Soft Cheese Cutting Machine

Soft Cheese Cutting Machine – Cutting Brie Cheese – Cheersonic

Soft cheese, with its delicate taste and rich flavor, occupies an important position in the dairy market. Common types of cheese include Brie cheese, Camembert cheese, cream cheese, etc. The moisture content of this type of cheese is usually between 40% -60%, with a soft and elastic texture that is prone to sticking and deformation at room temperature. Traditional cutting tools such as ordinary knives and wire saws often cause uneven pressure on the cheese surface, even damaging the internal honeycomb structure, resulting in whey leakage and flavor loss. Therefore, specialized cutting equipment is needed to solve this problem. At present, specialized cutting machines for soft cheese and cutting machines with ultrasonic extrusion function are the two mainstream solutions in the industry. Although their principles are different, both can achieve efficient and precise cutting of soft cheese.

The special cutting machine for soft cheese is a specialized equipment designed for the physical characteristics of soft cheese. Its core advantage lies in “adaptability”, which focuses on reducing cheese deformation and ensuring the integrity of the cut surface from structure to function. In terms of structural design, this type of equipment usually adopts a combination mode of “low-pressure feed+specialized cutting components”: the feed system is mostly a variable speed conveyor belt or clamping device, and the surface of the conveyor belt is covered with food grade silicone material, which can increase the friction with the cheese, avoid slipping during transportation, and reduce the compression on the surface of the cheese through soft materials; The cutting components are subdivided according to the type of cheese. For soft cheese with hard shells such as Brie and Camembert, stainless steel blades with curved edges are equipped. The edges are specially polished to achieve moderate sharpness and are not easily adhered to cheese; For varieties such as cream cheese that do not have a hard shell and have a softer texture, multiple sets of parallel thin blades are used. The blade spacing can be freely set by adjusting the knob to meet cutting size requirements ranging from 2-10 centimeters.

From the perspective of working principle, the specialized cutting machine for soft cheese achieves precise operation through the coordinated action of “uniform feed+vertical cutting”. After starting the equipment, the operator places the soft cheese on the feed belt, and the conveyor belt smoothly transports the cheese at an adjustable speed of 5-15 meters per minute; When the cheese reaches the cutting area, the sensor triggers the cutting component, and the blade rapidly descends vertically. During the cutting process, the contact time between the blade and the cheese is controlled within 0.5 seconds, reducing the contact area between the cheese and the blade and thus reducing the probability of adhesion. Some high-end models are also equipped with an “anti sticking blowing system”, which sprays sterile air at room temperature to the contact point between the blade and the cheese during cutting, further separating the cut surface and avoiding cheese residue.

In practical applications, the advantages of such specialized cutting machines are very significant: firstly, the flatness of the cutting surface is high, and the error can be controlled within 0.1 millimeters, which can fully preserve the appearance of cheese, especially suitable for retail scenes with high requirements for appearance; Secondly, it has strong compatibility. By replacing the blade components, it can adapt to soft cheese of different shapes (circular, square, cylindrical) without the need for separate customized molds; Thirdly, the operation threshold is low, and the equipment is equipped with a visual operation panel, which can preset cutting size, speed and other parameters. Small workshop employees can get started after simple training. Therefore, the specialized cutting machine for soft cheese is more suitable for small and medium-sized dairy enterprises, handmade cheese workshops, and other scenarios. It can meet the cutting needs of small batches and multiple varieties without requiring high equipment investment.

Unlike the specialized cutting machine for soft cheese, the cutting machine with ultrasonic extrusion function integrates the two core technologies of “ultrasonic vibration cutting” and “extrusion feeding”, focusing on efficient and continuous cutting needs, especially suitable for large-scale industrial production scenarios. Its structural design is more complex, mainly composed of four parts: ultrasonic generator, vibrating blade, extrusion feeding device, and temperature control system. The ultrasonic generator can generate high-frequency vibration signals of 20-40kHz, which are transmitted to the vibrating blade through wires; The blade is made of titanium alloy material, which combines high strength and good vibration conductivity. The cutting edge is wedge-shaped, which can convert high-frequency vibration into small mechanical cutting actions; The extrusion feeding device is a cylindrical barrel structure, equipped with a screw propeller inside. The outer layer of the barrel is wrapped with insulation layer, which can stabilize the temperature at 10-15 ℃ and avoid uneven texture of soft cheese caused by temperature changes; The temperature control system monitors the temperature of the barrel and blade in real-time through sensors, ensuring that the cutting environment meets the storage requirements for soft cheese.

