Improvements in Meat Chopping Machines.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 12th Jan., 1889
Complete Specification Left, 14th Oct., 1889-Accepted, 16th Nov., 1889
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Meat Chopping Machines.
We WILLIAM OVENS and THOMAS CHARLES OVENS of No. 54 St. John Street
Clerkenwell in the County of Middlesex Engineers do hereby declare the nature of
this Invention to be as follows:-
:-
Our invention relates to meat chopping machines in which the meat is cut on the
upper face of a rotating block by means of knives having reciprocatory motion in a
vertical direction and our said invention consists of the improvements hereinafter
described in the construction of the guides in which the knife carriage works the
object of our said improvements being to obviate certain objections which attend
the use of machines provided with guides formed and arranged in the ordinary
manner.
Ordinarily the said guides are secured by screws or bolts to the uprights of the
frame of the machine and in order to obtain access to the knives for the purpose of
sharpening them it is necessary to partially withdraw the screws or bolts by which one
of the said guides is secured and to draw the said guide outward until it is clear of the
knife carriage and then to disengage the knife carriage from the other of the said
guides by an endway motion of the said knife carriage. The frequent loosening and
screwing up of the guides and the disengagement of the knife carriage from the fixed
guide entailed by this arrangement are troublesome and are liable to cause the knife
carriage to work either loosely or too tightly in its guides and otherwise to impair the
action of the machine and cause damage thereto.
According to our said invention we form the said guides as hereinafter described
We arrange a portion or portions of each of the said guides so as to be capable of
being slidden in or on another portion or other portions of the said guides or in or on
any convenient portion or portions of the machine contiguous to the said guides and
we provide means for readily locking or securing and freeing the said sliding portions
when necessary and we so arrange the said sliding portions of the guides that the knife
carriage may be confined in its place in or on the said guides or be free to be disengaged
therefrom according to the position in which the said sliding portions are placed. The
fixed portions of guides constructed according to our invention may be formed in one
piece with the side plates or standards of the frame of the machine or the said portions
may be secured to the said parts of the frame by bolts or screws as usual or
otherwise.
1000
W. T. WHITEMAN,
Agent for the Applicants.
:
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Meat Chopping Machines.
We WILLIAM OVENS and THOMAS CHARLES OVENS of No. 54 St. John Street
Clerkenwell in the County of Middlesex Engineers do hereby declare the nature of
this Invention and the manner in which the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
-. Our invention relates to meat chopping machines in which the meat is cut on the
upper face of a rotating block by means of knives having reciprocatory motion in a
vertical direction and our said invention consists of the improvements hereinafter
described in the constraction of the guides in which the knife carriage works the
object of our said improvements being to obviate certain objections which attend

page_text: manner.
the use of machines provided with guides formed and arranged in the ordinary
Ordinarily the said guides are secured by screws or bolts to the uprights of the
frame of the machine and in order to obtain access to the knives for the purpose of
sharpening them it is necessary to partially withdraw the screws or bolts by which one
of the said guides is secured and to draw the said guide outward until it is clear of the
knife carriage and then to disengage the knife carriage from the other of the said
guides by an end way motion of the said knife carriage. The frequent loosening and
screwing up of the guides and the method of disengaging the knife carriage from the
fixed guide necessitated by this arrangement are troublesome and are liable to cause
the knife carriage to work either loosely or too tightly in its guides and otherwise to
impair the action of the machine and cause damage thereto.
According to our said invention we form the said guides as hereinafter described.
We arrange a portion or portions of each of the said guides so as to be capable of
being slidden in or on another portion or other portions of the said guides or
in or on any convenient portion or portions of the machine contiguous to the
said guides and we provide means for readily locking or securing and freeing the said
sliding portions when necessary and we so arrange the said sliding portions of the
guides that the knife carriage may be confined in its place in or on the said
guides or be free to be disengaged therefrom according to the position in which
the said sliding portions are placed. The fixed portions of guides constructed
according to our invention may be formed in one piece with the side plates or
standards of the frame of the machine or the said portions may be secured to the
said parts of the frame by bolts or screws as usual or otherwise.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a front elevation of parts of a meat
chopping machine to which an arrangement embodying our improvements is
applied those portions of the rotatory block and of the frame of the machine
which are shown being in section. Figure 2 is an elevation of the inner side of
one of the guides hereinbefore referred to shown separately from the other parts
of the machine and Figure 3 is a transverse section of the said guide the section
being taken on the line A Figure 2. Figure 4 is a view of the same parts of
the machine as those shown in Figure 1 but with the knife carriage and the
sliding parts of the guides in different positions. The same letters and figures of
reference indicate the same parts in all the said Figures of the Drawings.
