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WATERMELON SLICER
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field ofthe Invention
[0002] The invention pertains to the ?eld of food slicers.
More particularly, the invention pertains to a watermelon
slicer.
[0003] 2. Description of RelatedArt
[0004] Slicers ofvegetables and fruit have been used in the
past to ease the removal ofthe edible portion ofthe vegetable
or fruit for consumption by a user. For example, U.S. Pat. No.
4,546,545, entitled, “Pineapple Cutter” by Hirano discloses a
pineapple cutter With a cylindrical body having a cutting edge
at the surface end of the lower portion, a pair of handles
connected to the outer surface ofthe cylindrical body, a press
ing sheet mounted on the inner portion ofthe cylindrical body
slidable in the vertical direction and a pushing member
secured to the upper portion ofthe cylindrical body connected
With the pressing sheet. A second pressing sheet With a
smaller diameter than the pressing sheet is located Within the
pressing sheet to core the pineapple. When used to cut the
pineapple, the rind is removed at the same time the core ofthe
slices the meat ofthe melon and does not slice or cut into the
rind. After pushing the cutter through the meat or ?eshy
interior of the watermelon, a portion ofthe meat of the water
melon is cut into pieces by the ?xedblades in the slicer device.
This device requires no outside alignment, guides or supports.
lt only slices the ?eshy interior or meat of the watermelon.
[0009] The slicer device has a cutter piece With an outer
surface and an inner surface, cutter blades or Wires fastened to
the inner surface ofthe cutter piece, arranged to form a pattern
With openings, the openings de?ned by the cutters and the
inner surface of the cutter piece for receiving and slicing the
?eshy part ofthe watermelon from the piece, at least one push
bar connected to the cutter piece and/or the cutting blades,
and an optional cross handle connected to the at least one push
bar for easy handling of the device.
[0010] Optionally, a separate push plate, external to the
slider device, may be aligned With the cutter piece and
includes grooves that can receive the cutter blades to ease
clearing the inner meat portion of the watermelon from the
cutter blades, if necessary.
[0011] The slicer device may also be incorporated into a
larger mechanical device in order to permit faster and/or
pineapple is removed. The exposed cutting edges ofU.S. Pat.
easier use for production type application. Furthermore, the
No. 4,546,545 cause user safety risk. U.S. Pat. No. 4,546,545
automatic operation.
could even be seen as an ejector assembly to deal With the
slicer device may be incorporated into a machine for semi- or
[0005] U.S. Pat. No. 1,744,422, entitled “Fruit and Veg
etable Cutter” by Taylor discloses a handle With detachable
cutting head. The detachable cutting head is attached to the
handle and a funnel type cylindrical portion With through
[0012] The cutter blades may be made out of stainless steel
or other strong, easily cleanable material and may be secured
in a multitude of alignment patterns.
[0013] The slicer device of the present invention can slice
the inner, meatier part of the watermelon With0ut the slicer
device cutting into the rind. It should be noted that the melon
threads. This cutter dices the entire vegetable or fruit includ
ing the outside skin. This cutter could not be used for a
the watermelon to be trapped in the cutting device. lnstead,
obvious dif?culty of removing pineapple from the cutter
device of Hirano’s U.S. Pat. No. 4,490,912.
watermelon for example, because to push the cutter inside of
the watermelon ?esh, the screw thread connection would be
too thick and additionally the holder around the funnel por
tion ofthe cutter would also not be able to be pushed through
the watermelon ?esh. Furthermore, the cutter can only
accommodate items WhiCh ?t entirely Within the cutting
circle.
[0006] U.S. Pat. No. 4,490,912, entitled “Pineapple Cutter”
by Hirano discloses a pineapple cutter With handles attached
to a cylinder WhiCh has a cutter portion. The cylinder of the
pineapple cutter is adapted to punch the outer peel and the
interior ofthe pineapple to separate the peel from the interior
ofthe pineapple. The pineapple cutter cuts into the outer peel
ofthe pineapple in order to separate it from the interior ofthe
pineapple. Furthermore, based on the design and the need to
“punch” the pineapple cutter through the pineapple in order to
slice it, softer ?esh, such as the interior of a watermelon
would be signi?cantly damaged in the process of removing
the ?esh from the cutter assembly as described in this patent.
[0007] Therefore, there is a need for a watermelon slicer
that can remove the ?eshy interior or meat of the watermelon
With0ut cutting into the rind.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0008] The watermelon slicer of the present invention
allows a seedless watermelon to be quickly and ef?ciently
sliced into pieces, for example ‘log’ shaped pieces or other
shaped pieces With minimal time and effort. The device Will
cut watermelon meat into slices With a single motion, With no
outside supports or guides, or other moving parts. The device
slicer is not a long continuous cylinder, as this would cause
only narrow blades or Wires are used to slice the melon still
Within the rind. The design ofthe supporting bars ofthe slicer
device allows the slicer to ‘reach’ into the meat of the water
melon being cut, With the issues associated With continuous
long slicing knives or shapes, WhiCh would trap the meat and
make removal of the meat from the slicer device di?icult.
[0014] To use the slicer device ofthe present invention, the
top and bottom crown ofthe melon are sliced off, resulting in
a ?at top portion and a ?at bottom portion. The watermelon is
placed upright to rest on the ?at top portion or the ?at bottom
portion. A user then aligns the cutting piece With the ?eshy
part or meat of the watermelon. Pushing down on the sup
porting bar(s) or the handle forces the ?eshy part or meat of
the watermelon through the cutter piece. If the slicer device
has blades or Wires Within the cutter piece, the openings
between the blades or Wires, de?ned the shape of the cut
watermelon. The shaped pieces are dependent upon the pat
tern of Wires or blades attached to the inner surface of the
cutter piece. It should be noted that the device cannot be
rotated once inside ofthe watermelon, since the cutter blades
would otherwise destroy or mush the watermelon meat.
[0015]
After the slicer device has been pushed through the
?eshy part or meat of the watermelon, there may be times in
WhiCh the meat of the watermelon may be slightly lodged
Within the slicer device. To easily remove the meat of the
watermelon lodged Within the slicer device, the blades or
cutterpiece ofthe slicer device are aligned With the grooves of
the push plate and as the slicer device is pushed down onto the
plate, such that the cutters are received by the grooves of the
push plate. The downward movement of the slicer device
relative to the push plate causes the raised portions to push the