Custom helical cutter shaft engineered to produce consistent snack dimensions across production lines while maintaining throughput and minimizing equipment modifications.

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Project Description

KS Projects engineered a custom helical dough-cutter shaft for industrial snack food production to solve product-sizing inconsistencies between two manufacturing lines.

An existing straight-blade rotary cutter was producing oversized products that created compatibility issues with downstream packaging equipment.

The objective was to maintain the higher throughput of the newer production line while producing dimensions consistent with the existing equipment.

A new cutter shaft was developed using replaceable food-grade stainless steel blades positioned along a 45° helix. The blade geometry and helix pitch were optimized to provide smooth, consistent cutting at production speed.

The retrofit design retained existing mounting points, shaft dimensions, bolt patterns, and drive interfaces wherever possible, reducing installation time and eliminating the need for major equipment modifications.

Sanitary design principles were also incorporated through smooth surfaces, accessible geometry, and easy disassembly for cleaning and maintenance.

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Engineering Capabilities

• 3D CAD – SolidWorks – Shaft, blades, support flanges, and retrofit geometry

• Kinematic Analysis – Helix pitch and blade-profile optimization

• Material Engineering – 304 stainless steel shaft and AISI 316 cutting blades

• FEA & Stress Analysis – Torsional loading at production RPM

• Equipment Retrofit Engineering – Existing mounting and drive interfaces retained

• Sanitary Design – Cleanable surfaces and simplified washdown

• Design for Maintenance – Replaceable blades and accessible components

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Project Results

✅ Unified product dimensions across new and legacy production lines

✅ Reduced packaging rejects caused by oversized products

✅ Maintained the higher throughput of the newer production line

✅ Reduced production waste and downtime

✅ Installed without major modifications to existing production equipment

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Technologies & Expertise

Food Processing Equipment Design | Food Machinery Engineering | SolidWorks | Helical Cutting | Stainless Steel | FEA | Kinematics | Equipment Retrofit | Sanitary Design | Mechanical Engineering