Abstract: There is disclosed a device for chopping-up bulk material and particularly long stem animal feed material and which comprises: a frame; an elongate cutter body mounted in said frame for rotation about a substantially horizontal axis; cutter blades mounted on the outer periphery of the cutter body; an elongate housing extending partly around said cutter body, said housing defining an inlet which extends substantially throughout the length of the cutter body to admit bulk material to be chopped and an outlet for discharging chopped up material after treatment by the blades of the rotating cutter body; a feeder device arranged on the frame and operable to support and to feed the bulk material to the housing inlet; and, a grill arranged at the inlet so as to control the supply of material to the cutter body.

Abstract: Apparatus for crushing, grinding and shredding solid waste material in which two interacting stacks of cutting and shredding elements are positioned on two substantially parallel shafts and mounted transversely with respect to the directions of waste material fed into the apparatus. Cutting members on one stack interact with cutting members on the other stack. In each stack adjacent cutting members are spaced from each other by a spacer. The spacers in the apparatus differ from those used in prior comminutors of this type in that they also have cutter elements on their periphery and thereby serve as cutters or shredders as well as spacers. This double function of the spacers increases the efficiency of the comminuting apparatus. Most importantly there are cutting edges from the bottom to the top of each stack so that there are no intermediate elements on which strings or wires can be wrapped without encountering a cutting edge.

Abstract: An automated grain characterization system includes grain crushing apparatus; a means for singulating kernels of grain and feeding them into the crushing apparatus; a means for measuring kernel size; a circuit for measuring kernel conductance; and a data acquisition and analysis subsystem for correlating crushing force, size, and conductivity to grain hardness. The output is a profile of the grain characteristics which can be compared to reference samples. This system is especially useful for grading and classifying wheat and predicting its end-use functional properties.

Abstract: A dual auger shredder having a grinding chamber within which is mounted a pair of screw augers, each having tapered flights and oriented opposite to each other, and a bottom including a pair of closure doors. The tapered auger screws provide an uneven surface to material fed downwardly from above the grinding chamber and the working edges of the tapered flights are exposed so that the corners and edges of large-surfaced materials such as wood pallets or wooden crates are engaged by the flights and compressed towards the center of the grinding chamber. The bottom closure panels are positioned beneath the screw augers, extend axially relative to them and are akewed so that they follow the tapered contour of the flights. The closure panels are selectively positionable to form an opening of a variable and predetermined size such that material deposited within the grinding chamber is retained therein and reduced in size until sufficiently small to pass through the opening.

Abstract: A forage harvester includes front and rear sets of upper and lower feed rolls that cooperate to convey a mat of crop material across a shear bar with which a cutterhead cooperates to cut the crop into short lengths. The front set of feed rolls and the upper feed roll of the rear set are contained in a feed roll housing including a movable frame section that is horizontally pivotally mounted to a fixed frame section, containing the cutterhead, shear bar and lower feed roll of the rear set of feed rolls, for movement between a normal working position and service position permitting easy access to the shear bar.

Abstract: An improved sugar cane mill having a mill housing with a pair of spaced apart frames fixed to the ground, a feed roller, a top roller and a discharge roller extending between the frames in a spaced apart relationship. The mill has a trash plate disposed and extending between the feed roller and discharge roller. The feed roller is independently loaded with constant pressure imparting means and is movable up and down substantially linearly along with the trash plate mounted thereon responsive to change in feed and the trash plate orientation with respect to confronting top roller surface is maintained at all positions of the feed roller.

Abstract: A machine is capable of cutting into small pieces the thin wall material of a plurality of disposable containers such as plastic bottles or metal cans fed in a first direction one at a time to a cutting section. The cutting section includes a pair of parallel shafts mounted for rotation in opposite directions about the center axes thereof. Each of the shafts rigidly supports a plurality of overlapping cutting wheels for rotation therewith. Each cutting wheel has a plurality of identical cutting teeth thereon having an apex at the maximum diameter and a root at a root diameter of the cutting wheel. Each cutting tooth has a leading surface and a trailing surface which meet at the apex to form a straight edge at the maximum diameter which is parallel with the center axis of the shaft.

