Cutting apparatus for cutting food items conveyed on a conveyor including at least one conveyor belt

Abstract

This invention relates to a cutting apparatus for cutting food items conveyed on a conveyor including at least one conveyor belt. A cutter is arranged above a gap extending across the at least one conveyor belt. The cutter is positioned in relation to the gap such that the cutting path of the cutter extends through the food items and the gap and below the surface level of the at least one conveyor belt. The cutter is adapted to be connected to a control mechanism for operating crosswise movement of the cutter along the gap. The gap is formed between adjacent elongated supporting means such as rollers with a fixed internal arrangement, where the adjacent elongated supporting means and the cutter is adapted to be connected to a control mechanism for operating back and forth movement of the adjacent elongated supporting means and the cutter parallel to the conveying direction while maintaining the internal arrangement of the adjacent elongated supporting means and the cutter fixed.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A cutting apparatus for cutting food items conveyed on a conveyor including at least one conveyor belt, comprising:
 a cutter arranged above a gap extending across said at least one conveyor belt, the cutter being positioned in relation to the gap such that the cutting path of the cutter extends through the food items and the gap and below the surface level of said at least one conveyor belt, the cutter being adapted to be connected to a control mechanism for operating crosswise movement of the cutter along said gap,   
       wherein said gap is formed between adjacent elongated supporting means with a fixed internal arrangement, the adjacent elongated supporting means and the cutter being adapted to be connected to a control mechanism for operating back and forth movement of the adjacent elongated supporting means and the cutter parallel to the conveying direction while maintaining said internal arrangement of the adjacent elongated supporting means and the cutter fixed. 
     
     
         2 . A cutting apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein said conveyor further comprises at least one supporting means arranged adjacent and below said conveyor belt for providing a support for said conveyor belt. 
     
     
         3 . A cutting apparatus according to  claim 2 , wherein said at least one supporting means comprises at least one supporting belt extending between a first roller means and a second roller means. 
     
     
         4 . A cutting apparatus according to  claim 2 , wherein said at least one supporting means has a first end mounted to a downstream side of a frame structure for maintaining said internal arrangement of the adjacent elongated supporting means fixed, and a second end mounted to an upstream side of said frame structure. 
     
     
         5 . A cutting apparatus according to  claim 2 , where the first end of the at least one supporting means extends from the downstream side of said frame structure and around a first elongated bar to the first roller and the second end of the at least one supporting means extends from the upstream side of said frame structure and around adjacent second elongated bar to the second roller means. 
     
     
         6 . A cutting apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein said conveyor further comprises a third roller means and a fourth roller means placed distally away from said first and second roller means, where at least one of said third or fourth roller means act as a driving roller means for said conveyor belt. 
     
     
         7 . A cutting apparatus according to  claim 1 , comprising at least one further elongated supporting means placed below said adjacent elongated supporting means, said at least one conveyor belt being a single conveyor belt and said adjacent elongated supporting means and said at least one further elongated supporting means being adapted to create a bypass for said conveyor belt by means of extending the conveyor belt between the adjacent elongated supporting means and said at least one further elongated supporting means such that a substantial U-shaped profile of the conveyor belt is formed. 
     
     
         8 . A cutting apparatus according to  claim 7 , wherein said at least one further elongated supporting means is adjustable from being in a closed position where it is placed below said adjacent elongated supporting means where the conveyor belt is in a stretched state towards being in an open position where the conveyor belt is in a slack state. 
     
     
         9 . A cutting apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein said elongated supporting means are rollers. 
     
     
         10 . A cutting apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein said adjacent elongated supporting means are triangular shaped bars where the acute angles of said triangular shaped bars are facing each other. 
     
     
         11 . A cutting apparatus according to  claim 10 , wherein said acute angle of said triangular shaped bars have a round shape. 
     
     
         12 . A cutting apparatus according to  claim 1 , further comprising elongated bar arranged below the surface level of said at least one conveyor belt between said at least one further elongated supporting means and said cutter, the elongated bar being positioned such that it intersects with the cutting plane of the cutter at all times. 
     
     
         13 . A cutting apparatus according to  claim 12 , wherein said elongated bar is a tube with a slot extending along the longitudinal axis of the tube, where the tube is positioned such that the slot is facing the cutter and thus intersects with the cutting plane of the cutter at all times. 
     
     
         14 . A cutting apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the adjacent elongated supporting means are distal end-rollers of two adjacent conveyor belts each of which being provided with a belt stretching mechanism for maintaining a fixed belt tension at all times while maintaining said fixed internal arrangement of the adjacent rollers. 
     
     
         15 . A cutting apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the cutter is further provided with a tilting mechanism for adjusting the tilting angle in both directions within the cutting plane of the cutter. 
     
     
         16 . A cutting apparatus according to  claim 1 , further comprising a scraper adapted to remove cut out pieces of the food items after the cutting. 
     
     
         17 . A cutting apparatus according to  claim 16 , wherein said scraper is mounted to a scraper operating mechanism capable of moving the scraper down adjacent to the surface level of said at least one conveyor belt during cutting, and up from the surface level when not in use. 
     
     
         18 . A cutting apparatus according to  claim 16 , wherein said scraper operating mechanism further comprise scraper angle mechanism to adjust the angle of the scraper around a vertical axis. 
     
     
         19 . A cutting apparatus according to  claim 16 , where the scraper is positioned adjacent and behind the cutter at the downstream end with respect to the conveying direction of said conveyor belt so as to allow immediate removal of cut out portions of said food items. 
     
     
         20 . A cutting apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein said cutter is selected from:
 a fluid pressure cutter,   a laser beam cutter,   a high pressurized gas cutter, or   a cutting blade.   
     
     
         21 . A cutting apparatus according to  claim 7 , wherein said at least one further elongated supporting means comprises two spaced apart roller means. 
     
     
         22 . A cutting apparatus according to  claim 1 , further comprising a removing means for removing undesired particles, off-cuts and the like that fall through said gap extending across said at least one conveyor belt. 
     
     
         23 . A food processing system comprising a cutting apparatus according to  claim 1 , comprising:
 an imaging system for imaging and producing image data of the food items to be processed,   a computer system operable connected to a tracing mechanism for tracing the position of the food items while being conveyed, the computer system being adapted to process said image data so as to generate operation parameters for operating said movement of the cutter across the conveyor belt ( 102 ) and parallel to the conveying direction.   
     
     
         24 . A food processing system according to  claim 23 , wherein said imaging system is an x-ray system and where said image data is x-ray data.