BLENDER COMPRISING A BALANCED ROTATING TOOL

Abstract

A blender including a container for processing food, a tool disposed inside the container, and rotatably driven by a shaft, and a mass balance element located outside the container for counterbalancing the tool.

Claims

1. A blender comprising: a container for processing food, a tool located inside the container and rotatably driven by a shaft, and a mass balance element for counterbalancing the tool located outside the container.

2. The blender according to claim 1, wherein the shaft is supported by a shaft bearing.

3. The blender according to claim 1, wherein the shaft comprises a coupling for a drive located outside the container.

4. The blender according to claim 2, wherein after a coupling, first the mass balance element, then the shaft bearing and then the tool are arranged along a rotation axis of the shaft.

5. The blender according to claim 1, wherein the mass balance element comprises a disk-shaped element connected to the shaft in a form-fitting manner.

6. The blender according to claim 5, wherein the mass balance element is connected to the shaft by a monoflat body or an asymmetrical biplanar body.

7. The blender according to claim 3, wherein the mass balance element is secured to the shaft by screwing the coupling onto an external thread of the shaft.

8. The blender according to claim 3, wherein the mass balance element is integrated into the coupling.

9. The blender according to claim 1, wherein the tool comprises two knife blades that are mounted offset from each other to the shaft.

10. The blender according to claim 9, wherein centers of mass of the knife blades and of a balance weight lie in a first plane extending through a rotation axis of the shaft, and wherein unbalanced centrifugal forces of the centers of mass of the knife blades are in momentum equilibrium about an axis that is orthogonal to the first plane and passes through an intersection point between the rotation axis of the shaft and a force axis of the mass balance weight, and wherein the unbalanced centrifugal forces of the centers of mass of the knife blades and of the mass balance element are in force equilibrium through a second plane that passes through the rotation axis of the shaft and is orthogonal to the first plane.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0029] Further features and advantages of the devices are apparent from the following description of embodiments with reference to the enclosed drawings. In these drawings,

[0030] FIG. 1 shows a view of the blender with the container screwed off;

[0031] FIG. 2 shows a view of the knife blades and of the shaft of the blender;

[0032] FIG. 3 shows an exploded illustration of the form-fitting connection between the shaft and the disk-shaped mass balance element;

[0033] FIG. 4 shows a schematic view of the geometric relationships of the blender; and

[0034] FIG. 5 shows a schematic view of the geometric relationships of the blender.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0035] It is clear to the skilled person that individual features described in different embodiments can also be implemented in a single embodiment, provided they are not structurally incompatible. Likewise, various features described in the context of a single embodiment may also be provided in several embodiments either individually or in any suitable sub-combination.

[0036] FIG. 1 shows a possible embodiment of the blender 100 having a base 200 and a cylindrical container 300 decoupled therefrom for processing food products. The container 300, which is not restricted to a cylindrical shape, and the base 200 may be coupled together using, for example, a screw and/or plug connection. A bayonet connection is also possible. Thus, the container 300 can be decoupled from the base 200 for filling the blender 100, a closed processing space can be provided during the processing operation by coupling, and the base can be decoupled again for emptying the container 300. Preferably, the processing space is sealed from the environment at the contact surface between the container 200 and the base 300 by means of a sealing ring 55.

[0037] The base 200 of the blender has a rotating tool 2 for processing food which is arranged such that it is located inside the container 300 when said container is coupled to the base 200. In other words, the tool 2 rotates in an inner area of the container 300 during the food processing operation. Or, to put in another way, the surfaces limiting the container 300 enclose the tool 2 and the food during processing.

[0038] FIG. 2 shows an enlarged view of the tool 2 from FIG. 1. Preferably, this tool is mounted to the end of a rotatable shaft 5, in particular in a detachable manner. According to the present embodiment, the tool 2 is equipped, for example, with two knife blades 3, 4 running in planes that are offset from one another along the rotation axis of the shaft 5 such that the respective knife blades 3, 4 run in different planes when chopping the food. The number of knife blades and their shape can vary depending on the food to be processed and be adapted to the processing operation. Moreover, the tool 2 can also be configured, for example, to additionally ensure optimal mixing of the food to be processed during the chopping process.

[0039] The shaft 5 is preferably supported by a shaft bearing 6, which is located along the rotation axis of the shaft 5 below the tool 2, and encloses the shaft 5. The part of the shaft 5, which is located between the shaft bearing 6 and the tool 2, is also disposed inside the container 300 during the processing operation. As shown in FIG. 1, it is also possible for at least a part of the shaft bearing 6 to be located inside the container 200, while the other part of the shaft bearing 6 is located within the housing 10 of the base 200. The housing 10 of the base 200 has an opening 11 on the side facing the container 300, which surrounds the shaft bearing 6 in a form-fitting manner such that the processed food cannot enter the interior of the housing 10 of the base 200 during the processing operation.