Abstract: A paper shredder for accommodating paper of varying stacks of thickness bound together with staples and the like. A pair of low speed feed rollers are disposed within the device for engaging the paper and for moving the paper into a contoured throat which guides the paper into a primary brush assembly having a set of wire bristles that are rotating at a very high rate of speed. As the paper makes contact with the wire bristles, the paper is pulled along the throat, and simultaneously shredded as it is pulled into the shredding chamber. A stationary wire brush assembly is mounted within the shredding chamber includes a set of long wire bristles that permits the bristles of the two brush assemblies to mesh so that as the bristles of the primary brush assembly are rotated they mesh with the bristles of the stationary brush assembly thereby discharging the shredded paper bits, staples, paper clips and other objects that become lodged in the primary brush bristles the shredding chamber.

Abstract: A feeder for a field crop chopper is provided which has a stationary mating knife, at least one chopping knife arranged at a cutting angle to the mating knife so as to provide a drawing cut commencing at a given part of the mating knife, and a draw-in device whose feed direction is generally perpendicular to the mating and cutting knives and which is supported directly in front of the mating knife generally parallel thereto. The draw-in device includes at least one draw-in roll which is provided with a transverse feed device which imparts a feed direction component to the material to be chopped which is axial with respect to the at least one draw-in roll and directed towards the part of the mating knife at which the cut of the material commences.

Abstract: A device for vertically guiding articles into a toothed roll shredder, having opposing arm members and allowing articulation of the arm members in one direction to allow freedom of movement of material exiting the shredder during reverse rotation. Articulation is restricted in the opposite direction in order to ensure proper vertical alignment of the entering article.

Abstract: Finely divided powdery materials such as, e.g., precipitated silica are granulated by means of two rolls, one of which has a filter surface and the other has a profiled covering, in which the shafts of these rolls are arranged vertically one above the other and the finely divided powdery material is introduced into the gap between the rolls by means of at least one feed screw.

Abstract: A wood and stump chipper having a rotational chipper disc with protruding blade means for chipping wood advanced thereto; a support trough for wood; a ram for advancing wood along the support trough to the disc; power means for shifting said ram from a position spaced from said disc to a position adjacent said disc and return; and an anvil positionable adjacent the disc for cooperation therewith in chipping wood; the anvil being shiftable in a support between an extended position adjacent the disc and a retracted position away from the disc in a dimension transverse to the dimension of ram movement so as to move out of the path of the ram; and power means for shifting the anvil adjacent the disc when the ram is spaced from the disc and for shifting the anvil away from the disc and out of the path of the ram when the ram approaches the disc.

Abstract: A shearbar attachment and adjustment apparatus is adapted to apply clamping forces to a shearbar in a forage harvester at first locations on opposite ends of the shearbar. The clamping forces prevent the shearbar from backing away from a rotary cutterhead in the forage harvester during chopping of crop material by passing cutting edges of knives on the periphery of the cutterhead close to the cutting edge of the shearbar. Also, the apparatus is adjustable to apply pulling forces on the shearbar at second locations on its opposite ends which are offset inwardly from the first locations. Application of pulling forces at these inward locations relative to the outward locations of the clamping forces tends to compensate for the effect of the convex shape of the shearbar cutting edge by causing bowing of the shearbar at the second locations to provide a more uniform clearance between the cutting edge of the shearbar and the cutting edges of the cutterhead knives.

Abstract: A fluff producing mill for converting a pulp material into an absorbent fluff product by the operation of a hammer rotor having multiple overlapping hammer clusters which describe a hammer tip circle, and a pulp material feeder positioned to present the pulp material radially into the hammer rotor between a breaker bar and a cooperating guide plate, the feeder supporting the breaker bar so it can be adjusted toward and away from the hammer tip circle to accommodate hammer clearance at the breaker bar.

Abstract: A rotary shearing/cutting machine, capable of comminuting article of many diverse materials and widely varying dimensional characteristics (i.e., plastic barrels and other containers, plastic and metal films, rubber tires, etc.) has four rotary driven shafts extending across a comminution chamber in parallel spaced relation to each other, with two center shafts rotating in opposite directions and with the shafts rotating at different speeds; a series of primary shear blades interspersed one-for-one with a series of secondary cutter blades are mounted on each shaft for rotation therewith, each shear blade projecting into the space between the shear blades on any adjacent shaft in close overlapping proximity thereto. Each shear blade and each cutter blade is of disc-like configuration having at least one radially projecting C-shaped cutting element affording a transverse cutting edge facing in the direction of rotation; the cutter blades are substantially smaller in diameter than the shear blades.

