Most Vincent screw presses are now being built with a feature called a “Cord Cutter”.

Many dewatering applications involve long, stringy material such as corn husk, plastic strips, and feathers. It has been observed that, with such materials, flow can become jammed at the inlet to the screened section of the press. This occurs because a strand of material will become pinched between the screw flight and the hole in the inlet hopper where the screw enters the screen. In a Velcro effect, material will ball up, blocking flow into the press.

Severe trouble jobs were corrected by adding a part called “Brian’s Stripper”. This involved welding a piece of keystock to the vertical plate between the inlet hopper and the screen of the press (the B plate). This keystock was positioned so that the screw clicked against it as the screw turned. The effect was to strip away long fibers of material. Brian’s Strippers have been standard on presses with small diameter screws for a number of years.

The blocking or balling problem became severe at Central Beef. Central Beef slaughters cattle, and there was a need to dewater the paunch manure. The difficulty encountered arose when bulls were being processed. It seems that bulls are prone to eating the plastic cord that is used to tie bales of hay. Balls of this twine were pinching between the flight and the hole in the B plate. This cord was too flexible to be knocked out the way with Brian’s Stripper.

Cutting a notch in the hole in the B plate solved the problem. As the cord was dragged around by the flight, it popped up slightly when it reached the notch. On reaching the far edge of the notch, the cord was knocked out of the way. A shearing action occurs, sometimes cutting the cord into pieces.

Cord Cutters are being ground into almost all new production runs of presses. The feature does no harm, and it can be advantageous in many applications.