Abstract: A conveyor system with a knife for cutting food items into smaller food items includes a first rotatable knife device having a knife blade, and a conveying system for conveying food items to be cut. The rotatable knife device is positioned above a carrying surface of the conveying system with the knife plane of the rotatable knife device extending through a first gap. The rotatable knife device is adapted for cutting a food item into smaller food items while the food item passes the first gap. The shape of the carrying surface around the first gap is concave and essentially follows the knife path of the rotatable knife blade.

Abstract: An apparatus for cutting food objects conveyed from an inlet conveyor to an adjacent outlet conveyor. A moving mechanism is operably connected to the outlet conveyor to provide movement of the inlet end of the outlet conveyor from an adjacent position. The inlet end of the outlet conveyor is moved from a position adjacent to the outlet end of the inlet conveyor to an open position and back to an adjacent position. A cutting device cuts the food objects into portions and trim. A control unit controls the moving mechanism to move the inlet end of the outlet conveyor to an open position when separating trim portions to fall as desired and subsequently instructs the inlet end the outlet conveyor to move back to the adjacent position before the next cutting to provide a support for the remaining parts of the food object.

Abstract: A cutting device adapted to be placed above a gap extending across a carrying surface of a conveyor system with the cutting plane of the cutting device extending through the gap. The cutting device cuts food items into smaller food items via rotational movement of the cutting device while the food items conveyed by the conveyor system pass the gap. The cutting device includes an arm and a cutting blade mounted to one end of the arm. The opposite end of the arm is adapted to be mounted to a driving unit for supplying rotational movement of the arm and thus the cutting blade. A cutting edge side of the cutting blade engages with the food item under an angle such that the cutting blade exerts with a downwardly facing force onto the food item and towards the carrying surface of the conveyor system during the cutting.

Abstract: This invention relates to a cutting apparatus for cutting food objects into smaller food products, wherein the cutting apparatus includes an infeed conveyor having a first end and a second end, a conveyor system having a first end and a second end, the conveyor system being arranged such that the first end of the conveyor system is adjacent and parallel to the second end of the infeed conveyor defining a first slit there between, and a first cutting unit having a cutting plane extending through the first slit and controlled by a control unit for cutting food objects conveyed by the infeed conveyor into smaller food products, wherein the first slit and the cutting plane of the cutting unit form an angle to an axis perpendicular to the conveying direction.

Abstract: An apparatus for cutting food objects conveyed from an inlet conveyor to an adjacent outlet conveyor. A moving mechanism is operably connected to the outlet conveyor to provide movement of the inlet end of the outlet conveyor from an adjacent position. The inlet end of the outlet conveyor is moved from a position adjacent to the outlet end of the inlet conveyor to an open position and back to an adjacent position. A cutting device cuts the food objects into portions and trim. A control unit controls the moving mechanism to move the inlet end of the outlet conveyor to an open position when separating trim portions to fall as desired and subsequently instructs the inlet end the outlet conveyor to move back to the adjacent position before the next cutting to provide a support for the remaining parts of the food object.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus for increasing the capacity and precision of a portion cutter wherein the items to be portion cut are positioned abutting each other. In particular are provided a method and apparatus for identifying a boundary between consecutive items to be cut when the items are placed on a conveyor abutting each other with little or no gab between the items. At least one characteristic is measured for each of the items, and at least one process parameter is controlled in order to achieve predetermined product portions from the items based on the measured characteristic.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus for increasing the capacity and precision of a portion cutter wherein the items to be portion cut are positioned abutting each other. In particular are provided means for identifying a boundary between consecutive items to be cut when the items are placed on a conveyor abutting each other with little or no gab between the items. At least one characteristic is measured for each of the items, and at least one process parameter is controlled in order to achieve predetermined product portions from the items based on the measured characteristic.

Abstract: The present invention concerns an apparatus for portion cutting of products, such as fool products (1), said apparatus comprising cutting means (2) for sectioning the products (1); scanning means (6) for detecting at least one characteristic of the product; conveying means (4) for transporting the product from the scanning means to the cutting means, and control means for controlling and regulating at least one relevant cutting process parameters in order to achieve predetermined product potions based on the detected product characteristics, wherein the conveying means comprises at least one conveyor unit (4) having two substantially parallel conveyors (4a; 4b) each having an upper conveying surface, said upper conveying surfaces being inclined relative to each other, so that the conveying surfaces of the conveyors have a mutual angle different from 180° in a traverse direction of the conveying direction.

Abstract: In a method of detecting and segmenting characteristic regions in an image, such as a colour image having characteristic regions, where the image is represented by a plurality of pixel values expressed in grey tones, a circle of radius r is defined for a plurality of pixel positions, which radius approximated is regarded as the radius of a characteristic region. The optimum value of radius r is determined by calculating, for a large number of possible values of r, the difference between the characteristic grey tone value of an outer zone having the radius range r1 to qr1 (=r2), where q is a constant, and the characteristic grey tone value of an inner zone having the radius range 0 to r1. Then the radius r1 providing the greatest difference is selected as the radius of the object.

Abstract: In a method of analyzing a plurality of objects, which each are expressed by a set of parameters consisting of a plurality of parameter values, a plurality of samples (predetermined objects) is divided into a plurality of classes. These objects may inter alia be represented by colour pixels in an image processing system, wherein each object is identified by a set of parameters formed by a plurality of parameters, e.g. the intensities of the 3 primary colours. Sets of parameters additionally include e.g. those which are related to marketing, economic, financial, legal, organizing, sociological, anthropological, historic, linguistic, psychological or political scenarios. The sets of parameters of the samples, which are expressed as a set of numbers, determine in which of the classes the individual samples are arranged. The classes of the objects are established by given criteria, such as distance relations in vector form between the sets of parameters of the objects and the sets of parameters of the samples.

Abstract: In the teaching of an image analysis system, a video image of a reference object is captured. Several areas, each of which represents a class (22, 23), are marked on the video image, which is divided into pixels having their separate identification, such as color. Once all classes have been formed, each class is given a color which is assigned to all pixels in the class irrespective of identification. Pixels which may belong to more than one class, a so-called conflict class (24), and pixels which do not belong to any class, a so-called 0 class (25), are transferred to a residual class. Then the entire video image is processed in that the pixels which are not represented in the zero class (25) or the conflict class (24), are given a color value from the class having a pixel identification which is closest to the pixel concerned. The principles of the invention may be applied in general in connection with analysis techniques where objects may be characterized by means of an N-dimensional set of parameters.