Abstract: A comminutor and a pump are assembled together so that they are driven by the same prime mover, such as a tractor power take-off, the pump being arranged to draw liquid, such as sewage, into a comminution chamber containing a rotating hollow cylinder which functions as a combination cutter and strainer. The solids in the sewage are comminuted until they are of a size small enough to pass through openings in the cylinder into the interior thereof from which the comminuted particles are pumped to a desired location, such as an irrigated field by the pump. The pump shaft has a drive shaft extension that extends through the center of the rotating cylinder to drive a planetary gear system arranged so that the rotating cylinder is driven at a speed much less than the pump speed.

Abstract: A maize chopper has a casing supported by a frame and maize-stalks are supplied to the casing. A chopping wheel has a supporting plate in the casing and rotatable around an axis of rotation and cutting elements are fixed to said supporting plate. Between the casing and a discharge duct joined to the casing brush cutters are arranged in a discharge passage for material discharged by the chopping wheel. Blades are provided at the side of the supporting plate of the chopping wheel turned away from the cutting elements and/or to the brush cutters. The width of the brush cutters, measured in the direction of the axes of rotation of the brush cutters, is smaller than the width of the discharge passage measured in the same direction such that in operation air displaced by the blades can flow beside the brush cutters through the discharge passage to the discharge duct to discharge material from the chopping wheel.

Abstract: An impeller-type cutter drum for a chopper has a drum body including three drum disks arranged side-by-side and supporting two rows of blade holders which are spaced about the circumference of the drum body. Each blade holder supports a chopping blade and extends between a respective one of the outer disks and the center disk upwardly in an upwardly inclined and oblique manner. The front portion of each blade holder is shaped as an impeller which is arranged at constant distance to and has corresponding inclination as the chopping blade. Each impeller has an arc-shaped deflector portion immediately adjacent the centered drum and extends in a plane approximately adapted to the plane of the drum shaft which support the disks.

Abstract: Improvements in chopper harvesters of the cut-throw type, characterized by the use of a cutting-throwing system consisting of two concentric revolving axles in the center of a static cylinder, the inner and faster axle driving the cutting knife and the external slower axle driving inclined and curved throwing vanes, with the cut billets of cane being thrown through a static inclined duct, fitted in it's upper part with blowers or extractors providing an horizontal air current blowing across said duct towards the rear of the harvester.

Abstract: A forage harvester blower includes a blower fan having a plurality of pivotable blades which operate closely to a cylindrical surface of the blower housing. Forge is delivered into the blower housing along a path extending tangentially to an outer part of the blades and exits the housing at a location spaced approximately ninety degrees from the entrance point.

Abstract: A crop processor for forage harvesters includes a paddle wheel assembly for replacing the lower compressor roll of a compressor roll assembly. The paddle wheel assembly includes paddles arranged to convey crop material that has been previously cut and chopped by a cutterhead toward a discharge blower while causing only minimal further conditioning of the cut and chopped crop material. When harvesting grass crops such as alfalfa, the paddle wheel assembly prevents plugging of the crop processor.

Abstract: An adjustable shearbar apparatus for a forage harvester is disclosed wherein a pair of levers pivotally supported to effect positional adjustments of the shearbar are mounted such that the pivot axis is located in an offset relationship relative to the axis of the shearbar. An upper clamping member detachably connected to a lower support mechanism by a threaded member positioned in line with the shearbar axis to clamp the shearbar therebetween connecting apparatus detachably affixing the shearbar to each of the levers includes a threaded fastener received through an opening extending through each lever and threadably engaged with the shearbar. The connecting apparatus also includes cupped washer assemblies to create a ball joint effect to facilitate the relative movement between the levers and the corresponding fasteners, permitting the shearbar to be moved linearly by a pair of pivotally movable levers.

Abstract: A lawn mower having a cutting reel and a bedknife as its cutting elements, and with those elements being adjustable toward and away from each other for establishing cutting clearance. A hydraulic system is utilized for establishing the pre-selected clearance and for ultimately setting that clearance and maintaining it.

Abstract: A device for use with a rotating cutting knife of a forage harvester to prevent the production of long cobs. The device includes a support member mounted on each cutting knife having a bevelled front face positioned to engage a cob face and support the cob in its longitudinal dimension as a knife cuts the cob along its lateral dimension. The support member is adjustably mounted on the knife between an operative position wherein the bevelled face of the support member is in substantially colinear relationship with the bevelled face of the knife and an inoperative position wherein the bevelled face of the support member is spaced from the bevelled face of the cutting knife.

