Cutting with high-pressure jet in the food industry

Cutting processes play a centrao role in food industry. Beyond the conventional processing with mechanic tools the use of high-pressure jet tools provides process-immanent advantages. Thus, with high-pressure jet the processing of foods can be carried out highly flexible. In many fields of the food industry compound materials with different properties must be cut (e.g. pizza-paste/filling, biscuit/chocolate, cheese/rind, etc.). The high-pressure jet offers a tool that can operate quite independently of the specific material characteristics. Because of the small mechanical loads of the substance during the cutting, it is possible to cut different materials simultaneously without deforming the substance, destroying the joint of splitting brittle materials. Moreover, the permanently renewing cutting medium avoids contamination by the cutting tool. By integrating an appropriate software support like CAD/CAM systems, different variants of the high-pressure jet can be realised without modify ing the tool. Through the high flexibility lf the jet, the cutting path can be fit to the current demanded geometry. Thus a minimisation of waste as well as an exact portioning by weight and form is possible. After a general introduction, this papaer describes the technique of high-pressure jet facilities and the using potentials of this technique, particularly in the food industry. Moreover, we formulate requirements for the process and compare it with conventional mechanical cutting processes.