Patent ID: 6415711
Filing Date: 2002-07-09
Classification: A01J,Y10S,Y10T

Abstract:
An improvement in an apparatus for forming a block of cheese into a plurality of relatively small shreds, said apparatus including an elongated cheese chamber having longitudinally-extending side and floor surfaces for slidingly-engaging said block of cheese, an extrusion grid plate at the downstream end of said elongated cheese chamber, and ram means for forcing said block of cheese in a downstream direction at a predetermined speed through said extrusion grid plate, the improvement comprising: a rotatable shredder assembly sited immediately downstream of, and in longitudinal abutment with, said extrusion grid plate, said extrusion grid plate terminating in a flanged disc having a central, longitudinally-extending hollow hub, said rotatable shredder assembly comprising the combination of a shredder disc support wheel which is secured to a shaft which is external to said elongated cheese chamber and which is rotatably disposed within said longitudinally-extending hollow hub downstream at said extrusion grid plate, said shredder disc support wheel including a plurality of circumferentially-spaced-apart tabs which project downwardly from the periphery thereof and are spaced from a front face of said shredder disc support wheel, and a shredder disc of essentially the same diameter as said shredder disc support wheel having a like plurality of flat circumferential areas, whereby said shredder disc is removably secured to said shredder disc support wheel by placing said shredder disc wheel on said front face of said shredder disc support wheel and rotating said shredder disc until said flat circumferential areas are locked behind said tabs, rotation of said combined shredder disc support wheel/shredder disc serving to shred each of said extruded cheese pieces as they emerge from said extrusion grid plate to divide said extruded cheese pieces into a plurality of discrete shreds.