EP3154751B1 - Device for cutting food - Google Patents

Description

FIELD OF APPLICATION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of kitchen utensils for cutting food also known as mandolin. The present invention relates in particular to a mandolin adopting an inverted configuration that is to say where the blade moves relative to the vegetable.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

A mandolin is a kitchen utensil used to cut food and especially raw vegetables slices more or less thick.

This vegetable cutter in general manual conventionally comprises a blade associated with a moving surface of the vegetable which moved back and forth on said surface and maintained in support of the latter by the user, is gradually cut.

There is also an inverted configuration where it is the support of the blade which is displaced relative to the vegetable which is maintained in support on said support. An example of such a configuration is described in the document CN202053285 .

Another example of such a configuration is described in the document WO2012 / 097214 . This document describes a hand operated slicer incorporating a housing, a base and a reciprocating blade assembly. The housing has an upper portion, opposed side sides, a food holding chamber, and a passageway extending in the extension of the chamber between the lateral sides, aligned with a cutting plane. The base is coupled to the housing and configured to prevent the housing from moving during the cutting operation. The alternative blade assembly is slidably engaged in the housing passage and supports a blade that moves through or adjacent the food holding chamber as the assembly reciprocates. , to cut a food in the room. The blade assembly may be adjustable to change the thickness of the cut and may be convertible to create French fries, julienne cuts or the like.

• le boîtier présente une forme complexe difficile à fabriquer assurant le guidage en translation de l'ensemble lame ainsi que celui selon un axe perpendiculaire du moyen d'appui sur le légume,
• ledit boîtier n'est pas associé à un contenant car il est associé à une base formée d'éléments pliants constituant des pieds anti-glissement pour le boîtier,
• la chambre et le moyen d'appui sur le légume ne s'adaptent pas à la découpe longitudinale ou transversale ni à la forme du légume,
• l'ensemble lame ne peut être utilisé comme une mandoline classique non inversée.

This configuration has several disadvantages, among them:

• the housing has a complex shape difficult to manufacture ensuring the guiding in translation of the blade assembly as well as that along a perpendicular axis of the support means on the vegetable,
• said casing is not associated with a container because it is associated with a base formed of folding elements constituting anti-slip feet for the casing,
• the chamber and the means of support on the vegetable do not adapt to the longitudinal or transverse cut or the shape of the vegetable,
• the blade assembly can not be used as a conventional non-inverted mandolin.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The applicant has conducted research on an alternative inverted configuration mandolin overcoming the disadvantages noted.

According to the invention, the mandolin food cutting device is of the type comprising a movable blade support defining a cutting plane and reciprocatingly moving in translation relative to the food in accordance with an inverted configuration. and having a sheath associated with a pusher allowing the introduction of food and their maintenance on the path of passage of the movable blade holder. This device is notable in that it comprises a container with an opening equipped with flanges providing sliding surfaces for said movable blade support,
a lid which, independent of the container, comes to close it by cooperating with said flanges and maintaining said movable blade support in contact with the sliding surfaces,
said cover being preformed with a passage which, transverse to the stroke of the movable blade support, accommodates the sheath associated with a pusher allowing the introduction of food and their maintenance on the path of passage of the movable blade holder.

This device is particularly advantageous in that it comprises in its design a cut food storage module which will itself serve to support the reciprocal translation movement of the blade support.

In addition, the independence of the container and its lid will allow easy release of the blade holder which can be used as a conventional mandolin. In addition, the cover assembly and movable blade support can be used separately from the tray.

Similarly, this separation will facilitate the cleaning of the various constituent elements.
Another advantage lies in the ease of manufacture of simpler separate volumes. Indeed, by using the rim of the container as a sliding surface, the device of the invention distributes part of the implementation of the guide function on several elements which facilitates the manufacture including plastic molding.

Thus, according to another particularly advantageous feature, said flanges and cover are preformed so that said cover fits between the flanges and comes to provide longitudinal vertical guide surfaces to said movable blade support.

