| 摘要 |
Multiple columns of cheese curd are simultaneously compressed and cut into blocks of cheese by feeding curd into the top perforated tubular linings hanging freely within hollow towers, all towers positioned on a single, enclosed sanitary housing. A negative pressure is maintained in each tower to draw curd into the tower. Each pillar of curd is supported by a single guillotine blade closing off the bottom of all the towers and located within the sanitary housing. Each perforated, freely hanging lining is spaced apart from the wall of its tower to form a drainage passage for whey pressed out from the curd by the weight of the superimposed pillar. The guillotine blade is then withdrawn and each pillar of curd is lowered by an elevator into a cheese form positioned below each tower and within the housing. The guillotine blade is then returned to its closed position, so as to cut off a block of curd from each pillar. The direction of each elevator is then reversed, causing each block of cheese to be pressed up against the bottom of the guillotine blade and out against the sides of its cheese form. Once each cheese block has been compressed, each elevator is withdrawn, leaving each cheese block remaining in its form. Each form is then rotated to a substantially horizontal position and each cheese block is then ejected into a bag being held by a bagging device located adjacent each cheese form. The bagged blocks of cheese are then released from the bagging device for transport to a processing station.
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