Method for water flow control for hydraulic food cutter

Abstract

The present disclosure includes a method for the control of water flow within a hydraulic food cutter assembly having a pump, a pump discharge line, a cutter assembly a product supply tank, and a fluid transport medium and comprises a method for increasing the flow of fluid transport medium through the pump while maintaining a preselected velocity for the flow of the fluid transport medium in pump discharge line by using a frustoconical accelerator tube attached to the discharge line of the pump having a plurality of apertures through which the fluid transport medium may flow out of the accelerator tube into fluid tight housing encasing the accelerator and a throttling valve operatively attached to the fluid tight housing discharge line for regulating the pressure of the fluid medium being discharge from the pump so as to maximize fluid medium flow through the pump at a preselected pressure in the discharge line.

Claims

1. In a hydraulic food cutter assembly having a pump, a product supply tank, a fluid transport medium contained within the product supply tank and including uncut food product, a suction line between the product supply tank and the pump, a hydraulic food cutter, a pump discharge line between the pump and the hydraulic food cutter, a method for reducing food product bruising comprising: coupling between the pump and the pump discharge line a fluid tight housing, said fluid tight housing configured to allow a portion of fluid within the fluid transport medium to bypass the pump discharge line and return to the product supply tank via a housing discharge line; and regulating pressure of the fluid transport medium being discharged from the pump to cause flow of the fluid transport medium through the pump at a preselected velocity, thereby promoting single pass ejection of the uncut food product through the pump so as to prevent the uncut food product from remaining within the pump during multiple rotations of pump impellers; wherein the coupling step further comprises enclosing a frustoconical accelerator tube within the fluid tight housing; and wherein the frustoconical accelerator tube includes a plurality of apertures configured to allow passage of the portion of fluid.

2. In a hydraulic food cutter assembly having a pump, a product supply tank, a fluid transport medium contained within the product supply tank and including uncut food product, a suction line between the product supply tank and the pump, a hydraulic food cutter, a pump discharge line between the pump and the hydraulic food cutter, and a reducing pipe that accelerates the uncut food product entrained in flow of the fluid transport medium from the pump discharge line to the hydraulic food cutter, a method for reducing food product bruising comprising: coupling between the pump and the pump discharge line a fluid tight housing, said fluid tight housing configured to allow a portion of fluid within the fluid transport medium to bypass the pump discharge line and return to the product supply tank via a housing discharge line; and regulating pressure of the fluid transport medium being discharged from the pump to cause flow of the fluid transport medium through the pump at a preselected velocity, thereby promoting single pass ejection of the uncut food product through the pump so as to prevent the uncut food product from remaining within the pump during multiple rotations of pump impellers; wherein the coupling step further comprises enclosing a frustoconical accelerator tube within the fluid tight housing; and wherein the frustoconical accelerator tube includes a plurality of apertures configured to prevent passage of the uncut food product.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the regulating step further comprises regulating the pressure of the fluid transport medium by means of a throttling valve in the housing discharge line.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the regulating step further comprises regulating the pressure of the fluid transport medium by means of a throttling valve in the housing discharge line.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 is a schematic representational view of a prior art hydraulic food cutting assembly.

(2) FIG. 2 is a schematic representational view of a hydraulic food cutting assembly which includes a water flow control assembly.

(3) FIG. 3 is sectional view of a preferred embodiment of the water flow control assembly.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

(4) While the presently disclosed inventive concept(s) is susceptible of various modifications and alternative constructions, certain illustrated embodiments thereof have been shown in the drawings and will be described below in detail. It should be understood, however, that there is no intention to limit the inventive concept(s) to the specific form disclosed, but, on the contrary, the presently disclosed and claimed inventive concept(s) is to cover all modifications, alternative constructions, and equivalents falling within the spirit and scope of the inventive concept(s) as defined in the claims.

(5) Referring now to FIGS. 2 and 3, there is shown and described a flow control assembly which diverts water from the discharge of the pump without any significant reduction of pressure or velocity of the water which contains the entrained uncut food products for delivery to the cutting assembly. Referring now to FIG. 2, there is centrifugal pump 22, which is sized based upon the expected size of the uncut food product to be processed which, in this example, are potatoes 42. Attached in lieu of the standard reducing pipe is flow control assembly 10. As shown in FIG. 3, flow control assembly 10 is comprised of a frustoconical slotted accelerator tube 12, which has a plurality of apertures, which in the preferred embodiment are slots 16 to allow excess water or other fluid medium to flow out of slotted accelerator tube 12 into a fluid tight pressurized housing 14. While in the preferred embodiment the apertures are slots 16, other shapes of apertures could be used. The only criteria would be that the apertures be small enough to prevent food product from passing through, and that the sum total of aperture area has to be large enough to allow increased water flow through the pump sufficiently to bring the water flow through the pump to more closely match its normal designed pump head operating curve parameters.

(6) Attached to, and interconnected with, housing 14, is a discharge line 18, which incorporates pressure regulating throttling valve 20. The use of a pressure regulating throttling valve maintains regulated pressure in housing 14 and since it is a hydraulic system upstream of the pressure regulating throttling valve 20, it is effectively a closed hydraulic system at this stage; this means that the fluid pressure of the water entering the pump discharge line 28 is the same as the pressure in housing 14. This allows the operator to regulate the pressure in the pump discharge line 28 and the entrained potatoes in pump discharge line 28 will travel at the given speed determined by the pump capacity, frustoconical accelerator tube 12, and the diameter of the pump discharge line 28. In the preferred embodiment, at least in the case of potatoes, the speed is empirically determined and typically it is set to maintain food product speeds between 25 FPS and 40 FPS. The uncut potatoes impinge up the stationary array of cutting blades and cutter assembly 30. The water and the now cut food pieces are decelerated in decelerator line section 32 and are passed out through dump line 34 onto drainage conveyor 36. The water passes through the conveyor and back to a supply tank 26 and the cut food pieces are carried onto conveyor 38 for further processing. To complete the water loop, centrifugal pump 22 draws its suction through suction line 24 connected to tank 26 through which through which a mixture of the fluid transport medium 40, for our example, water and uncut food product 42, in this case potatoes, are drawn into the suction for the pump in order to be accelerated into the pump discharge line.

(7) Water flow through the pump is increased by the addition of housing discharge line 18 and throttling valve 20. In the preferred embodiment, the throttling valve 20 incorporates an adjustable pressure regulator mechanism of any suitable and well known design so as to maintain a steady pressure in the housing and, consequently, in the much smaller pump discharge line which is transporting the food product to the cutter assembly 30. In this manner increased water flow through the pump is achieved, thus bringing the volume of water passing through the pump at a given pressure more into line with the pumps designed pumping volume at that pressure as set forth on the pump head curve, despite the physical constraints of the oversized pump having to pump water and food product of a particular size into a discharge line that is much smaller and not able to accept enough fluid to maintain performance at the desired pump head curve volume for a given pressure. This reduces the wear and tear on the pumps and the subsequent requirements for replacement of impellors, and entire pumps, at periodic intervals.

(8) This configuration also reduces food product bruising by ensuring that there is sufficient fluid flow through the pump to allow consistent single pass ejection of the whole food product being cut through the pump and preventing whole food product from remaining in the flutes of the impellor for multiple rotations during pumping operations.

(9) While certain preferred embodiments are shown in the figures and described in this disclosure, it is to be distinctly understood that the presently disclosed inventive concept(s) is not limited thereto but may be variously embodied to practice within the scope of the following claims. From the foregoing description, it will be apparent that various changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure as defined by the following claims.