Leek

The 250 g of leek sample needed to be precut < 90 mm to fit into our grinding vessel. The polycarbonate vessel was equipped with a standard knife and our standard lid (silicone).

We programmed the mill to operate in cycles with one second of grinding at maximum speed, followed by a programmed pausing time of one second. We hope that precut sample would have enough of time to slide back to the bottom of the vessel for a better contact with one of the levels a knife is running (4 different knife-positions when the knife is spinning one time).

After the first five cycles, we recognized a sound, when the mill is running without sample. The leek was already ground to a paste with fibers about 1 mm thickness and up to 8 mm length. The sample did not contain enough of water so adhesion was holding the paste in place.

We exchanged the standard lid against our Vario-lid, in order to vary the available volume (smaller and larger), so the paste would have a chance to be fed back into the knifes area.

We proceeded grinding until 30 seconds of total grinding time were performed. The sample is pastier and only a few small fibers have been spotted inside the paste with a thickness < 0,5 mm and length of only 2 – 3 mm. A bit of sample paste was pushed up on top of the lids dry sample adapter plate. It would be better to use a Vario-lid for liquids. Eventually it would be beneficial to add a little more of liquid (e.g. water) to lower the viscosity of the sample.

For an intensive cleaning, the emptied vessel was filled with water and a few droplets of dish washing agent. We run the mill for about five seconds and all left sample fragments became loose. Afterwards, the container was flushed with fresh water and the knife was dissembled for a faster drying.