495,708. Slicing bread; cleaning machinery pneumatically. BAKER PERKINS, Ltd., and HARBER, L. S. May 11, 1937, No. 13357. [Class 5 (i)] [Also in Group XXVIII] In a bread-slicing machine, suction means are provided adjacent to the cutters for removing crumbs or particles of bread. The cutters may be rotary, or comprise two alternately arranged and oppositely reciprocating sets of knives, but, as shown, the machine has a single set of reciprocating knives with aligned circular saws in advance thereof to cut through the top crust. The loaves are fed by the conveyer 27 on to and over a table 5 having slots 7 in which the knives 6 work. The saws 14 work in slots in the top plate 11 which rides upon the tops of the loaves. The plate 11 and the slotted part of the table 5 are formed as parts of headers 8, 18 connected by pipes 9, 19 to a vacuum pump 10. The knives 6 may pass through slots in the plate 11 internally or externally of the header 18. The saws 14 may be driven by a motor mounted on the plate 11, or through a flexible drive which will permit adjustment of the plate 11, but as shown they are driven by a belt 17 from the shaft 24 carrying the crank for reciprocating the blades. The tension of the belt 17 may be maintained by a jockey pulley. The saws may be adjustable relatively to the plate 11 and rotate counter to the direction of the feed of the bread, i.e. counterclockwise in the Figure. Air jets may be employed to blow crumbs out of the cuts in the bread into or towards the suction slots. According to the Provisional Specification, the saws 14 may be employed without suction means, and, in some cases, vertical vacuum nozzles or slots may be arranged parallel with and between or enclosing each of the reciprocat- . ing blades or groups thereof.
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