An apparatus for cutting a whole tire into strips may include a cutting device having a first rotary blade and a second rotary blade. The tire is positioned between the first rotary blade and the second rotary blade, which cut the tire into one or more strips. The apparatus may further include a positioning system operable to orient the tire between a plurality of vertical, horizontal, and intermediate positions, relative to the cutting device. The apparatus may include one or more support rollers. The apparatus may further include a control system that controls the operation of the cutting device and tire positioning system as the tire is cut into strips by the cutting device. The apparatus may include a chipper to cut the tire strips into chips. The apparatus may include a bead peeler to remove the exterior rubber sheath from the wire bead.

It is often required to cut designs with inner geometries in foam blocks. In traditional method of cutting with hotwire, cutting can only start from outer edge. This results in a cut line between outer and inner geometries, weakening the design. In this invention, an intelligent rigid heating tool is proposed, that can pierce the raw material in the middle, without having to start from outer edge. A latching mechanism for providing double side support for the rigid cutting tool is proposed. An automatic tool path generation method is also proposed, to prevent the tool from cutting the block, when piercing or retracting. A flexible knife is proposed in this knife, that can make the system compact. A sensor to measure deflection in the knife is also proposed in this system, to implement closed loop speed control, resulting in higher productivity.

A cartilage cutting device for a bone-in meat according to an embodiment includes a cutting blade disposed on a conveying path for a bone-in meat and an elastic support portion for elastically supporting the cutting blade so that the cutting blade can recede by a reaction force applied to the cutting blade when cutting the bone-in meat. The elastic support portion is configured such that an elastic supporting force of the elastic support portion is switchable between a first elastic supporting force and a second elastic supporting force. The first elastic supporting force is capable of cutting a cartilage adhering to a bone part of the bone-in meat. The second elastic supporting force is smaller than the first elastic supporting force and is incapable of cutting the cartilage.

Systems and methods for downsizing tires, and an automated downsizing apparatus utilize a cradle, mandrel table, cutting apparatus, and a control unit. In various embodiments, a tire mounted on the cradle may be received by the movable and rotatable mandrel table, and positioned for engagement with the cutting apparatus. Users may customize one or more cutting configurations to be executed by the control unit. The control unit positions the mandrel table and cutting apparatus to remove portions from the tire, according to the cutting configurations. During tire downsizing operations, one or more system parameters may be monitored to determine compliance with the selected configuration, and the automated execution may be manually overridden.

A contour-cutting machine for cutting a foam block, such as a polyurethane foam block into foam rows, such as pillows, has high productivity. The contour-cutting machine has multiple cutting tools that can be operated simultaneously to cut the foam block. Each cutting tool has a blade that cuts through the foam block. For example, an upper cutting tool and a lower cutting tool mounted over a pillar one above each other can be positioned at a predefined distance from each other and locked together. Each cycle of the process makes two cuts with the two cutting tools in the foam block.

An apparatus and method for cutting blocks of frozen food into irregular shapes comprises a slicer unit carrying a cutting blade and chutes for feeding logs of frozen food to said blade. The chute extends from a chute inlet to a chute outlet, having a central longitudinal axis extending from the center of the chute inlet to center of chute outlet. The cutting blade is positioned below the chute outlets wherein said elongate blocks of processed food are fed into said chute inlet through the chute to the chute outlet, to said blade, said blade sectioning the blocks into smaller pieces. The chutes are angled greater than 15 degrees and less than 90 degrees from the plane of the cutting blade and the chute is rotated about its longitudinal axis between 0 to 180 degrees from a square orientation to the plane of the blade.

An apparatus and method for cutting blocks of frozen food into irregular shapes comprises a slicer unit carrying a cutting blade and chutes for feeding logs of frozen food to said blade. The chute extends from a chute inlet to a chute outlet, having a central longitudinal axis extending from the center of the chute inlet to center of chute outlet. The cutting blade is positioned below the chute outlets wherein said elongate blocks of processed food are fed into said chute inlet through the chute to the chute outlet, to said blade, said blade sectioning the blocks into smaller pieces. The chutes are angled greater than 15 degrees and less than 90 degrees from the plane of the cutting blade and the chute is rotated about its longitudinal axis between 0 to 180 degrees from a square orientation to the plane of the blade.

Cutting tools are provided for scoring a hose over a fitting. The cutting tool includes a handle with a central pass-through for the hose, and a scoring mechanism adjustably coupled to the handle. The scoring mechanism includes a base member with a central pass-through for the hose, and which is adjustably coupled to the handle. The scoring mechanism further includes an arm-blade subassembly coupled to the base member. The subassembly includes a blade, and an arm with a blade-receiving recess, and a guide surface to contact and travel along a hose. The blade is coupled to the arm within the blade-receiving recess to extend a selected penetration depth from the arm. The arm is radially adjustable with adjustment of the base member relative to the handle to physically contact the guide surface to the hose and insert the blade into the hose the selected penetration depth.

A strand of connected elastics is disclosed. The strand includes a series of elastic bands and a series of connecting portions that connect the series of elastic bands to each other. The connecting portions may have configurations that enable them to broken when separation and use of an elastic from an end of the strand is desired. Methods for manufacturing and using strands of connected elastics are also disclosed.

A system and method utilizes strategies, priority rules, specifications, and comparisons to calculate the fewest number of cuts to separate individual instances from an imaged media sheet. Embodiments of the systems and methods may produce an optimal or more efficient arrangement of the media instances on an imaged media to minimize a total number of cuts to separate the instances, and thus reduce an overall cost.