[0040] Arranged along the rotation axis, in particular below the shaft bearing 6, is first a disk-shaped slide ring 7 and then a mass balance element 1 which in this embodiment is configured to be disk-shaped. Still further down along the rotation axis, a coupling 8 is located which can be coupled to a drive that is not shown. Thus, as already mentioned in the upper section, in addition to the at least one part of the shaft bearing 6, the slide ring 7, the disk-shaped balance element 1 and the coupling 8 are also located inside the housing 10 of the base 200 and are thus not in contact with the food to be processed inside the processing space.

[0041] FIG. 3 shows an exploded view of the form-fitting connection between the shaft 5 and the disk-shaped mass balance element 1. The end of the shaft 5 is in particular provided with an external thread 12 which can be screwed into a matching internal thread of the coupling 8. Formed in the disk-shaped mass balance element 1 is an opening which, for example, is in the form of a monoflat body or an asymmetrical biplanar body. Along the rotation axis of the shaft 5, above the external thread 12, a section of the shaft is formed in such a way that it can be connected as a counterpart in a form-fitting manner to the opening of the disk-shaped mass balance element 1, which is formed as a monoflat body or asymmetrical biplanar body, by sliding the disk-shaped mass balance element onto the shaft 5.

[0042] In the assembled state, the disk-shaped mass balance element 1 is connected to the shaft 5 in a form-fitting manner and secured to the shaft 5 by the coupling being screwed on. It thus becomes possible that the disk-shaped mass balance element 1 rotates together with the coupling in a form-fitting manner. The disk-shaped slide ring 7 is, in particular, positioned along the rotation axis of the shaft 5 between the shaft bearing 6 and the disk-shaped mass balance element 1 such that there is no contact surface between the shaft bearing 6 and the disk-shaped mass balance element 1.

[0043] In particular an element with a defined mass is located at the outer area of the disk-shaped mass balance element 1 in such a way that the otherwise circular shape of the mass balance element is interrupted at this position. In the present embodiment, this is preferably a rectangular bar formed at the outer radial end of a circle 1.

[0044] In an embodiment not shown, this can also be realized, for example, by accumulating material at a point on the surface of the mass balance element 1. The mass of the corresponding element corresponds to the balancing mass for counterbalancing the tool 2. If different tools 2 to be counterbalanced can be mounted in a blender, it is in particular possible to correspondingly exchange the disk-shaped mass balance elements 1.

[0045] In an embodiment not shown, a mass balance element is integrated into the coupling 8 instead of the disk-shaped mass balance element. This mass balance element can be formed, for example, by an accumulation of material on one side of a plastic coupling, or can be introduced in the form of a balance weight into an accordingly provided pocket/receptacle of the coupling 8. Further preferably, different balance weights can be inserted into the pocket/receptacle to match the corresponding tool 2.

[0046] FIGS. 4 and 5 schematically show the geometrical arrangement of the shaft 5, the tool 2 with the knife blades 3, 4, the coupling 6 and the mass balance element 23 in such a way that the blender is completely counterbalanced. Since the mass balance element 23 should be positioned outside the processing area of the blender, only one balancing plane is used which lies in the coupling plane 12 of the blade shaft 5. To be able to use only this one balancing plane for mass balancing to achieve full counterbalancing, the entire blade shaft must be designed with regard to the mass distribution in such a way that the technical special case of counterbalancing occurs, i.e. that already one mass balance element 23 is sufficient to fully counterbalance the rotor with the tool 2.

[0047] For this purpose, the individual centers of gravity of the knife blades 3, 4 and the mass balance weight lie in a plane 40 through the rotation axis 50. The unbalanced centrifugal forces of the individual centers of gravity of the knife blades 3, 4 are also in momentum equilibrium about the axis 80, which is orthogonal to the plane 4 in which all centers of gravity lie, and passes through the intersection point 90 between the rotation axis 50 and force axis 10 of the mass balance weight 23.

[0048] The unbalanced centrifugal forces of the individual centers of gravity of the knife blades 3, 4 as well as those of the balance weight 23 are in force equilibrium through the plane 110 which runs through the rotation axis 55 and perpendicular to the plane 4 in which all centers of gravity lie. For a given center of gravity radius, this results in the mass of the mass balance element 23 or, for a given mass of the mass balance element 23, the center of gravity radius.

[0049] All calculations assume that the radial bearing forces of the shaft bearing are set to zero such that in a fully counterbalanced system only the weight force of the blade shaft needs to be axially supported.

[0050] Although the claims in the present case are directed at a blender, the invention can also be used for spice mills, in stirring devices (e.g. food processors), or in jugs in which food is chopped.