Patent GB-190823123-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in MachineS for Slicing Bread, Beef, Bacon, and other Food Substances.
Inventor: EXLEY WILLIAM HERBERT
IPC: B26D1/25
Filed: 1908-10-30
Granted: 1909-10-14
Abstract: 23,123. Exley, W. H. Oct. 30. Bread cutters.-A machine for slicing bread, meat, &c. comprises an endless band-knife, which may have a serrated edge, and a rotary carrier actuated by spring-transmission gear so that it travels more slowly during the cutting part of the revolution than during the non-cutting part. The feed of the material is effected by its automatic release from the carrier. The band-knife 5 runs on pulleys 3, 4, and the cutting portion moves in a guide 15 consisting of a narrow channel formed of two strips of steel separated by an intermediate narrower strip so as to form a channel on both sides of the latter. The knife moves in the front channel, and in the other is fixed a circular table 19, which may be partly corrugated so as to diminish friction between it and the meat during the non-cutting portion of the revolution of the carrier. The meat is carried past the knife and over the table 19 by a frame 29 revolubly mounted on a fixed shaft 27 and driven from a shaft 9 through a worm and worm-wheel 31. The wheel 31 is linked to the frame 29 by a coupling 30 and a spring 34, one end of which is fixed to the frame, while the other is fixed to the coupling. The coupling 30 engages the wheel 31 by means of projections, and similar projections on its upper surface engage the frame 29 when the spring 34 has undergone a certain degree of torsion, thus converting the spring drive into a positive drive. When the meat &c. encounters the knife, the motion of the frame 29 is retarded so that the spring 34 is tightened and back pressure is set up between the wheel 31 and the worm 33. This back pressure suspends the action of the shaft 9 by detaching the worm 33, which is fixed to a clutch member (see Fig. 3), from a clutch 32, fixed by a screw 40 to the shaft 9. This disengagement takes place against the action of a spring washer 37, the tension of which can be adjusted by a wing-nut 38. The frame 29 continues to move more slowly under the action of the spring 34, the motion being slower the harder the material being cut. This arrangement gives a relative motion between the material and the knife proportional to the hardness of the material. When the material has passed the knife, the backpressure between the links 31, 33 ceases and the spring washer 37 forces the clutch members into engagement, so that the frame 29 is actuated by the wheel 31 and moves more quickly during the remainder of the revolution. At the end of the revolution the meat &c. is automatically released from the frame and falls on to a grid 54, which is placed parallel to and a little below the fixed table 19, and is vertically adjustable so as to vary the thickness of slice. The meat &c. is held on two opposite sides by brackets 42, one of which is slidable towards the other by means of a rack 43 on the bracket and a pinion 45 on a spindle 46 mounted in bearings on the frame 29 and carrying a friction-wheel 47. A spring 48 is secured at one end to the wheel 45 and at the other to the frame 29, and its normal tendency is to force one bracket 42 towards the other, thus holding the meat. When the meat is over the grid 54, the action of the spring 48 is overcome by engagement between the wheel 47 and a friction segment 53 on the spindle 27, so that the bracket 42 recedes and the meat drops on the grid. The action of the wheels 47, 53 then ceases, and the brackets 42 again seize the meat and carry it against the knife. A third bracket 51, slidablv mounted in one of the brackets 42, supports the meat on a third side.