Abstract: A knife blade for cutting food products includes a cutting edge having a concave circular curved central portion and opposed linear end portions tangentially intersecting and extending away from opposite sides of the circular curved central portion. The shape of the cutting edge results in enhanced stability of the knife blade when slicing food products driven into the cutting edge and across the blade width.

Abstract: A knife blade for cutting food products includes a cutting edge having a concave circular curved central portion and opposed linear end portions tangentially intersecting and extending away from opposite sides of the circular curved central portion. The shape of the cutting edge results in enhanced stability of the knife blade when slicing food products driven into the cutting edge and across the blade width.

Abstract: A conveying apparatus is disclosed for conveying a food product having a wide variety of sizes and propelling the food product through a stationary knife assembly to cut the food product into discrete pieces. During the conveying of the food product, and elongated food product will be oriented such that its longer dimension is generally parallel to the conveyers before it encounters the cutting apparatus. The conveying apparatus utilizes a pair of endless belt conveyers oriented such that a run of one conveyer is located adjacent to a run of the other conveyer in order to grip a food product between the facing runs of the endless belt conveyers. A drive mechanism drives both of the endless belt conveyers at substantially the same speed so as to propel the food product through the stationary knife assembly. The conveying apparatus automatically adjusts to accommodate a wide variety of food product sizes by way of a spring-biased system acting on one or both of the facing conveyer runs.

Abstract: An elongate product is divided into a plurality of longitudinal strips by frictionally engaging the product between a pair of spaced flexible conveyors defining a longitudinal feed path therebetween and feeding the product at a desired orientation into a stationary knife assembly which cuts the product into strips that are discharged through a spiral-shaped chute and collected in a receptable. The spacing between the conveyors may be varied by adjustment assemblies spaced longitudinally along the feed path.