Branson Ultrasonics has been cutting food products since the early 1970's. Back then we cut things such as Napoleon snacks, and we even tried to shuck oysters. We used ultrasonic blades sharpened on one side attached to a hand-held device.

Today, Branson has food manufacturing customers all over the world cutting products such as cakes, pies, granola bars, cheese, pizza dough, confectionery products, bread, gum, candy and even licorice. Clean cuts through multiple layers produce visual appeal. Fillers, such as nuts or raisins, are cut cleanly and produce less fragmentation than with conventional cutting methods. Depending upon the type of product, ultrasonics can even be used to reshape and reform. Advantages range from increased blade life to cleaner product cut surfaces, to the most important: reduced down time for cleaning.

The ultrasonic blades vibrate 20,000 times per second to achieve minimum surface friction between them and the product being cut. This means no special coatings are required, and the product does not remain on the blade surface, such as happens in a static blade design. The cuts are clean and the product does not smear through layers. Ultrasonic blades can cut as deep as 5 ½" and up to 14" in width, while slitting blades can slit product down to ½" on centers and cover up to 8" to 10" across.

Systems can be cleaned in-place with the use of titanium and stainless steel components. Typically the cleaning down time is cut by 70% to 90% as compared to conventional blades.

Ultrasonic equipment is adaptable to existing equipment with minor modifications, or custom cells can be integrated into new system designs. Power supply designs can vary from standard enclosures to 19" rack mounts with multiple power supplies to special industrial design panel mount designs. Special ultrasonic converters, used to convert electrical energy into mechanical motion, specifically designed for the food industry, are IP-65 rated with hermetically sealed stainless steel housings and titanium output drivers. These specialty converters can be located up to 100 feet away from the power supply and cleaned in-place with caustic and non-caustic chemicals and foams.