The distribution between horizontal sliding surfaces preformed on the container and longitudinal vertical guide surfaces preformed on the cover makes it possible to transmit the strong constraints related to the thrust on the food (and therefore on the movable blade support) during cutting. , to the most massive element.

Another characteristic contributing to good guidance is that the longitudinal edges of said movable support are provided with co-operating projections for guiding and retaining purposes with longitudinal grooves formed in the underside of the cover. The simplification of the manufacturing thus allows the realization of optimized guidance.

• le premier poussoir qui, glissant en étant en contact direct avec la gaine, est préformé d'une goulotte de passage d'aliments plus petits,
• un deuxième poussoir glissant dans ladite goulotte. Cette possibilité de disposer d'un poussoir adapté à la dimension des aliments est particulièrement avantageuse pour l'utilisation du dispositif et pour obtenir un bon résultat de coupe. Ce deuxième poussoir est conçu de façon à s'escamoter dans le premier évitant ainsi toute saillie de volume.

Some particularly advantageous features of this device reside in the design of the means for receiving and bringing the food into contact with the blade support. Thus, according to a particularly advantageous characteristic, said food pusher slides in the sheath and decomposes in two:

• the first pusher which, sliding in direct contact with the sheath, is preformed with a chute for the passage of smaller feeds,
• a second pusher sliding in said chute. This possibility of having a pusher adapted to the size of the food is particularly advantageous for the use of the device and to obtain a good cutting result. This second pusher is designed to retract into the first avoiding any projection of volume.

In addition, according to another particularly advantageous feature of the invention, said sheath has an oblong profile and is preformed to cooperate with said cover to allow several positions of the sheath with respect to said cover. This feature will allow the user to place the food in the most efficient position relative to the blade holder and facing the desired type of cut. More specifically, the sheath has a cylindrical base cooperating with a cylindrical cavity preformed in the cover to provide these possibilities of orientation.

According to another particularly advantageous characteristic, said movable blade support comprises at one end a preformed handle in its extension and facilitating its movement.

According to another characteristic, it is equipped to receive a detachable handle disposed in a plane perpendicular to the cutting plane. Such an arrangement for a handle is particularly suitable for reciprocating in a horizontal translation. In addition, according to another feature, said movable blade support is preformed to detachably accommodate one or more interchangeable cutting tools which provides the user with all cutting possibilities. Similarly, the cutting tool comprises at least one blade associated with a support frame whose cooperation with the movable blade support allows a plurality of cutting thickness. According to one characteristic, the cutting tool comprises a blade associated with a support frame comprising bearing flanges cooperating with notches formed in the movable blade support.

The cutting tool has also been the subject of particular attention by the applicant in adapting it to the proposed inverted configuration. Indeed, in order to exploit the fact that the blade support will perform a translational movement back and forth under the food to be cut, the device of the invention is remarkable in that the cutting tool has a blade with at least two cutting edges arranged symmetrically with respect to one another, the first being active in one direction and the second active in the other direction of the translation of the blade support. Such a characteristic makes it possible to work twice as fast for certain types of cutting.

According to another characteristic, the cutting tool has a blade with a cutting edge having a sawtooth profile which facilitates the cutting of vegetables such as tomatoes and onions.

According to another characteristic, said blade is equipped on its underside with a deflector disposed transversely to the axis of displacement of the movable support and consisting of a downward projection providing downwardly guiding surfaces of the food during their cutting. According to one embodiment, this projection adopts a substantially V-shaped profile. The branches of the V orient down the cut portions of the foodstuffs and assist in their detachment.

In order to have close to the device the various utensils that may be necessary, the device comprises an additional container that proposes a storage volume to utensils and that cooperates with the underside of the container so that it is inserted between the container and the work surface on which the device is supported.

