David Paul Hendrickson
Engineers at Quincy Ave A2-205, Denver, CO

6536691, Mar 25, 2003

Feb 23, 2001

09/790515

William C. Prewitt - Berthoud CO
David Hendrickson - Denver CO
Chris Hildreth - Northglenn CO
James G. Leprino - Indian Hills CO

Leprino Foods Company - Denver CO

B02C 1912

241 861, 241 95, 24110101, 294261

An apparatus for shredding a product includes a housing having an interior space bounded by a generally cylindrical sidewall that can include one or more contoured segments. The housing further includes a cutting implement, preferably also contoured, following the contoured segment, with an opening in the sidewall between the contoured segment and the cutting implement that follows it. Preferably, the contours of the cutting implement are different from the contours of the segment that the cutting implement follows. The apparatus further includes a feed hopper through which a product to be shred is fed to the interior space of the housing, an impeller, including at least one impeller paddle, mounted for rotation within the housing about a substantially horizontal axis of rotation, and a driving mechanism coupled to the impeller for rotating the impeller. The product is slid along the inner periphery of the housing by the impeller, at such a speed that centrifugal force keeps the outer face of the product pressed against the inner periphery. As the product passes by a cutting implement, a plurality of shreds are cut from the outer face of the product and discharged from the housing.