Abstract: Apparatus for cutting shaped articles from thin material. By way of example, the material can be uncooked dough and the articles can be preforms which are further processed into snack food chips. A rotary cutter includes a first roller having a cylindrical surface with a plurality of article cutters positioned around and projecting outwardly from the cylindrical surface. A second roller has plurality of trim cutters positioned around and projecting outwardly from it cylindrical surface. As the two rollers are rotated, the article cutters and the trim cutters are brought sequentially into shearing engagement to cut the material into articles and trim. Stripping fingers adjacent the outlet of the cutter bite, strip the articles and trim from the rollers for further processing. Preferably, the material is fed to the rollers as a ribbon, and the cutters cut the material into one or more ribbons of articles and ribbons of trim.

Abstract: Apparatus for inserting a charge of nested, uniformly-shaped articles into a container such as a cannister. A charge of the articles, which may be uniformly-shaped articles and may be fragile articles such as farinaceous food chips, is separated by a metering unit from a supply of such articles and transferred into a hollow sleeve member. The filled sleeve member is rotated to a container-receiving position in which a container, such as a cardboard or paperboard cannister having one open end, is positioned over the filled sleeve member. The filled sleeve and container are then rotated to a release position in which the container, with the charge of nested, uniformly-shaped articles therein, is released from the sleeve member onto a receiver such as a conveyor which moves the filled container for further processing, for example purging with an inert gas and closing the open end.