a a are parts of the frame of the machine b is a portion of the rotatory block.
is the usual sheet metal rim surrounding the upper part of the said block.
ce are the kuives. d is the knife carriage. ee are the rods by which the knife
carriage is connected to the crank shaft which is not shown in the drawings
and ff are the bars which constitute the guides for the knife carriage and are
secured to the frame of the machine by bolts g g. The said parts are all formed
and arranged in the ordinary manner except the said guide bars ff and those
portions of the knife carriage which are engaged with them the construction and
arrangement and form of which parts are hereinafter particularly described.
Each of the bars ff has a longitudinal channel rectangular in transverse section
formed in that one of its faces which is toward the inner part of the machine with
which channels correspondingly formed ribs on the ends of the knife carriage d
engage and each of the said bars ff is provided with the arrangement horeinafter
described for admitting of the disengagement of the knife carriage from and its
reengagement with the said channels without necessity for the unscrewing of the
bolts gg by which the said bars are connected to the machine. In one face of each of
the said bars an undercut recess is formed of the depth of one of the walls of the
channel therein and in the said recesses plates i i provided with handles jj and having
slots in them are mounted and secured by lever nuts & engaging with screwed
pins which are secured in the bars ff and project through the slots i¹¹ in the
said plates i i.
This method of mounting the plates ii admits of the sliding of the said plates in the
recesses in which they are mounted their range of motion being limited by the slots i'i'

page_text: and the screw pins ¹¹. When the said plates are in the advanced position shown in
Figure 1 they constitute portions of the walls of the channels in the bars ff in which
channels the ribs h h on the knife carriage d are confined and work. When the said
plates ii are in the withdrawn position shown in Figure 4 the channels in the said
bars ff are open at the parts where the aforesaid recesses are formed and at those
parts the ribs on the knife carriage are free to be withdrawn from the said channels
and when so withdrawn the knife carriage is free to be turned in the bearing blocks
or brasses secured to the lower ends of the connecting rods e e.
formed on the guide bars ff by which brackets the knife carriage d may be supported
when it is disengaged from the said guides.
11 are brackets
When it is necessary to sharpen the knives cc the knive carriage d is withdrawn as
hereinbefore described from the channels in the guide bars ff and turned so as to
bring the cutting edges of the knives toward the front of the machine. The crank
shaft is then turned so as to lower the knife carriage until the ribs hh at its ends rest
on the brackets as shown in Figure 4. When the plates ii are in the position
shown in Figure 1 they are locked in that position by depressing the levers of the
nuts and when it is required to withdraw the said. plates they are released by
raising the said levers to the position shewn in Figure 4.
We prefer to make the channels in the guides of rectangular form in transverse
section as shown in Figure 3 of the accompanying Drawings and to make the ribs on
the knife carriage which engage in the said channels of corresponding form as shown
in Figure 4 but we do not limit ourselves to this form as the said channels and ribs
may be V shaped in transverse section as usual or of other convenient form.
Our Invention is not limited to the precise arrangement illustrated in the accom-
panying Drawings as the said arrangement may be somewhat varied without departing
from the nature of our invention as herein before described but in all cases we mount
the sliding portions of the guides in recesses as hereinbefore described or otherwise so
mount them that they are absolutely incapable of being forced outward or of being
otherwise displaced by the action of the knife carriage when the machine is working
and so that when released and free to be slidden in their recesses they are capable of
only rectilinear motion.
We are aware that it has been proposed to provide for the release of the knife
carriage from its guides by means of plates jointed to the guides after the manner of a
door latch and forming parts of the guides which plates when turned on their joints
admit of the release of the knife carriage from its guides and we make no claim to any
arrangement in which plates are pivotted or jointed or hinged to the guides for the
said purpose which arrangements are attended by practical objections not attendant
on the use of guides to which our improvements hereinbefore described are applied.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what
we claim is
The improvements hereinbefore described in meat chopping machines which improve-
ments admit of the release of the knife carriage from its guides without unscrewing
the guide bars from the machine that is to say the arrangement of portions of the
guides in which the knife carriage works so that the said portions are capable of being
slidden rectilinearly in or on other portions of the said guides for the purpose of
releasing the knife carriage.
Dated this Twelfth day of October 1884
W. T. WHITEMAN,
Agent for the Applicants.