Knife and cutting wheel for a food product slicing apparatus
A cutting wheel using knives with slice thickness gauging surfaces defining, with the knife cutting edges, a thickness dimension of sliced food products and a throat dimension measured perpendicular to the wheel cutting plane between each knife cutting edge and the terminal edge of the adjacent gauging surface, wherein the knives each have a single primary bevel extending practically tangent to the cutting plane on the side of the knife facing towards the cutting plane and a smooth transition area on the opposite side of the knife, and the ratio of throat dimension to slice thickness dimension is 1 to 1.7.
1. In a food cutting apparatus including an annular arrangement of circumferentially spaced knives having axially extending cutting edges disposed around an axially extending annular product receiving area and gauging insert elements having gauging surfaces facing the product receiving area disposed in radially spaced relationship relative to said cutting edges to define thickness gate openings, the dimension of said gate openings defining a slice thickness of a food product, and throat spaces each having a throat dimension extending circumferentially between said cutting edges and terminal ends of said gauging surfaces, the cutting edge of each knife extending parallel to a terminal edge of a next adjacent gauging insert element; the improvement wherein the ratio of the throat dimension to slice thickness is 1 to 1.7; wherein the terminal end of the gauging surface of each knife is connected to the terminal edge of the insert by a surface extending in a forward or downstream direction relative to sliced food product movement between the terminal end of the gauging surface and the terminal edge of the insert; and wherein said surface is defined by a bevel at the terminal edge of the insert.
2. The improvement in a food cutting apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein each said knife extends in a principal plane and includes a planar area extending along its cutting edge facing away from the insert gauging surface and a single primary bevel only along the cutting edge facing towards the insert gauging surface, a final hone bevel along the cutting edge on the side of said cutting edge including said primary bevel, and a back hone bevel along the side of the cutting edge of said side including the primary bevel; wherein said primary bevel is inclined 8.5° relative to the knife principal plane and said final hone bevel and back hone bevel each extend 12-13° relative to the principal plane, and further wherein said knife comprises a hardened high carbon steel sheet element measuring 0.015 in. (0.4 mm) thick, and wherein said primary bevel is 0.080-0.100 in. (2-2.5 mm) wide from the cutting edge to an intersection of the bevel with a knife non-beveled outer surface.