A food product slicing apparatus for slicing food products into slices is provided. A frame mounts a drive assembly which is configured to move the food products relative to the frame, a side strapping assembly which side straps a side of the food product, and a slicing blade configured to slice the food products into slices. The side strapping assembly is mounted to the frame proximate to the drive assembly. The side strapping assembly includes a releasable clamp which couples a blade of the side strapping assembly to the frame. The clamp can be released without the use of tools.

A food slicing includes a forward conveyor assembly located proximal to the blade assembly and a rearward conveyor assembly configured to transport the food product to the forward conveyor assembly. The rearward conveyor assembly is located immediately upstream from the forward conveyor assembly and gap is formed laterally between the forward conveyor assembly and the rearward conveyor assembly, in the longitudinal direction. An upper scanner unit proximal the gap scans an upper surface of the food product while a lower scanner unit located below the forward and rearward conveyor assemblies scans a lower surface of the food product as the food product passes across the gap, to obtain contour information of the lower surface of the food product.

A drive assembly for a food product slicing apparatus is provided which slices food products into slices. The drive assembly is mounted on a frame of the food product slicing apparatus and includes lower and upper conveyor assemblies coupled to the frame which move food products relative to the frame. The upper conveyor assembly is configured to move upward and downward relative to an upper plane defined by the lower conveyor assembly, and is further configured to pivot relative to the lower conveyor assembly to firmly grip the food products as they pass therebetween.

A food article slicing machine includes a food article loading apparatus with a lift tray assembly for moving food articles from a staging position to an elevated position at a beginning of a food article feed path, a food article feed apparatus disposed over the food article loading apparatus having an upper conveyor assembly with an independently driven endless conveyor belt used in cooperation with a food article gripper for moving the food articles along the food article feed path, a food article stop gate that forms part of the food article feed path and opens to drop food article end portions, and a slicing station at an end of the food article feed path with a knife for slicing the food articles.

The present invention relates to a cutting apparatus having a gripper for gripping a product, in particular a food product, having a gripper base, and having a gripper head fastened to the gripper base, wherein the gripper head comprises at least one suction device that can be acted on by vacuum and that can be brought into contact with a section, in particular an end section, of the product to suck it in, with the gripper head being releasably fastened to the gripper base.

Provided is a bale rubber holding device 54 of an embodiment which is provided in a feeding device 50 which feeds a bale rubber 20, which is a lump of rubber, forward toward a cutting position, where the bale rubber holding device 54 grips a rear portion of the bale rubber 20.

A method for cutting a bale rubber of an embodiment includes the steps of feeding the bale rubber to a cutting position and cutting out a bale rubber piece from the bale rubber which reaches the cutting position with a cutter and further includes the steps of measuring a weight of the cut-out bale rubber piece and determining a feed amount of the bale rubber in a subsequent step of feeding the bale rubber to the cutting position based on a difference between the measured weight of the bale rubber piece and a target weight of the bale rubber piece.

In order to reliably detect, without supplying electric current or any other type of energy to a gripper, whether a rear end of a product caliber is in a grippable position close to a gripper base body and/or gripper claws are extended into the product caliber, i.e., are activated, a signal transmitter may be moved into an activated position via a purely mechanical operative connection between a sensing element, which detects the approach of the product caliber to the gripper base body in a contacting manner, which position can be detected by a sensor arranged far behind the gripper at a base frame of the machine.

The present disclosure relates to apparatuses and methods for adjusting and maintaining a position of cutting surfaces used to create lines of weakness in rolled products. During cutting operations, intermittent contact between cutting surfaces causes cutting components to become heated, which in turn, causes an overlap distance between cutting surfaces to vary from desired values. Conversely, when cutting operations are stopped, the components cool, which in turn, may cause the overlap distance to vary from desired values at steady state operating conditions. To help reduce or eliminate the changes to overlap distances caused by cyclical heating and cooling between times of cutting operations and shutdowns, one or more heaters may be utilized to apply heat to one or more components to maintain relatively constant temperatures during periods of cutting operations and/or when cutting operations are paused or stopped. In turn, the heater(s) may operate to maintain and/or change the overlap distance to desired values.

Disclosed is a line catcher-type waterjet cutting apparatus in which a workpiece is subjected to the waterjet processing in a state of being clamped by a workpiece edge clamping device and a separate driving unit for the workpiece edge clamping device is provided, and in which the workpiece is clamped by the workpiece edge clamping device during the waterjet processing, while the workpiece is easily decoupled from the workpiece edge clamping device after the waterjet processing is completed, so that the waterjet processing is carried out while reciprocally conveying the workpiece in an X-direction, thereby increasing the processing accuracy of the waterjet processing and easily automating the waterjet processing.