SLICING MACHINE AND CONVEYOR SYSTEM WITH AUTOMATIC PRODUCT WIDTH COMPENSATION

摘要

The invention provides a slicing and conveying system (10) that includes a slicing blade (33) that cuts slices from a loaf (32), and an output conveyor (31) located below the slicing blade (33) for receiving the slices in a draf t. A control system (62) automatically adjusts a lateral movement of the output conveyor (31) to form a laterally shingled draft of a consistent width in response to a sensed lateral dimension of the loaf (32) being sliced. The control system includes a displacement sensor (70) carried by a laterally adjustable guide assembly adjacent to the slicing blade (33). The displaceme nt sensor (70) is signal-connected to a control (62). The control is signal- connected to the output conveyor (31) to control the lateral movement of the output conveyor according to the lateral dimension of the loaf (32) sensed b y the displacement sensor (70). As an additional aspect, the slices can be shingled in the longitudinal direction to form a two dimensional footprint. A length sensor (162) can sense the length of the shingled draft and send a feedback signal to the control (62) to make adjustments to the longitudinal movement of the output conveyor (31) to adjust the degree of longitudinal shingling.