According to a preferred embodiment, the mobile support, the lid and the tray are made of plastic and the blades of the cutting tool are made of stainless steel.

The basic concepts of the invention having been described above in their most elementary form, other details and characteristics will emerge more clearly on reading the description which follows and with reference to the appended drawings, giving non-limiting example, an embodiment of a device according to the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

• The figure 1 is a schematic drawing of a perspective view of an embodiment of a device according to the invention;
• The figure 2 is a schematic drawing of an exploded perspective view of the device of the figure 1 ;
• The figure 3 is a schematic drawing of a top view of the device of the figure 1 ;
• The figure 4 is a schematic drawing of a sectional view of said device according to a sectional plane shown in FIG. figure 3 ;
• The figure 5 is a schematic drawing of an exploded perspective view of an embodiment of the blade support whose end has been truncated;
• The Figures 6, 7 and 8 are schematic drawings of side, front and top views of an embodiment of a cutting tool.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The food cutting device illustrated by the drawings of the Figures 1 to 4 , is referenced D as a whole. According to an inverted configuration, this device D comprises a blade support 100 which moves in reciprocating translation movement symbolized by the double arrow F1, with respect to a fixed body. This device D comprises a container 200 adopting here the shape of a boat hull.

According to a non-illustrated embodiment, the device D adopts a substantially parallelepiped shape equipped with a bottom and substantially vertical side walls.

The container 200 comprises in the upper part an opening 210 framed by upper edges 220. These edges 220 are preformed to provide sliding and guiding surfaces to the movable blade support 100. To do this, the edges 220 are preformed to adopt the shape of an L whose horizontal arm serves as a bearing surface and sliding during the movement in translation (according to the double arrow F1).
At one end of the container, the vertical leg serves as an end stop to said movement while at the other end, the vertical leg is removed to allow the passage and thus the translational movement of said blade holder 100.
The opening 210 accommodates a lid 300 which, independent of the container 200, closes it by cooperating with said flanges 220 and maintaining said movable blade support 100 in contact with the sliding surfaces.

As illustrated, the cover 300 is sized to fit between the vertical legs of the L-shaped profile formed by the flanges 220. In addition, the cover 300 is preformed to provide longitudinal vertical guide surfaces to said movable blade support 100 in its movement along the double arrow F1. To do this, the longitudinal edges 130 and 140 of said movable support 100 are provided with projections cooperating for guiding and retaining purposes with longitudinal grooves 320 and 330 formed in the underside of the cover 300.

The portion of the lid 300 coming to cover the portion of the container rim 200 left free to let the movable blade support 100 pass is also perforated.

To facilitate the handling of the blade support 100, the latter comprises as illustrated in the drawing of the figure 4 , at one end a handle 110 preformed in its extension. According to an embodiment not illustrated, the blade support is further preformed to accommodate a detachable handle disposed in a plane perpendicular to the cutting plane.

Said cover 300 is preformed with an opening 310 which, transverse to the stroke (double-arrow F1) of the movable blade support 100, accommodates a substantially vertical sheath 400 accommodating the food to be cut. This sheath 400 is associated with a pusher 410 maintaining the introduced feeds (not shown on the path of passage of the blade movable support 100.

• le premier poussoir 410 glisse en étant en contact direct avec l'âme creuse de la gaine 400 et est préformé d'une goulotte de passage 412 pour un aliment de plus petite dimension,
• le deuxième 411 glisse librement dans la goulotte 412 et permet de pousser un aliment de plus petite dimension vers le plan de coupe. Cette gaine 400 présente un profil oblong mais est préformée pour venir coopérer avec ledit couvercle 300. Pour ce faire, elle comprend une base circulaire 420 qui vient coopérer avec une empreinte circulaire adoptée par l'ouverture 310 ménagée dans le couvercle 300. La gaine 400 et le couvercle 300 sont donc des éléments détachables l'un de l'autre qui permettent un démontage et un régalage de la position. En effet, cette coopération entre une base circulaire 420 et un logement circulaire 310 autorise plusieurs positions de la gaine 400 par rapport audit couvercle 300. La gaine 400 peut ainsi être pivotée sur son axe pour proposer plusieurs positions et donc plusieurs orientations des aliments par rapport aux outils de coupe.

