Importance

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Abstract

A pneumatic control system for a meat trimming knife in which an annular cutting blade of the knife is rotated by a flexible cable driven by an electric motor mounted remote from the knife. A diaphragm mounted in the handle of the knife is compressed by the manual movement of a piston by an operator. The diaphragm is connected to a pressure switch which senses compression of the diaphragm and generates an electric control signal which actuates an electric clutch which couples the output shaft of the electric motor to the flexible cable for rotating the cutting blade. Upon release of the lever by the operator, the pressure switch senses the change in pressure which signals the clutch to disengage the motor shaft from the flexible cable to stop the rotation of the cutting blade. In a modified embodiment a diaphragm pump supplies a flow of low pressure, low volume air to the handpiece. A lever on the handpiece changes this air flow which is sensed by a pressure sensor which actuates the electrical clutch through a logic circuit to control the flexible drive cable. In a further embodiment, a manually operated torque selector enables the amount or torque supplied to the handpiece to be varied to complement the size of the handpiece. In another embodiment an automatically operated torque limiting clutch is interposed between the cutting blade and electric motor to limit the amount of torque transmitted from the motor to the cutting blade.

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First Claim