Patent Publication Number: US-2006000327-A1

Title: Food processor with a blade disk having two-height blades

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
      The present invention relates to a food processor whose blade disk having lower blades at inner positions and higher blades at outer positions so as to process the food completely.  
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      Recently, people acknowledge the importance of having organic food and in order to meet the requirements for processing the organic food, different types of food processors are developed such that the users may have fresh vegetables and fruits directly.  
       FIG. 7  shows a conventional food processor which includes a top cap “a 1 ” with a feeding tube “a 2 ” connected to the top cap “a 1 ” and a blade disk “a 3 ” is located beneath the feeding tube “a 2 ”. A plurality of blades “a 4 ” of equal height are connected to the blade disk “a 3 ” and a gap of about 0.3 mm is defined between the blade disk “a 3 ” and a bottom of the feeding tube “a 2 ”. Vegetables and/or fruits are fed in the space “a 5 ” and cut by the blades which rotate at a high speed so as to obtain juice and fine particles of the vegetables and/or fruits. This is used by the conventional food processors and functioned well when the fruits have no peels and seeds. Nevertheless, the peels and seeds of the vegetables are pushed outward by the rotation of the blade disk “a 3 ” and moved into the gaps “a 4 ”. These peels are thin and soft and the seeds are tiny and stiff so that they may not be cut and are collected to collection box. There are many kinds of nutrition in the peels and seeds and these kinds of nutrition can not be absorbed by the users.  
      The present invention intends to provide a food processor wherein the blade disk has lower blades at inner positions and higher blades at outer positions such that the food can be cut twice to improve the shortcomings of the conventional food processors.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      The present invention relates to an improvement for a food processor wherein the blade disk includes lower blades at inner positions and higher blades at outer positions. Two stepped gaps are defined between the feeding tube and the blades of the blade disk such that the food after being cut by the lower blades can be further cut by the higher blades.  
      In order to achieve the purpose mentioned above, the food processor of the present invention includes a base, a lower cap, a blade disk and a top cap which has a feeding tube so as to feed vegetables and/or fruits therethrough by a plunger. The base has a motor received therein and the blade disk is connected to a connection portion of the motor. The blade disk includes lower blades at inner positions and higher blades at outer positions. Two stepped gaps are defined between the feeding tube and the blades of the blade disk so as to cut the vegetables and/or fruits twice.  
      The present invention will become more obvious from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which show, for purposes of illustration only, a preferred embodiment in accordance with the present invention. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  is an exploded view to show the food processor of the present invention;  
       FIG. 2  is a side view to show the food processor of the present invention;  
       FIG. 3  is a perspective view to show the blade disk of the present invention;  
       FIG. 4  is a cross sectional view to show the blade disk of the present invention;  
       FIG. 5  shows the stepped gaps between the feeding tube and the blades of the blade disk;  
       FIG. 5A  is an enlarged view to show the two gaps in  FIG. 5 ;  
       FIG. 6  shows the food is cut twice when passing through the two stepped gaps, and  
       FIG. 7  is a cross sectional view to show a conventional food processor. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
      Referring to FIGS.  1  to  4 , the food processor  1  of the present invention comprises a base  2 , a lower cap  3 , a blade disk  4  and a top cap  5 .  
      The top cap  5  has a cylindrical feeding tube  51  which has a polygonal through hole  54  and two stepped end surfaces  52 ,  53  are defined in an bottom of the feeding tube  51 . The polygonal through hole  54  is defined through the feeding tube  51  such that a plunger  55  having a complementary contour is movably inserted in the through hole  54  in the feeding tube  51  to feed vegetables and/or fruits into the lower cap  3 .  
      The lower cap  3  has a space  31  defined therein and the base  2  has a motor  21  received therein. The motor  21  has a connection portion  22  which is connected to the blade disk  4 , and so the blade disk  4  is received within the space  31 .  
      The blade disk  4  includes a disk  43  with a filter wall  41  extending upward therefrom and a skirt portion  42  extends downward from the blade disk  4 . The skirt portion  42  prevents the juice of the vegetables and/or fruits from leaking. Lower blades  44  are located at inner positions on the disk  43  and higher blades  45  are located at outer positions. Both the lower blades  44  and the higher blades  45  respectively having blade teeth ( 441  and  451 ) are oriented in radial directions and share a common center.  
      As shown in  FIGS. 5 and 5 A, the feeding tube  51  has the first and second stepped end surfaces  52 ,  53  so as to define two stepped gaps  56 ,  57  between the blade teeth ( 441  and  451 ) of lower and higher blades  44 ,  45  of the blade disk  4 .  
      As shown in  FIG. 6 , when using the food processor  1 , as the food including peels and seeds is inserted in the through hole  54 , the lower blades  44  on the disk  43  cut the food and the peels and seeds that are not cut are pushed outward from the gap  56  to the other gap  57 . Because the higher blades  45  are higher than the lower blade  44 , the peels and the seeds are than cut by the higher blades  45 . The juice of the food flows out from the outlet  6  of the lower cap  3 . The dreg of the good is then collected in the collection box  7  as shown in  FIG. 2 .  
      While we have shown and described the embodiment in accordance with the present invention, it should be clear to those skilled in the art that further embodiments may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.