Abstract: A fiberizer for disintegrating fibrous sheets and a method of fiberizing using a rotor having peripheral teeth arranged within bands which extend transversely around the rotor axis is disclosed. The tooth pattern in each band is circumferentially extending and shaped approximately in a sinusoidal wave on the rotor periphery extending in the direction of rotation, and providing a substantially sinusoidal distribution of impacts against a sheet fed to an anvil in the form of simple harmonic motion along a cross direction impact line adjacent the anvil and thus transversing impacts within adjacent strips of the sheet corresponding to the bands. Individual points along the width of the fibrous sheet are periodically impulsively loaded by the impacts when they are at a period of highest response, i.e.

Abstract: An apparatus and process for separating the pith from the bast of sweet sorghum is disclosed. Cut and headed stalks of the plant are arranged as a mat of the required width on a conveyor and are forcibly advanced endwise into a rotating flail having a multiplicity of dull beating or striking elements which catch the advancing stalks against a stationary bar. The output of the process is a hail of small discrete particles of wet sugar-laden pith used in the production of fuel alcohol and elongated strings of fibre which had been the organized structural backbone of the plant. The quite differently sized and shaped products are separated by vibrating screens or elutriation in an air stream.

Abstract: In a field chopper or chopper forage harvester, a disc wheel chopper is mounted within a housing for rotation about an axis with an elongated discharge tube opening from the radially outer surface of the housing. A crushing device is located within the discharge tube and is positioned to receive the material carried along the circumferentially inner surface of the housing by the disc wheel. The discharge tube forms an air transport duct located radially inwardly of the crushing device relative to the axis of the disc wheel chopper so that air flow generated by the disc wheel bypasses the crushing device and flows through the air transport duct for supporting the flow of material exiting from the crushing device.

Abstract: A forage or picking harvester for the rough grinding of grain has a housing with a cylindrically shaped outer wall. A cutting blade wheel is located within the housing coaxial with the cylindrically shaped wall. The housing has an inlet and an outlet with a discharge duct forming the outlet and extending outwardly from the cylindrically shaped wall. Blades are mounted on the cutting blade wheel and extend radially of the axis of the wheel with the radially outer ends moving along a circle located at the inside surface of the cylindrically shaped wall. A comb-like arrangement of bearing arms is located within the discharge duct adjacent to the opening from the housing so that the blades on the cutting wheel hurl the grains against the bearing arms whereby the arms effect a rough grinding of the grain.

Abstract: A high speed rotor in the chute of a forage harvester is used to crack kernels in chopped forage impelled to the rotor. The rotor itself has four or more rows of elongated, spaced-apart plates provided with blunt cracking edges, and a deflector, disposed upstream of the rotor, is adjustable for a wide range of positions and diverts the flow of material to allow control over the degree of cracking.

Abstract: A microfilm destructing apparatus with a case and with a feed shaft disposed at the case for feeding of one or possibly more film cards along a cutter plate to a rotating milling cutter, which disintegrates the film card into fine particles; and which a complete and interference free removal of the generated microfilm particles is assured. The exhaust shaft is connected near the output end of the milling cutter, and is also connected to a suction blower. An air stream passes through the air gap slot, which is formed between the milling cutter teeth and the tip of the cutter plate. A pressure air stream may be employed fed from the input side to the milling cutter or if a suction air stream is present, it functions at the output end of the milling cutter.

Abstract: A chopper has a housing centered on an axis and having a radially open input and a radially open output spaced angularly therefrom as well as a pair of axially oppositely open intakes, and a cutter drum rotatable in the housing about the axis and having a pair of end plates transverse of the axis and having axially oppositely directed faces confronting the respective intakes and a plurality of blades secured to and between the end plates and having cutting edges defining on rotation of the drum an orbit centered on the axis. Respective pluralities of vanes at the end plates can be secured either to the respective end plates in in-service positions extending generally radially thereon so that rotation of the drum moves the vanes to draw air in the axial intakes and expel it through the radial output or in an out-of-service position in which they do not move appreciable air. The vanes can be secured in the out-of-service position also to the respective end plates but extending generally only angularly.

Abstract: The invention relates to a cutting mill for the comminution of runners, injection moulding parts, blown moulding parts and so forth in operation of a synthetic material processing machine. Waste or reject parts becoming available should, if possible, be led back again to the process cycle of the machine after comminution to granulated size for use as a regenerate. For this purpose one makes use of a cutting mill having a cylindrical driven rotor mounted in a housing, over the periphery of which rotor a plurality of adjacently positioned cutting element groups are arranged, which cooperate with at least one stationary blade provided in the housing, wherein a sieve for filtering of the comminuted material extends over a part of the boundary of the rotor.

