Slicing Apparatus
Patent No. US12246467 (titled "Slicing Apparatus") was filed by Weber Food Technology Se & Co Kg on Apr 21, 2023.
What is this patent about?
’467 is related to the field of food processing, specifically high-speed slicing apparatuses used to cut food products like meat and cheese into slices. These slicers are often part of automated production lines where consistent product supply is crucial for maintaining efficiency. The patent addresses the problem of manually loading food products onto the slicer's feeding unit, which can be labor-intensive and lead to production bottlenecks if the operator fails to replenish the product supply in time.
The underlying idea behind ’467 is to automate the loading process of a food slicer by using a loading apparatus with a magazine unit . This unit employs a circulating conveyor system to lift food products from a convenient loading height to the slicer's feeding unit. An entraining device then automatically transfers the lifted product to the feeding unit, ensuring a continuous and ergonomic supply of food products to the slicer.
The claims of ’467 focus on a slicing apparatus that includes a feeding unit with a trimming cutter to remove unwanted portions of the food product *before* slicing. A selection gap is positioned after the cutter to remove the trimmings. Crucially, a scanning device analyzes the product *through* this selection gap as it enters the cutting region.
In practice, the loading apparatus lifts a series of food products to a transfer height, where an entraining device pushes them onto the slicer's feeding unit. Before reaching the blade, a trimming cutter removes any undesired parts, such as excess fat. These trimmings fall through the selection gap, allowing the scanning device to analyze the product's dimensions and characteristics *after* trimming but *before* slicing. This information can then be used to optimize the slicing process.
This design differentiates itself from prior solutions by integrating trimming, waste removal, and scanning into a streamlined process. By scanning the product *after* trimming, the slicing apparatus can make more informed decisions about slice thickness and portion size, leading to reduced waste and improved product consistency. The automated loading and transfer system further enhances efficiency by minimizing manual labor and ensuring a continuous product flow.
How does this patent fit in bigger picture?
Technical landscape at the time
In the early 2020s when ’467 was filed, food product slicing systems commonly relied on automated feeding mechanisms to increase throughput, at a time when continuous operation was typically implemented using manual loading of product onto the feeding unit, when hardware or software constraints made fully automated loading non-trivial.
Novelty and Inventive Step
The examiner approved the claims because the prior art did not disclose a scanning device that scans products fed over a selection gap into the cutting region, where the scanning device is arranged to scan the products through the selection gap, in combination with other claim limitations.
Claims
This patent has 5 claims, with claim 1 being the only independent claim. Independent claim 1 is directed to a slicing apparatus that uses a trimming cutter and a scanning device. The dependent claims generally elaborate on specific features and arrangements of the trimming cutter and feeding unit described in the independent claim.
Key Claim Terms New
Definitions of key terms used in the patent claims.
Patent Family
File Wrapper
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Date
Description
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US12246467
- Application Number
- US18137780
- Filing Date
- Apr 21, 2023
- Status
- Granted
- Expiry Date
- Jul 26, 2041
- External Links
- Slate, USPTO, Google Patents