Rotary cutter

摘要

A rotary cutter (10) is provided for cutting elongated extruded strips (16) of a food dough product or the like on a conveyor (14) into individual strip pieces of selected length and having angular cut ends simulating the overall appearance of French fry strips cut from whole potatoes. The rotary cutter comprises a pair of rotary support wheels (28) mounted on opposite sides of the conveyor for rotation on longitudinally spaced axes extending normal to the direction of conveyor travel. A plurality of cutter elements (26) extend transversely and angularly across the conveyor with their opposite ends carried by the rotary support wheels generally at the peripheries thereof for engaging and cutting conveyed extruded strips into individual and angularly end-cut strip pieces of selected length. A drive motor (46) rotatably drives one of the support wheels for displacing the cutter elements into engagement with the extruded strips at a velocity closely matching the conveyor velocity.