Patent ID: 7140285

Claim:
A chopper module for shearing wire into numerous discrete sections, said chopper module comprising: a shaft carrying a plurality of cutting edges and rotatable about an axis of rotation generally perpendicular to a feed path of the wire; and an anvil holder defining a wire guide orifice extending from an entrance to an exit having a circumference and an anvil-receiving slot for holding a removable anvil, said anvil comprising a plurality of cutting edges, a portion of one of the cutting edges defining a working portion of the circumference of the exit, said anvil laterally moveable in said anvil holder relative to said exit so that at least two different portions of each cutting edge can define the working portion of the circumference of the exit, wherein said anvil holder engages said anvil to fix said anvil in a selected position relative to the circumference of the exit and wire fed through the wire guide orifice emerges from the exit and is sheared generally transversely to the feed direction between the shaft-carried cutting edges and the working portion of the circumference of the exit.