GB566756A - A machine for cutting soap or other relatively soft material - Google Patents

Abstract

566,756. Machines for cutting bars of soap, butter, &c. WILLIAMS. W. P. (Procter & Gamble Co.). Jan. 22, 1943, No. 1164. [Class 87 (ii)] A cutter wire, moving with the extruded bar 1, passes through the bar from the upper side to the lower side of the latter, and then through the bar from the lower side to the upper, making a cut on the downstroke and a separate cut on the upstroke. The wire 4 is stretched across a frame 42 which is reciprocated, to give the cutting strokes, by a cam 41 via arm 44 which is pivoted at a fixed point 45. The cutter frame 42 engages and is guided by a member 32 which is pivoted on a fixed axis 34. On the downstroke, the cutter frame slides slantwise along the guide 32, the horizontal component of the velocity of the frame along the guide being equal‹to the velocity of the moving bar 1, whereby the cut edge is at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the bar (alternatively, the cut edge may be made oblique, by altering the slope of the guide). When the cutter frame reaches its lowermost position on the guide, as shown in Fig. 9, the frame dwells, but the guide is tilted, on its axis 34, by the cam 41 via arm 37 and rod 35, to the position shown in Fig. 11. The cutter frame then ascends, along the guide, to cut the bar again. The length of the rod 35 may be varied (to obtain an oblique cut), and the length of the cut segments may be changed by moving the end 36 of the rod 35 up or down in a curved slot in the guide 32. Alternately, long and short segments may be cut by varying the contour of that part of the cam 41 which controls the two cutting strokes. To allow the wire to pass right through the bar, the belt 3 which carries the bar is diverted at the cutting point by pulleys 14 ... 17. A take-away belt 7 travels faster than the belt 3, and a discharge rack 8 moves transversely to the belt 7.