Patents by Inventor Darrell L. Covert

Darrell L. Covert has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Food processing apparatus
    Patent number: 5201259
    Abstract: A method and apparatus are disclosed for efficiently cutting food items, such as potatoes, into helical strips. The food items are provided seriatim to the cutting assembly from a conveyor system fed by a trough shaker or other singulator device. Food items on the conveyor are aligned longitudinally and are then impaled on small spikes protruding from the conveyor so that they maintain the longitudinal orientation during their travel to a feed roller portion of the system. The feed rollers firmly grip the food items by their peripheries and advance them into the rotary cutting assembly. This assembly includes a helically shaped cutting member defining at a leading edge thereof a slicing blade and supporting on its front surface a plurality of perpendicularly extending scoring blades. The helically shaped cutting member is mounted at its periphery by being threadedly received in a helical thread cut in an annular holder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 1990
    Date of Patent: April 13, 1993
    Assignee: Lamb-Weston, Inc.
    Inventors: Darrell L. Covert, Gary D. Cuddeford, Kenneth J. Stanley, John C. Julian
  • Food processing apparatus
    Patent number: 4979418
    Abstract: A method and apparatus are disclosed for efficiently cutting food items, such as potatoes, into helical strips. The food items are provided seriatim to the cutting assembly from a conveyor system fed by a trough shaker or other singulator device. Food items on the conveyor are aligned longitudinally and are then impaled on small spikes protruding from the conveyor so that they maintain the longitudinal orientation during their travel to a feed roller portion of the system. The feed rollers firmly grip the food items by their peripheries and advance them into the rotary cutting assembly. This assembly includes a helically shaped cutting member defining at a leading edge thereof a slicing blade and supporting on its front surface a plurality of perpendicularly extending scoring blades. The helically shaped cutting member is mounted at its periphery by being threadedly received in a helical thread cut in an annular holder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 1987
    Date of Patent: December 25, 1990
    Assignee: Lamb-Weston, Inc.
    Inventors: Darrell L. Covert, Gary D. Cuddeford, Kenneth J. Stanley, John C. Julian