Method and apparatus for mechanized production of potato balls

摘要

The present invention is concerned with a method for mechanized production of potato balls as well as with an apparatus for carrying out this method. in prior art, potato balls (9) have been cut only manually by means of a tool that looks like a hemispherical scoop provided with a shaft (6b). In such a case, only large potatoes can be used, and out of each potato, only one or two potato balls can be cut, for which reason the loss from each potato becomes rather large. The objective of the present invention is to eliminate, e.g., these drawbacks, which is achieved by means of an apparatus which comprises a feeder device (2) connected to one or several grasping means (1), which grasping means are arranged between or can be shifted into a position between their own respective pair of equally shaped, thin and readily exchangeable cutter blades (3) with concavely semicircular cutting edges (3a), placed as facing each other. The cutter blades (3) are, e.g., by means of an electric motor (4), arranged so as to revolve around their axes (3b), which are appropriately by means of cylinder-piston devices (5) displaceable in their longitudinal direction away from each other and towards each other until the paths of rotation of the tips of the opposite cutter blades (3) are at least almost coinciding. By means of this apparatus, it is possible to use both very small potatoes and discs out of larger potatoes.