Abstract: A forage harvester shear bar having a first surface across which crop material is fed for cutting by the harvester cutterhead. A cutting surface perpendicular to the first surface forms a cutting edge therewith. The shear bar is arched upwardly by clamping against an arched support to provide enhanced rigidity and strength. The cutting surface is formed with a concavity therein, prior to being worn by usage in the forage harvester, to provide enhanced ability to achieve optimum, uniform clearance from the cutterhead. The concavity in the cutting surface provides compensation for the arch formed in the shear bar.

Abstract: In a forage harvester having a cutterhead and an auger to move crop material away from the cutterhead, baffle means are provided to prevent material from being thrown from the auger toward the cutterhead. The baffle means is located above the auger and behind the cutterhead in order to deflect material downwardly toward the auger.

Abstract: A forage harvester having an axially transverse generally cylindrical cutterhead mounted for rotation in a housing. The cutterhead includes knives that cooperate with a shearbar mounted at the front of the cutterhead housing to cut crop material being fed rearwardly into the housing over the shearbar under conditions where the cutterhead is being rotated. A removable arcuate screen is mountable rearwardly of the cutterhead and closely adjacent to the peripheral path of the knives. Crop material is forced by the cutterhead through the screen apertures to further cut the crop. Progressively larger apertures are provided in the screen. Desired length of cut determines the initial aperture size whereupon the cut crop material readily passes through the subsequent progressively larger apertures. Crop handling means then collect the crop material and deliver it to discharge apparatus, such as a blower.

Abstract: A shearbar for forage harvesters includes a lever pivotally connected to a lower elongated shearbar support member. Opposed portions of the lever support opposite sides of the shearbar. An adjustment member is movable for pivoting the lever and moving the bar. A minimum number of parts avoid undesirable tolerance buildup.

Abstract: In a forage harvester, the cutterhead, feedrolls and attachment drive is usually accomplished by combinations of belts, chains and gears which are exposed to contamination from debris associated with harvesting operations. This is avoided by providing such drives housed in a single housing having an external chain drive including interchangeable sprockets for varying feedroll speed. This provides a quick change for varying the length of cut of crop material being fed to the cutterhead.

Abstract: The cylinder supports a series of knives at its outer periphery which extend generally parallel to the axis of rotation of the cylinder, spanning a plurality of supporting bulkheads that are provided with special mounting assemblies which adjustably attach the knives thereto. The knives are positioned in such a way that in order to adjust the radial position of a cutting edge, the knives are adjustably shifted either inwardly or outwardly in a direction that is normal to the plane of the knives being adjusted. As a result of a degree of inherent flexibility of the knives, certain of the attaching points may be adjustably positioned more inwardly or outwardly than others by causing the knives to flex appropriately at the needed locations. Each attaching or mounting assembly includes a pair of threadably interengaged components, one of which shifts inwardly and outwardly upon rotation of the other so as to correspondingly position the proximal knife portion after a clamping bolt has been sufficiently released.

Abstract: A machine particularly adapted to form a sweeper for the forest residues left on the ground after the bigger trees have been cut and removed from a forest. This forest residues sweeper also features its adaptability to uneven ground and obstacles, its arrangement to successively rather than simultaneously cut branches or small tree trunks, and its discharging arrangement to load the chipped or sheared forest residues into a wagon for use elsewhere as wood chips. This forest residues sweeper comprises sweeper drums with catching fingers arranged to lift the forest residues off the ground and shear them against fixed abutments or cutters. A chipper behind the sweeper drums then reduces the sheared residues into chips and a blower and duct are arranged to load the chips into a wagon.

Abstract: A shredbar is used with a forage harvester cutterhead mainly for cracking kernels of corn. The problem of premature wear of the shredbar is avoided by providing a shredbar apparatus with a reversible surface for abrading crop material. The shredbar apparatus includes pivotal members to increase flexibility for quick installation and removal.

Abstract: A granulator primarily intended for the granulation of plastic scrap material in which a pair of meshed paddle rolls serve as a combination metering and feed device through which such plastic material is fed to the granulator. The paddle rolls are mounted in such a manner and driven by drive means which enable one of the paddle rolls to move laterally away from the other paddle roll including an angular or skewed relationship yet while still maintaining an articulated; that is, synchronized, movement of the paddle rolls in relationship to each other.

