Cheese Block Cutting & Crumbling
Block Breaker/Block Return System
The Block Breaker is primarily used for crumbling 20 kg cheese blocks from blockforming towers, so that the curd can be reprocessed through the tower.
The system comprises an hopper with top opening and a robust open flighted auger. The auger is extended into a trough that is connected to the sidewall of an existing salting belt/curd distribution tank.
The open flighted auger rotates to break up the cheese block and then transfers the size reduced block into the salting belt/curd distribution tank for further processing by the Blockformers.
The unit is mounted on a mobile frame fitted with casters.
The top loading door is fitted with a safety switch. Once the cheese block has been loaded and the door is closed, the open flighted auger will run for a timed period, sufficient to break up the block and transport it into the salting belt/curd distribution tank.
The system is complete with sprayballs for CIP cleaning.
The complete unit is fabricated from stainless steel to AISI 304 and constructed to conform to appropriate USDA standards.
20 kg Block Cutter
The equipment is specifically designed to receive a nominal 20kg block of formed cheese from a "Blockformer" and cut it into two pieces by halving the block height. The two nominal 10kg blocks are then loaded into individual bags for downstream vacuum sealing.
The cutting system employs the same principle as the Blockformer. It securely retains the formed cheese while forcing a blade through it to sever the block.
The Blockformer ejector cylinder will push the formed cheese block into the chamber of the cutter, which will be positioned directly in front of the Blockformer.
The Blockformer ejector will then retract to allow the Blockformer to continue with its next cycle.
The cutter chamber, containing the 20kg block is transfer sideways to the cutting station.
The Knife is activated to cut the block against the front face of the chamber.
The top half of the original block is transferred into the waiting bag using the ejector.
The Knife retracts before and the Positioning Cylinder lifts the lower half of the original block to the ejecting position.
After both halves of the Block have been ejected, the cutter chamber will return to its position in front of the Blockformer ready to receive the next formed block.