Patents by Inventor Mark Allen Martin

Mark Allen Martin 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).

  • Patent number: 10442102
    Abstract: Machines and methods suitable for performing cutting operations on products to yield a reduced-size product, for example, slicing and strip-cutting elongate food products. Such a method includes simultaneously delivering products to annular-shaped cavities of a rotating impeller. The products are simultaneously delivered with a feed unit that has a feed chute extension that protrudes into an interior of the impeller. The feed chute extension defines feed chutes that are aligned with the annular-shaped cavities of the impeller and direct the products to circumferential series of pockets within the annular-shaped cavities. The products are held within the pockets by centrifugal force as the products are carried past a slicing knife to form a first longitudinal cut through each of the products during a rotation of the impeller and to produce therefrom a substantially longitudinally sliced product.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2019
    Assignee: Urschel Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Luc Van Buynder, Nicholas Alan Underwood, Shawn Christopher Boylstein, Mark Allen Martin, James A. Fant, Michael Scot Jacko
  • Patent number: 10406710
    Abstract: Machines and methods suitable for performing cutting operations on a product to yield a reduced-size product, for example, slicing and strip-cutting elongate food products. Such a method includes introducing a product into an impeller, rotating the impeller to form at least a first longitudinal cut through the product with a slicing knife and produce therefrom a sliced product, and producing strip-cut products from the sliced product by forming at least a second longitudinal cut that is substantially perpendicular to the first longitudinal cut made with the slicing knife.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2019
    Assignee: Urschel Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Nicholas Alan Underwood, Shawn Christopher Boylstein, Mark Allen Martin, Luc Van Buynder, James A. Fant
  • Patent number: 9764491
    Abstract: An apparatus and method suitable for performing cutting operations on a product to yield a reduced-size product, for example, slicing, strip-cutting, dicing, shredding, and/or granulating a food product. The apparatus includes a casing, an impeller adapted for rotation within the casing about an axis thereof, and knives that perform, in sequence, slicing, strip-cutting and crosscutting on a product to produce reduced-size products. The apparatus is capable of performing a method by which a product is introduced into the impeller and the impeller is rotated to slice the product with a slicing knife and produce therefrom slices having peaks and valleys on opposite surfaces thereof and a cross-sectional shape that periodically varies in thickness. Strips are then produced from each of the slices by forming parallel cuts, each coinciding with a peak of each slice so that each strip has a width substantially identical to a wavelength of the slice.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 14, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2017
    Assignee: Urschel Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark Allen Martin, Thomas R. Mahaffey, II
  • Publication number: 20170232630
    Abstract: Machines and methods suitable for performing cutting operations on products to yield a reduced-size product, for example, slicing and strip-cutting elongate food products. Such a method includes simultaneously delivering products to annular-shaped cavities of a rotating impeller. The products are simultaneously delivered with a feed unit that has a feed chute extension that protrudes into an interior of the impeller. The feed chute extension defines feed chutes that are aligned with the annular-shaped cavities of the impeller and direct the products to circumferential series of pockets within the annular-shaped cavities. The products are held within the pockets by centrifugal force as the products are carried past a slicing knife to form a first longitudinal cut through each of the products during a rotation of the impeller and to produce therefrom a substantially longitudinally sliced product.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 20, 2017
    Publication date: August 17, 2017
    Inventors: Nicholas Alan Underwood, Shawn Christopher Boylstein, Mark Allen Martin, Luc Van Buynder, James A. Fant, Michael Scot Jacko
  • Publication number: 20160318201
    Abstract: Machines and methods suitable for performing cutting operations on a product to yield a reduced-size product, for example, slicing and strip-cutting elongate food products. Such a method includes introducing a product into an impeller, rotating the impeller to form at least a first longitudinal cut through the product with a slicing knife and produce therefrom a sliced product, and producing strip-cut products from the sliced product by forming at least a second longitudinal cut that is substantially perpendicular to the first longitudinal cut made with the slicing knife.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 29, 2016
    Publication date: November 3, 2016
    Inventors: Nicholas Alan Underwood, Shawn Christopher Boylstein, Mark Allen Martin, Luc Van Buynder, James A. Fant
  • Publication number: 20160207213
    Abstract: An apparatus and method suitable for performing cutting operations on a product to yield a reduced-size product, for example, slicing, strip-cutting, dicing, shredding, and/or granulating a food product. The apparatus includes a casing, an impeller adapted for rotation within the casing about an axis thereof, and knives that perform, in sequence, slicing, strip-cutting and crosscutting on a product to produce reduced-size products. The apparatus is capable of performing a method by which a product is introduced into the impeller and the impeller is rotated to slice the product with a slicing knife and produce therefrom slices having peaks and valleys on opposite surfaces thereof and a cross-sectional shape that periodically varies in thickness. Strips are then produced from each of the slices by forming parallel cuts, each coinciding with a peak of each slice so that each strip has a width substantially identical to a wavelength of the slice.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 14, 2016
    Publication date: July 21, 2016
    Inventors: Mark Allen Martin, Thomas R. Mahaffey, II
  • Patent number: D760992
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2016
    Assignee: Urschel Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark Allen Martin, Thomas R. Mahaffey, II
  • Patent number: D778526
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2017
    Assignee: Urschel Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark Allen Martin, Thomas R. Mahaffey, II
  • Patent number: D1017178
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2024
    Assignee: Urschel Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark Allen Martin, Michael Scot Jacko
  • Patent number: D1017179
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2024
    Assignee: Urschel Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark Allen Martin, Michael Scot Jacko
  • Patent number: D1017180
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2024
    Assignee: Urschel Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark Allen Martin, Michael Scot Jacko
  • Patent number: D1017952
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignee: Urschel Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark Allen Martin, Michael Scot Jacko
  • Patent number: D1022391
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2024
    Assignee: Urschel Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark Allen Martin, Michael Scot Jacko
  • Patent number: D1022392
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2024
    Assignee: Urschel Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark Allen Martin, Michael Scot Jacko