area. Grinding inserts are attached to each projection. The grinding sections may be made by molding the grinding section housing with the projections and attaching the grinding inserts into the projections.