Comme illustrée, l'ouverture 310 est ménagée dans le couvercle 300 à des fins d'accueil de la base de la gaine 400, au niveau de sa partie arrière.The food is introduced into the sheath and pushed into the sheath 400 by the pusher 410 actuated by one hand by the user who actuates with his other hand, the blade holder 100 to make him follow a translational movement along the double arrow F1 between the container 200 and its lid 300 for cutting the food.
As illustrated, said food pusher 410 slides in the sheath 400 and itself accommodates a pusher of smaller size 411:

• the first pusher 410 slides in direct contact with the hollow core of the sheath 400 and is preformed with a passage trough 412 for a food of smaller size,
• the second 411 slides freely in the chute 412 and allows to push a food of smaller size to the cutting plane. This sheath 400 has an oblong profile but is preformed to cooperate with said cover 300. To do this, it comprises a circular base 420 which cooperates with a circular imprint adopted by the opening 310 formed in the cover 300. The sheath 400 and the cover 300 are detachable elements from one another which allow disassembly and adjustment of the position. Indeed, this cooperation between a circular base 420 and a circular housing 310 allows several positions of the sheath 400 with respect to said cover 300. The sheath 400 can thus be pivoted on its axis to provide several positions and therefore several directions of food relative to cutting tools.

As illustrated, the opening 310 is formed in the cover 300 for the purpose of receiving the base of the sheath 400, at its rear portion.

As illustrated in more detail on the drawing of the figure 5 said movable blade holder 100 is preformed to detachably accommodate one or more interchangeable cutting tools 500.

According to a non-illustrated embodiment, the rear parts of the lid 300 and the container 200 are preformed with an opening facilitating the tool change 500 while the blade holder 100 is always engaged in the slide by giving access to the face side of said blade holder 100.

It comprises a horizontal frame of which one of the lateral edges is preformed to constitute the handle 110.

The middle portion of the frame is preformed to accommodate the cutting tool 500. The cutting tool 500 includes a cutting surface 510 associated with a support frame 520.

As illustrated on the drawing of the figure 5 , the cutting surface 510 consists of a blade with two cutting edges 511 and 512 for cutting food in both directions of the reciprocating translation movement. The support frame comprises bearing flanges 521 and 522 which will cooperate with pairs of notches 151 and 152 preformed at different heights in the edges of a window 150 formed in the thickness of the movable blade support 100. bearing flanges in one or other of the pairs of notches allow the cutting thickness to be adjusted.

According to a non-illustrated embodiment of the movable blade support, on both sides of the cutting tool, two movable plates serve as a support plane for the food during the translational movement. of the blade support. These two plates pivot relative to a transverse axis allowing them to adjust the height of their edge by adjusting for example the position of said axis.

According to another embodiment not illustrated, the support flanges are shims adjustable in thickness to participate in this setting.

As illustrated in the drawings of Figures 6, 7 and 8 , the cutting tool 500 'comprises a cutting surface 510' associated with a support frame 520 '. The cutting surface 510 '' has two cutting edges with a sawtooth profile. This embodiment is furthermore remarkable in that the support frame 520 'adopts, at its plane of symmetry transverse to the axis of displacement, a downward projection 521' over substantially the entire length of the surface of the 510 'cut, projection that adopts the profile of a flared V to serve as a deflector for cut food. Indeed, once the cut food or during their cutting, the inclined planes defined by said projection 521 'will orient downwards and contribute to better cutting.

The various utensils, tools and shims can advantageously be stored in an additional container 600 that cooperates with the underside of the container 100 so that it is inserted between the container 200 and the working surface on which the device D is in position. support.

