Abstract: An onion peeling device comprised of a shield having an open lower end and a rounded upper end. The open lower end has a slot formed therein extending upwardly therefrom. The slot has an upper portion and a lower portion. The upper portion has a width greater than the lower portion. The slot forms edges on opposing sides thereof. The shield is adapted to receive an onion within the open lower end thereof. The shield serves to protect a user's eyes from juices produced when slicing the onion. A rubber strip is secured to the edges of the slot of the shield. The rubber strip is adapted to secure a knife blade within the slot to be used on an onion within the shield.

Abstract: The object of the invention is to provide a food processor, which can be compact in size and can be easily washed. In the food processor, a tray accommodates processed food, and an upper face thereof is opened. A cutter plate is provided to an upper section of the tray and capable of reciprocatively moving along the upper face thereof so as to process food materials. A guide member supports the cutter plate and guides the movement of the cutter plate, and it is provided on an inner face of the tray. A cover is provided above the cutter plate and attached to the tray, and it has a cylindrical member into which the food materials are put. A drive section has a motor for moving the cutter plate and a connecting member for connecting the motor and the cutter plate, and it is capable of attaching to the upper section of the tray, wherein the connecting member connects the motor and the cutter plate when the drive section is attached to the tray.

Abstract: A kitchen utensil for fruits, vegetables and the like, including a tool having a head portion for engaging a fruit, a vegetable and the like, a handle for gripping the tool, and a flexible portion disposed between the head portion and the handle portion for permitting the head portion to pivot relative to the handle. The flexible portion includes a serpentine section having one end thereof integrally connected to the handle, and an opposite end thereof integrally connected to the head portion to provide a one piece integral construction. The serpentine section provides a series of loops, where wedge-shaped reinforcement members are transversely disposed between the loops to maintain the loops in the serpentine configuration. A flexible web portion is provided in each of the loops to maintain the loop configuration thereof while permitting expansion and contraction of the loops under pressure.

Abstract: A vegetable peeler that includes an oval shaped housing having a bottom and an open top, a concavely curved surface formed in the bottom of the oval shaped housing, a slot formed in the concavely curved surface and aligned with the length of the housing, a blade secured inside the housing and projecting through the slot with a curved cutting edge of the blade outside the slot and generally conforming to the curvature of the portion of the concavely curved surface adjacent thereto, and a cover engageable over the open top of the housing.

Abstract: An improvement in vegetable cutting machines of the kind comprising a cylindrical feeder (1) which includes a vertically upstanding cylinderical tube (2) and a vegetable press-feed device (3) in the form of a plate (4) which extends perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the tube and which is linearly movable relative to the tube, wherein the plate is carried by a stand arm unit placed parallel with the tube and including an upper stand arm (6) having a downwardly projecting shaft (7), wherein the shaft coacts with a tubular part (8) on a lower stand arm (9), thereby enabling the plate (4) to be swung away from the top orifice of the tube (2) and enable vegetables to be inserted into the tube for disintegration in the machine, and wherein a cutting tool comprising a disc provided with one or more knives is mounted in the vicinity of the bottom orifice of the tube (2).

Abstract: Apparatus is described for removing flesh from a cooked baked potato half supported in a pocket on a indexed conveyor. The apparatus comprises a plunger carrying a convex-shaped dicer head which is automatically reciprocated by a predetermined stroke in synchronism with the passage of a potato thereunder. The dicer head comprises a plurality of apertures or channels through or into which potato flesh passes as the dicer head is depressed into the potato half. The flesh is either immediately transferred to a conveyor or passes to a conveyor after accumulating above the dicer head. The potato is held down as the plunger is withdrawn by a potato keeper which keeper is carried on the plunger mounted to slide with respect to the dicer head and resiliently biassed to stay in position on the potato as the dicer head is withdrawn. The withdrawal of the dicer head may be assisted by gas jets activated in synchronism with the withdrawal of the dicer head.

Abstract: A peeler (10) is provided for peeling articles (50) such as oranges. The peeler (10) comprises a cylindrical member (12) which will cut a major portion of the article (50) by plunging thereinto. The portion cut will be within the cutting member (12) with the peel on the outside of the cutting member (12). A moveable member (20) is provided to push the portion from within the cutting member (12). A peel removing member (18) is provided to remove the peel from the outside of the cutting member (12). The ends of the portion can have the peel removed therefrom by slicing menas (149) either before or after the portion is cut from the article.

Abstract: A water-powered peeler for vegetables and the like having an axially short housing and a domed closed end suitable for pressing against the palm of the hand of the user. An abrading tool protrudes out the opposite end of the housing. Water power drives an impeller which is connected to an axle that drives the abrading tool.

