摘要 |
<p>A slicing machine including a rotating blade 1 and a feeding head 8 to feed a block of food product towards the blade includes a position detector 38 to detect when the feeding head 8 is a predetermined distance away from the end of its stroke, an encoder 32 associated with the drive 12 of the feeding head 8 to monitor movement of the feeding head 8 over the predetermined distance from the position detector 38 to the end of its stroke, and a cam and proximity switch 34,35 to monitor the movement of the blade 1 of the slicer. The machine also includes a computer 18 to monitor the position of the feeding head 8 as it moves towards the end of its stroke to establish when there is insufficient of the stroke of the feeding head 8 remaining to allow another whole slice of product to be cut before the feeding head 8 reaches the end of its stroke and to return the feeding head 8 to its starting position after completing the slicing of the last whole slice.</p> |