The container 200 and the container 600 are advantageously equipped with anti-slip blocks on their underside.

It is understood that the device, which has just been described above and shown, has been for the purpose of disclosure rather than limitation. Of course, various arrangements, modifications and improvements may be made to the example above, without departing from the scope of the invention. Thus, for example, an additional container can associate with the first.

Claims (12)

1. Device (D) for cutting food, called slicer, of the type of that comprising a mobile blade support (100) defining a cutting plane and being displaced according to a reciprocating translational movement in relation to the food in accordance with a reversed configuration, and having a sheath (400) associated with a food pusher (410) allowing food to be introduced and to be kept on the path of passage of the mobile blade support (100),
   CHARACTERIZED IN THAT it comprises
   a container (200) with an opening (210) equipped with flanges offering sliding surfaces for said mobile blade support,
   a cover (300) which, independent of the container (200), closes it in cooperation with said flanges (220) and by keeping said mobile blade support (100) in contact with the sliding surfaces,
   said cover (300) being preformed with a passage (310) which, transverse in relation to the travel of the mobile blade support (100), accommodates the sheath (400) associated with a food pusher (410) allowing the food to be introduced and kept on the path of passage of the mobile blade support (100).
2. Device (D) according to Claim 1, CHARACTERIZED IN THAT said flanges (220) and cover (300) are preformed in such a way that said cover (300) is inscribed between the flanges (220) and offers longitudinal vertical guiding surfaces for said mobile blade support (100).
3. Device (D) according to Claim 1, CHARACTERIZED IN THAT said food pusher (410) slides in the sheath (400) and is subdivided into two food pushers:

   - the first (410) which, sliding by being in direct contact with the sheath, is preformed with a funnel (412) for the passage of smaller food,

   - the second (411) sliding in said funnel (412).
4. Device (D) according to Claim 1, CHARACTERIZED IN THAT said sheath (400) has an oblong profile and is preformed to cooperate with said cover (300) to allow several positions of the sheath (400) in relation to said cover (300).
5. Device (D) according to Claim 1, CHARACTERIZED IN THAT it comprises an additional container (600) which offers a storage volume for utensils and which cooperates with the bottom face of the container (200) such that it is inserted between the container (200) and the work surface on which the device bears.
6. Device (D) according to Claim 1, CHARACTERIZED IN THAT said mobile blade support (100) comprises, at one end, a handle (110) preformed in the extension thereof.
7. Device (D) according to Claim 1, CHARACTERIZED IN THAT said mobile blade support (100) is preformed to detachably accommodate one or more interchangeable cutting tools (500).
8. Device (D) according to Claim 1, CHARACTERIZED IN THAT the cutting tool (500) comprises a blade (510) associated with a support frame (520) comprising bearing flanges cooperating with notches formed in the mobile blade support (100).
9. Device (D) according to Claim 1, CHARACTERIZED IN THAT the longitudinal edges of said mobile support (100) are equipped with projections (130, 140) cooperating for guiding and retaining purposes with longitudinal grooves (330, 340) formed in the bottom face of the cover (300).
10. Device (D) according to Claim 1 and/or 7, CHARACTERIZED IN THAT the cutting tool (500) has a blade with at least two cutting edges (511, 512) arranged symmetrically in relation to one another, the first being active in one direction and the second being active in the other direction of translation of the blade support (100).
11. The device as claimed in any one of Claims 1, 7, 10, CHARACTERIZED IN THAT the cutting tool (500') has a blade (510') equipped on its bottom face with a deflector (521') arranged transversely in relation to the axis of the displacement of the mobile support and composed of a downward projection offering surfaces for guiding food downward in the cutting thereof.
12. Device according to any one of Claims 1, 7, 10, CHARACTERIZED IN THAT the cutting tool (500') has a blade with a cutting edge (511', 512') having a sawtooth profile.

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