| 摘要 |
<p>An electrically heated wire is moved through an elliptical path beneath an ice cream extrusion nozzle to slice the extruded stream into bars onto a conveyor which carries the bars into a freezing vault. Below the extrusion nozzle a carriage revolves in a substantially elliptical orbit. The ellipse is located, with respect to the extruded stream, such that the electrically heated cutting wire, mounted on the cutting carriage, makes contact with the stream only while travelling along the flatter side of the ellipse nearest the nozzle. The major elliptical axis can be slanted so that a nearly right-angle cut can be made across the extruding fluid stream. The cutting carriage is free to slide along two supporting bars, both of which are pivotally fastened to two cranks eccentrically mounted on two synchronized rotating shafts. A rotatable center crank revolves in a controllable phase relationship with the outer cranks. This center crank is free to travel within a groove perpendicular to the carriage supporting bars. The outer cranks impart a simple harmonic motion in one direction to the carriage and the center crank imparts another simple harmonic motion to the carriage in a direction perpendicular to the first motion. Changes in the orientation of the major axis are made by altering the phase relationship between the center and outer cranks. Since all points in the cutting carriage travel in parallel planes, multiple cutting wires can be attached to the carriage, thereby allowing it to simultaneously slice multiple nozzle streams. All the cranks are driven by the same motor through a mechanical linkage. The timing of the cutting motion can be changed through simple adjustments in the mechanical linkage.</p> |
