Patent ID: 8225828

Claim:
A modular cutting head for rotating one or more chipping knives about an axis, the one or more chipping knives for making chipping cuts in an article and thereby producing chips from the article, the modular cutting head comprising: an annular facing module; and a conical, solid hub module, wherein according to a first condition, said facing and hub modules are adapted to be detachably mounted in fixed positions relative to one another, concentric with the axis, and wherein according to a second condition, said hub module is adapted for detachably mounting the one or more chipping knives at angularly spaced apart positions, so that an assembled configuration of the cutting head is defined wherein said hub and facing modules are mounted according to said first condition, and said one or more chipping knives are mounted to said hub module according to said second condition, said facing module carrying one or more limiters corresponding to one or more particular knife instances of the one or more chipping knives, defining a limiting surface for the particular knife instances which, in said assembled configuration of the cutting head, (a) intersects a reference plane which is perpendicular to the axis, where the reference plane also intersects the one or more knife instances, (b) is disposed between a first one of the knife instances to pass, as a result of rotation of the cutting head, a reference line lying in the reference plane and extending an arbitrary but fixed angle from the axis, and the next one of the knife instances to pass said reference line, and (c) has at least a portion that smoothly curvilinearly decreases in radial elevation measured from the axis, in the reference plane, from a maximum nearer said first knife instance to a minimum nearer said next knife instance, wherein, if there are a plurality of the chipping knives intersected by the reference plane, the knife instances include only those ones of the chipping knives that are in closest proximity to the limiting surface, measured in radial directions relative to the axis, said limiting surface thereby being effective for controlling radial movement of the article caused by contact between the article and the particular knife instances as a result of operation of the cutting head.