Article Slicing Method and Apparatus

Abstract

Tomatoes are placed on cutting blades ( 20 ) in article openings ( 46 ) of an article positioning plate ( 44 ). The blades are moved as article pushers ( 24 ) move downwardly and engage the upper facing surfaces of the tomatoes, pushing the tomatoes through parallel cutting blades ( 20 ). The end slices ( 30 and 40 ) are gathered in end collectors ( 96 ) and discarded while the intermediate slices ( 42 ) are received in transfer tray ( 72 ). Gathering plates ( 100 ) urge the intermediate slices of the several tomatoes to gather in one accumulation of tomato slices, and the transfer tray ( 72 ) is lowered to a position immediately above shipping containers ( 74 ) and tilted to deposit the tomatoes in the containers.

1 . An article slicing apparatus for simultaneously cutting several articles into an accumulation of multiple parallel slices, the articles having a longitudinal axis, comprising:
 a plurality of cutting blades spaced from one another in parallel planes for cutting the articles into slices,   drive means connected to said cutting blades and   configured for oscillating alternate ones of the cutting blades upwardly while oscillating the other alternate blades downwardly,   article pushers each including a plurality of pusher fins sized and shaped to move from above the cutting blades downwardly between the cutting blades,   pusher actuating means operatively connected to said article pushers for moving the article pushers from a loading position spaced away from the cutting blades for facilitating the placement of articles on the cutting blades to aligned positions aligned above the articles on the cutting blades, and for moving the pusher fins of the article pushers downwardly from the aligned positions to between the cutting blades to push the articles through the cutting blades,   a transfer tray positioned beneath the cutting blades a distance for receiving the sliced articles from the cutting blades substantially without dropping the articles from the cutting blades,   guides for guiding the slices as they are being received on the transfer tray to avoid the slices of each article from separating when received on the transfer tray and to avoid the slices from tilting, and   gathering members movable with respect to said transfer tray for engaging and gathering the slices on the transfer tray in an edge standing attitude.   
     
     
         2 . The article slicing apparatus of  claim 1 , and wherein said guides include end collectors for receiving the end slices of the articles. 
     
     
         3 . The article slicing apparatus of  claim 1 , and further including:
 a transfer tray actuator for moving said transfer tray vertically away from said cutting blades for depositing the sliced articles to a lower surface and minimizing the distance from the transfer tray and the surface to which the sliced articles are deposited.   
     
     
         4 . The article slicing apparatus of  claim 1 , and further including:
 an article positioning plate between the cutting blades and the pushers, the article positioning plate defining a series of openings sized to receive the articles without holding the articles off the cutting blades.   
     
     
         5 . The article slicing apparatus of  claim 4 , wherein the openings are oval.