Patent ID: 8356536

Claim:
Apparatus for making at least one of a cut, crease or relief in a sheet of material, the apparatus comprising: a frame, said frame having a base and a flat plate forming a unified structure having a front vertical side and a rear vertical side that faces away from the front vertical side, said front vertical side and said rear vertical side extending from one side of the unified structure to the other; a pair of rollers, said pair of rollers defining a pinch opening between them, said pinch opening having a height relative from the base; a surface on at least one of the rollers having relatively high surface portions and relatively low surface portions for making the at least one of a cut, crease, or relief in the sheet of material when the sheet of material passes through the pinch opening; a plurality of mountings for supporting the rollers on the frame; a means for moving the mountings and the rollers with respect to the frame; a drive for making the rollers rotate; wherein the rollers and the mountings are located on the front vertical side of the flat plate; wherein the flat plate is parallel to the longitudinal axes of the rollers, said flat plate having a slit at the height of the pinch opening; said slit and said pinch opening each having a length dimension parallel to the longitudinal axes of the rollers and a width dimension perpendicular to said length dimension and oriented in vertical direction, said length dimension being larger than said width dimension; and wherein the width dimension of the slit is smaller than a height dimension of the pair of rollers so that material to be machined can be fed through said slit into the pinch opening between said rollers.