GB2094135A - Slicing system and method and holder therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

A holder 3 for use in slicing smoked salmon sides comprises a base 4, a support means 5 having a support surface 10 and mounted on said base 4 with said support surface 10 at an acute angle of at least 30 DEG to the horizontal, a retaining means 11 for preventing movement of the material 2 on the support surface 10, a knife guide and/or support means 16 arranged for guiding and/or holding, respectively, a knife blade 26 in a slicing plane 25 at an angle to said support surface 10, and an advance means 29-24 arranged for providing progressive advancing of the support surface 10 relative to the knife guide and/or support means 16 at an angle to said slicing plane 25. In use of the holder 3 the material 2 is supported at an angle to the horizontal and progressively advanced as slicing proceeds. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Slicing system and method and holder therefor This invention relates to a slicing system and method for use in slicing food materials and presenting them in a convenient manner, and a holder for use therein.

In the case of food materials such as smoked salmon there is a need for slicing of the material thinly and accurately to produce coherent slices having an acceptable appearance, and presenting the sliced material in the form of an assembly from which slices may be readily removed without damage thereto and which assembly has an attractive appearance.

In general smoked salmon sides are sliced manually but this requires a high degree of skill on the part of the operative and inevitably involves a certain degree of variation in slice thickness and the possibility of wastage due to poorly formed slices. One alternative is to first freeze the side of smoke salmon and then slice the frozen salmon into individual slices using a conventional frozen food mechanical slicing apparatus. Whilst this system produces high accuracy it also requires the manual collection of the individual slices and careful assembly thereof with interleaving of paper or other suitable separating material in order to produce the preferred form of assembly in which the slices are reassembled into substantially their original, pre-sliced, condition i.e. a sliced side of smoked salmon.

It is an object of the present invention to avoid or minimize one or more of the above disadvantages.

The present invention provides a holder for use in a slicing system suitable for use in slicing smoked salmon sides, said holder comprising a base, a support means having a support surface and mounted on said base with said support surface at an acute angle of at least 30 to the horizontal, in use of the holder, and also having a retaining means for preventing movement of the material on said support surface in use of the holder, a knife guide and/or support means arranged for guiding and/or holding, respectively, a knife blade, in use of the holder, for slicing movement in a slicing plane extending upwardly from said support surface, or from immediately above said support surface, at an angle to said support surface, and an advance means arranged for providing progressive advancing of the support surface relative to the knife guide and/or support means at an angle to said slicing plane whereby in use of the holder the material is supported at an angle to the horizontal and progressively advanced as slicing proceeds.

In a further aspect the invention provides a slicing device comprising a holder of the invention with a knife blade supported in the knife support means of said holder.

In another aspect the present invention provides a method of producing a sliced food product assembly comprising the steps of supporting a portion of food material to be sliced, on a support surface inclined at an angle of at least 30 to the horizontal, slicing substantially but not entirely through the food material in a slicing plane at an angle to said support surface so that the slices remain attached to an unsliced layer, said slices being folded away from the slicing plane in a downward direction along the support surface, and folding successive slices substantially back to their original pre-sliced positions whilst interleaving the slices with separating sheets of an acceptable food packaging material so as to produce an assembly of slices of a portion of food material interleaved with separating sheets.

By means of the present invention it is possible to accurately and efficiently slice food material and present it in a simple and efficient manner in the form of an interleaved assembly from which assembly individual slices may be readily removed.

Whilst the present invention is particularly suitable for use in slicing smoked salmon, it may be applied to various other food materials such as for example smoked ham and Further preferred features and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description given by way of example of one embodiment of a food slicing system of the invention and method thereof illustrated with reference to the accompanying drawing in which: Figure 1 is a schematic side view of a slicing system of the invention.

Figure 1 shows a slicing system 1 in use for slicing a smoked salmon side 2. The system comprises a holder 3 which has a base 4 and a support means 5 mounted in said base 4 for guided horizontal sliding movement relative thereto. Specifically the base 4 is in the form of two parallel longitudinally extending spaced apart guide members 6 joined by front and rear cross members 7a, 7b at the front and rear ends of the base 4. The support means 5 is in the form of a horizontally disposed base plate 8 slidable between the base guide members 6, and an inclined support plate 9 having an upper support surface 10 on which the side salmon 2 is supported.

In order to avoid the side 2 sliding down the support surface 10, the support plate 9 is provided with a retaining means in the form of a normally projecting stop plate 11 at its lower end 12 and an additional retainer in the form of a grip 13 pivotally connected 14to the upper end 15 of the support plate 9.

A knife guide 16 comprises two inclined guide members 17 which extend upwardly in parallel spaced apart relation from the respective horizontal guide members 6 on either side of the support plate 9 and are also supported by struts 18.

As may be seen in the drawing the rear base cross-members 7b is in the form of an upright plate which has a central screw threaded aperture 19 through which extends a threaded drive shaft 20 of an advance means, the forward end 21 of the drive shaft being rotatably engaged with an upright end member 22 provided at the rear end of the support base plate 8 and the rear end 23 of the drive shaft 20 being provided with a crank handle 24.

As shown in the drawing, the support surface 10 is inclined to the horizontal at an acute angle of the order of 45" whilst the knife guide members 17 are inclined at a greater angle of the order of 60" so that an acute angle of the order of 15 is included between a slicing plane 25 of a knife 26 guided by the guide members 17 and the support surface 10, whereby the salmon side 2 is sliced at an angle of about 15" to an outer skin 27 of the salmon side 2, in use of the system.