From the perspective of working principle, the core of this type of equipment lies in the synergy between “ultrasonic vibration to reduce cutting resistance” and “extrusion feeding to ensure uniform feed rate”. When soft cheese (usually in the form of blocks or paste) is fed into the extruder, the screw propeller pushes the cheese towards the vibrating blade at a constant speed, while the ultrasonic generator is activated, causing the blade to produce high-frequency small vibrations (with amplitudes of about 10-30 microns). This vibration can form a small “air gap” between the blade and the cheese, greatly reducing the friction between the cheese and the blade, avoiding the problem of “compression adhesion” in traditional cutting; At the same time, the constant pressure of the extrusion feeding device ensures that the cheese is uniformly subjected to force, even cream cheese and cottage cheese with extremely soft texture can be pushed to the cutting area in a stable form, achieving continuous cutting.

In terms of performance advantages, cutting machines with ultrasonic extrusion function exhibit obvious industrial characteristics: firstly, high cutting efficiency, capable of completing 30-50 cutting actions per minute, and processing up to 50-100 kilograms per hour, far exceeding the manual or semi-automatic mode of dedicated cutting machines; Secondly, the cutting consistency is strong. After setting the cutting parameters through the program, the size error of each cut can be controlled within 0.05 millimeters, which is suitable for the mass production needs of standardized packaging; Thirdly, it has wide applicability, not only for cutting block shaped soft cheese, but also for processing paste like and paste like soft cheese products (such as cheese sauce raw materials). By changing the blade of different diameters, it can achieve various forms of processing such as slicing, diced, and sliced. However, the investment cost of such equipment is relatively high, making it more suitable for large dairy processing plants and cheese deep processing enterprises. It is used in the continuous operation of production lines and linked with filling and packaging equipment to form an automated production process.

Although both the specialized cutting machine for soft cheese and the cutting machine with ultrasonic extrusion function can achieve the cutting operation of soft cheese, there are significant differences between the two in terms of application scenarios and performance characteristics: from the perspective of operation mode, the specialized cutting machine is mainly semi-automatic, suitable for flexible production of small batches and multiple batches, while the ultrasonic extrusion cutting machine is mainly fully automatic, more suitable for large-scale, standardized continuous production; From the perspective of cutting objects, specialized cutting machines have stronger compatibility with cheese shapes and can handle irregular block cheese, while ultrasonic extrusion cutting machines are more suitable for processing regular or paste like cheese; In terms of cost and maintenance, specialized cutting machines are relatively inexpensive (usually 1/3-1/5 of ultrasonic equipment), easy to maintain, and only require regular replacement of blades and cleaning of conveyor belts, while ultrasonic equipment requires regular calibration of vibration frequency and maintenance of temperature control systems, resulting in relatively high maintenance costs.

In practical applications, the two devices are not mutually exclusive, but can be used in combination according to the size of the enterprise and product requirements. For example, a small handmade cheese workshop can be equipped with 1-2 specialized soft cheese cutting machines to meet the cutting needs of different varieties of cheese; Large cheese processing plants can use ultrasonic extrusion cutting machines in the front-end raw material processing stage to achieve efficient slicing, and then use specialized cutting machines in the back-end customized production stage to process orders with special shapes. Meanwhile, regardless of the type of equipment used, it is important to pay attention to daily maintenance: after each cutting, it is necessary to clean the blade and feeding device with food grade cleaning agents to avoid bacterial growth caused by cheese residue; Regularly check the sharpness of the blade and the wear of the vibrating blade head, replace vulnerable parts in a timely manner, and ensure stable cutting performance.

In short, the specialized cutting machine for soft cheese and the cutting machine with ultrasonic extrusion function have solved the cutting problem of soft cheese from two dimensions: “precise adaptation” and “efficient continuous”. With the increasing demand for product quality and production efficiency in the dairy industry, these two types of equipment will play a more important role in their respective application scenarios, promoting the development of the soft cheese processing industry towards finer and more automated directions.

About Cheersonic
Cheersonic manufactures the leading portioning equipment for bakeries producing fresh and frozen desserts. Since 1998 bakers have used Cheersonic machines to cut, slice and portion cheesecake, pie, layer cake, loaves, butter, cheese, pizza, sandwichs, and more. Cheersonic offers ultrasonic cutting solutions that support start-up bakeries and high production commercial facilities alike. Small standalone machines can be used in manual baking facilities and large inline robotic solutions aid in high speed production.

Cheersonic offers many ultrasonic slicing models, both inline and offline applications, with production speeds of 80 to 1,500 cakes or pies per hour.

Cheersonic’ latest offline introductions include ultrasonic cutting with or without divider inserts between each slice. This improves the quality of the cut and makes for a much better product presentation for the customer. In addition, robotic arm improves the speed, efficiency, and accuracy of the cutting process, producing professional looking products every time.

Chinese Website: Cheersonic Provides Professional Ultrasonic Cutting Solutions