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.

A gripper for gripping a rear end of the food product includes a jaw mounting body having a pneumatic pathway therethrough, a pair of jaws pivotally mounted thereon, a moving assembly which moves the pair of jaws from an open position to a closed position, a controller, and a contact plate assembly which provides information regarding a pressure spike in the pneumatic pathway to the controller that contact with the rear end of the food product has occurred. Multiple ones of the grippers can be provided as part of a food product slicing machine. A method of using same is also provided.

As a fast and compact slide drive for a gripper slide, a traversing unit such as a traversing traction element unit is provided.

A high-speed food article slicing machine with a slicing station, a moveable frame supporting a food article feed mechanism frame, a food article gate, and a safety guard system for detecting an intrusion into the machine. Food articles are loaded onto a lift tray and raised to a staging position where food articles are in contact with a food article gate. The lift tray is located in line with the food article feed paths such that lateral shifting of food articles into the feed paths is not needed. Food article grippers, individually driven along feed paths by an overhead conveyor, move food articles over the food article gate towards the slicing station. The food article gate functions to assist in removal of food article end portions. The slicing machines utilizes a horizontally radiating laser intrusion detector to shut down systems when an unwanted intrusion is sensed.

In order to prevent a slice from being separated from each log during the last cut in the case of multiple portions produced in parallel, that is to say there is no unproductive cut in the last cut, as is required, for example, in EP 2942165 B1, the basic idea is to already provide an unproductive cut for at least one log during the first cut for the simultaneously produced portions, wherein a distinction must be made in the following procedure whether or not separately controllable portioning belts are present per lane and whether the portion lengths should be the same or not despite different numbers of slices.

The present invention relates to a gripper for gripping a product, in particular a food product, having a suction device which has a contact surface which can be brought into contact with a section, in particular with an end section, of the product, wherein the suction device comprises at least one first suction section which is bounded in the radial direction by a sealing device and which is in communication with a pumping device generating a vacuum; and at least one sealing section which is arranged outside the first suction section viewed in the radial direction of the contact region and at least sectionally, in particular completely, surrounds it in the radial direction. The present invention relates to a cutting apparatus having a corresponding gripper and to a method for cutting a product.

A gripping system of a food processing machine includes a gripping device, an airflow sensing device, at least one processor, and at least one memory. The gripping device is moveable between an open configuration and a closed configuration. The airflow sensing device is configured to sense an airflow. The at least one processor is in electronic communication with the airflow sensing device. The at least one memory is in electronic communication with the at least one processor. The at least one memory comprises programming code for execution by the at least one processor. The programming code is configured to move the gripping device from the open configuration to the closed configuration when the airflow sensing device senses a change in the airflow.

A foodstuff trimming device includes a rotary blade that trims an end part of a foodstuff, and a lifting claw block that lifts the end part of the foodstuff and that leads a part of the foodstuff to be cut to the rotary blade. The lifting claw block includes a guide surface of which an upper surface is inclined downward toward a front end portion receiving the end part of the foodstuff, a reception groove which is formed behind the guide surface and into which the rotary blade is inserted from above, and an air blowing portion which blows air downwards to the space below the front end portion.

An apparatus for cutting bread into slices includes at least one circular blade which rotates in a cutting plane and is guided between a feed section feeding the bread to be sliced to the blade and a removal section receiving the cut slices of bread. At least one advancing device advances the bread from the feed section towards the knife. The advancing device is designed such that, between two cutting instances, it advances the uncut bread and then withdraws it such that the actually exposed front end of the uncut bread is advanced across the cutting plane by an advance path greater than the predetermined slice thickness and is then withdrawn counter to the direction of advance of the bread.

A method and a machine tool for processing workpieces is described, comprising a workpiece movement device and a workpiece support that supports both a workpiece during a processing operation and a workpiece remainder produced from the workpiece during the processing operation, wherein the workpiece support comprises a first support portion and an additional support portion, wherein the first support portion comprises a loading-side support portion arranged in a loading region of the machine tool, wherein the additional support portion is arranged to move relative to the loading-side support portion between the loading region and an unloading region of the machine tool, wherein the unloading region is offset in a horizontal direction from the loading region, wherein the loading-side support portion is arranged to move in a vertical direction between a loading level and a bypass level located above or below the loading level.