In use of the system a salmon side 2 is placed on the support surface 10 with its front end 28 against the stop plate 11 and its tail end 29 is secured with the grip 13. The support means 5 is positioned so that the slicing plane 25 (at the front side of the guide members 17) extends just below the surface of the front end 28 of the side i.e. the side is in position for the first slice to be cut. The knife blade 26 is then brought down the guide members 17 slicing through the side following which it is raised up to a position well clear of the side so that the support means 5 and side 2 thereon may be advanced by turning of the crank handle 24. Conveniently the screw threaded drive shaft has a screw pitch such that the desired slicing thickness is obtained with an integral number, e.g. one, of revolutions of the handle 24.When the side 2 and support means 5 have been advanced sufficiently the next slice is made and the cycle repeated until the tail end 2 is reached. In orderto avoid complete severing of the slices the knife edge is not brought down fully into contact with the support surface 10 so that the skin 27 is substantially uncut and the individual slices remain attached thereto. As each slice is cut (apart possibly from the first few slices), it swings downwardly away from the slicing plane 25 onto the immediately preceding slice (as shown in the drawing) either alone under the influence of gravity or with the aid of suitable assistance e.g. it may be pushed away with the knife on completion of the respective cut.As slicing progresses it will of course be appreciated that the slicing plane 25 progresses upwardly along the guide members 17 so that it is necessary to adjust the travel of the knife blade accordingly.

When slicing has been completed the sliced side is removed from the device and amy be quickly interleaved with separating sheets of paper or plastics material and reassembled by inserting such a sheet between the front end 29 of the side 2 and an adjacent folded over slice, returning said slice to its original (pre-sliced) position and then repeating the cycle until the tail end 28 is reached. By this means there is quickly and easily obtained a sliced and interleaved salmon side having substantially its original form and appearance and which is thus attractive to customers.

In addition to the advantages already mentioned it will be appreciated that the present invention also offers the advantage of speed and ease of operation, avoidance of skinning and freezing steps, no need for skilled labour, reduced handling and thus increased hygiene, low cost of apparatus and substantial avoidance of waste. It will also be appreciated that the design may be readily automated and indeed various modifications may be made to the above embodiment without departing from the scope of the present invention.Thus for example different forms of advance means e.g. an electrically driven motorwith a rack and pinion arrangement may be used, as well as different forms of cutting knife ranging from a hand held manually or electrically driven reciprocating carving knife to a fully automated knife in which both slicing and positional adjustment as slicing progresses are controlled automatically. Conveniently in the latter case the advance means is coupled to the slicing means so that the slicing of a whole side can proceed substantially automatically. Also, for example, instead of moving the support surface relative to the guide means, the latter could be moved rearwardly relative to the former as slicing proceeds. In this case the support surface would be conveniently fixed to the base and the guide means arranged for guided movement along the base.

Various angles of inclination of the guide means and support surface may be employed to obtain any given one or different, cutting angles relative to the support surface. In the case of smoked salmon sides the latter angle is preferably from 10 to 30 , most preferably about 15 but for other products e.g.

salami different cutting angles may be preferred.

Claims (10)

1. A holder for use in a slicing system suitable for use in a slicing smoked salmon sides, said holder comprising a base, a support means having a support surface and mounted on said base with said support surface at an acute angle of at least 30 to the horizontal, in use of the holder, and also having a retaining means for preventing movement of the material on said support surface in use of the holder, a knife guide and/or support means arranged for guiding and/or holding, respectively, a knife blade, in use of the holder, for slicing movement in a slicing plane extending upwardly from said support surface, or from immediately above said support surface, at an angle to said support surface, and an advance means arranged for providing progressive advancing of the support surface relative to the knife guide and/or support means at an angle to said slicing plane whereby in use of the holder the material is supported at an angle to the horizontal and progressively advanced as slicing proceeds.

2. A holder as claimed in Claim 1 wherein the knife guide and/or support means is secured to the base and the support means guidedly movable along said base.

3. A holder as claimed in Claim 3 wherein the support means is secured to the base and said knife guide and/or support means is guidedly movable along said base.

4. A holder as claimed in any one of Ciaims 1 to 3 wherein the advance means comprises a screwthreaded drive shaft rotatably connected to the movable one of the support means and the knife guide and/or support means and screw threadedly engaged with the other or the base, said drive shaft being provided with rotation means for rotating said drive shaft so that rotation thereof results in relative movement between said support means and the knife guide and/or support means.

5. A holder as claimed in any of one of Claims 1 to 4 wherein the support surface is inclined to the base at an angle of from 30 to 600, and the knife guide and support surface inclined to the base at an angle of from 45 to 750, provided that the slicing plane is inclined at an angle from 15 to 200 to the support surface.

6. A holder as claimed in Claim 5 wherein the slicing plane inclined to the base at an angle of from 50 to 900.

7. A slicing device comprising a holder according to any one of claims 1 to 6, said holder having a knife support means, and a knife blade supported in said knife support means.

8. A slicing device according to Claim 1 substantially as described herein before with particular reference to the accompanying drawing.

9. A method of producing a sliced food product assembly comprising the steps of supporting a portion of food material to be sliced, on a support surface inclined at an angle of at least 30 to the horizontal, slicing substantially but not entirely through the food material in a slicing plane at an angle to said support surface so that the slices remain attached to an unsliced layer, said slices being folded away from the slicing plane in a downward direction along the support surface, and folding successive slices substantially back to their original pre-sliced positions whilst interleaving the slices with separating sheets of an acceptable food packaging material so as to produce an assembly of slices of a portion of food material interleaved with separating sheets.

10. A method according to Claim 9 substantially as described hereinbefore with particular reference to the accompanying drawing.