Abstract: In an appliance for peeling fruit and vegetables, the appliance comprising an electric motor (1) driving a rotor (2) inside a cover (6), the axis of rotation (21) of the rotor being perpendicular to the surface to be peeled, and the rotor being loosely or pivotally mounted on the axis of rotation and being driven at a speed such that the tangential speed of the blades (16) carried by the rotor is at least equal to 7 meters per second.

Abstract: A machine is disclosed which is capable of cutting solid pieces of potato from potato halves. A potato half (42) is supported in the cup (28) of a potato holder (18) beneath a plate (60). The plate (60) slides across the flat surface of the potato half to restrain it from movement, and while this happens a curved blade (88) moves into the potato half through a slot (64) in the plate (60) to cut out a solid piece (b 116) from the potato half (42). The depth to which the blade (88) penetrates the potato as it sweeps through it is controlled by a cam (100).

Abstract: A machine for cutting strips of peel from citrus fruit, particularly for the purpose of producing "twists" of lemon and lime, employs a cutting assembly with a circular array of cutters. The cutters have upwardly oriented, transversely extending cutting edges to simultaneously produce a multiplicity of peel strips; they are biased to radially inward positions, and are automatically retractable so as to accommodate passage of the fruit axially between them. The machine includes a cup for receiving and permitting the convenient retrieval of the fruit and strips from the machine, and normally a plunger mechanism will be provided for manually forcing the fruit through the array of cutters.

Abstract: Generally cylindrical bodies of vegetable matter such as spears of asparagus of varying diameter are telescopically inserted tip end-first into the horizontally radially outwardly opening mouthpieces in a drum that is mounted to rotate on a horizontal axis. A take-in conveyor system running towards the mouthpieces in the loading station, and served by guides which converge toward the individual mouthpieces assist in socketing the bodies in the mouthpieces. Flexible collars in the mouthpieces constrict to grip the end portions of the bodies, and the drum indexes to dispose those bodies so that they project vertically upwards, at the same time bringing a next row of mouthpieces to the loading station.

Abstract: Apparatus and process for recovering the skins from baked potato parts and for recovering the potato meat that is scooped out of potato shells. Cupped shaped molds arranged to firmly hold potato halves in tray assemblies positioned at predetermined space points are attached to a conveyor that rotates about a first stationary drum. Cutter units form part of knife assemblies which are on the outer periphery of an opposed parallel rotating drum which assemblies are positioned at predetermined spaced locations corresponding to that of the cup shaped molds on the first stationary drum. The location of the molds and knives and their movement around the axis of their respective drums are synchronized so that when they are at the points at which they are closest during their movement about the axis of the respective drums the meat can be scooped from the potato by the knives to prepare the potato skins and the extracted meat can be recovered.

Abstract: Automatic machine and method for determining the depth or thickness of a layer of fat on a meat section or cut during transport by a moving conveyor, first through a measuring station involving employment of a bank of individually-operable probes arranged transversely of the conveyor travel and intermittently extendable toward and retractible from the meat section, the probes being used to successively measure a plurality of local values in a plurality of sites as they penetrate the fat layer and generate signals representative of those local values for transmittal to and storage in a memory bank as a profile of the fat layer, and second through a trimming station involving employment of an endless band saw having a working run extended transversely of and above the meat section cooperant with means for effecting lateral displacement of portions of the saw blade from the normal reference position responsive to signals from the memory representative of the profile for the prepositioning of the saw blade relati

Abstract: A sugarcane pith and rind separation unit comprising a power driven rind gripping roll, a power driven pith milling roll in close spaced relation, said rolls having surface indentation and being driven at such rotational speeds so as to accept incoming longitudinally split sugarcane stalk halves, flatten them, and mill out the pith away from the rind, and a pith deflecting plate or shroud positioned at the output of the two rolls, said plate having shaped surfaces for causing the rind and pith to travel further on separate paths and having, adjacent the leading edge and closely positioned in the output side of the pinch between the rolls, an elongated cylindrical roller of relatively small diameter and adapted to be driven at a rotational speed such as to effectively move any fibrous material that might cause clogging and binding out of the confined region between the rolls and the deflecting plate and pass to the output.

Abstract: A method and machine for processing pineapples by sequentially drilling a central hole, cutting off the upper end, transferring the pineapple to a peeling spindle, indexing the pineapple on the spindle through a series of peeling stations, cutting off the bottom end, rotating the spindle a single turn at each peeling station adjacent an array of rotating cutters to remove spaced bands from the outer surface of the pineapple while maintaining the original ovoid shape of the pineapple, pushing the peeled pineapple through a rotating circular knife to form the pineapple into a cylinder and an outer blanket, and removing the remaining fibrous core prior to discharge. The outer blanket, frequently termed the "crush blanket", is useful as such rather than as merely a source of juice.