Abstract: Continuous scrap edge trimmings are fed from a sheet metal slitter into a scrap chopper incorporating a rotor shaft supporting axially spaced and circumferentially spaced elongated straight cutting bars each having a plurality of selectable straight cutting edges. Each rotary cutting bar revolves past a stationary straight cutting bar also having a plurality of selectable straight cutting edges, and each cutting edge is positioned at a compound angle relative to planes including the axis of the rotor to produce scissor-like shearing of each strip. Each stationary cutting bar is positioned adjacent a spring biased anvil and is supported with the anvil for remote adjustment relative to the path of the corresponding cutting bars on the rotor. Each edge trimming is fed into the cutting bars by a corresponding pair of feed rollers one of which is spring biased and the other of which is independently driven by a corresponding motor.

Abstract: A device for the destruction of microfilm and similar data carriers by shredding, the shredding cutter having a cutting edge configuration of zigzag outline with alternatingly missing teeth, offset between successive cutting edges, the data carrier feeding unit including side-by-side O-ring belts on guide rolls with forwardly biased guide pins therebetween and/or side-by-side feeding wheels on a driven shaft and separately supported forwardly biased data carrier guide tongues, for positive guidance of the data carrier material to the cutting station.

Abstract: A granulator for comminuting plastic web scrap has features that allow it to also granulate three dimensional objects. The granulator has a pair of nip rollers mounted above a cutter assembly for drawing the web into the cutter assembly. The nip rollers have grabbing devices for grabbing three dimensional objects when they fall onto the rollers, for shredding the objects and forcing them between the rollers. In one embodiment, the grabbing device consists of a groove formed in the surface of at least one of the rollers. The groove has a sharp-edged trailing surface that grabs the article. In another embodiment, the grabbing device consists of a protruding finger that grabs the article. To provide clearance, a circumferential slot is located in the other roller for receiving the finger.

Abstract: A forage harvester having a cutterhead with underbeveled knives thereon is disclosed. In a preferred embodiment, each knife has a lateral cross sectional configuration closely resembling an isosceles trapezoid with the initial cutting edges formed by the sides and the longer base thereof. Sharpening of the knife results in the formation of a new cutting edge on the side which is closer to the shorter base than the previous cutting edge. The method of performing the sharpening operation is also disclosed.

Abstract: A forage harvester having a cutterhead housing, a rotary reel cutterhead, a recutter screen mounted adjacent the cutterhead periphery and a crop blower for generating an air suction in the outlet of the cutterhead housing is provided with a transverse baffle sheet disposed within the housing in spaced relation from the floor to define the upper side of an air duct separated from the operative region of the recutter screen and extending from beneath the cutterhead area to direct the inlet air across the floor of the cutterhead housing to the discharge mechanism.

Abstract: A control device for the discharge deflection spout on a forage harvester is disclosed wherein the discharge end of the spout is rotated in a substantially horizontal plane even though the base of the spout is rotated about an axis defined by the blower which is tilted at an acute angle to the vertical.

Abstract: An improved shear bar for cooperative interaction with the cutterhead of a forage harvester is disclosed. The shear bar structure includes a multiplicity of elongate rib-like projections on the top surface thereof extending lengthwise away from the cutterhead. A scraper for the lower infeed roll is also disclosed to have similar projections on the top surface thereof.

Abstract: The shearbar of a forage chopper, positioned in such a way that direct access thereto for adjustment purposes is obstructed by other adjacent structures and mechanisms, is provided with an adjuster which may be manipulated at a point remote from the shearbar itself under conditions providing free, uninhibited access to the adjuster. A cam in the nature of a wedge is shifted infinitely along a path of travel that causes responsive shifting of the shearbar assembly along a path of travel extending toward and away from the chopper when a setscrew is released to permit such shifting on the part of the assembly.

Abstract: A device for feeding sheet material into a granulator and particularly scrap plastic sheet material of the type wherein a plurality of such sheets are normally twisted together to form a composite rope which is fed between opposed feed rolls and subsequently into a granulation chamber. The present feed device includes a pair of cooperating rolls, each of which is provided with a plurality of longitudinally spaced, radially inwardly extending grooves. The grooves of each roll are adapted to mesh or interdigitate with a resultantly formed ridge on the opposing roll such that the sheet material fed therebetween is forced into a sinuous cross sectional configuration and subjected to differing roll surface velocities. Both of the above-described conditions imparted to the sheet material are believed to contribute to trouble free positive feeding especially when feeding individual, i.e. single sheet material thicknesses.