A bread slicer for automatically cutting an unsliced loaf of bread into a sliced loaf of bread comprising a plurality of parallel slices, the bread slicer comprising:
- a receiving chute configured to receive the unsliced loaf from outside of a slicer housing, and comprising a bagging aid configured to support the sliced loaf comprising all of the slices, and a bag-like packaging being slippable or pullable simultaneously over the bagging aid and the sliced loaf in a condition where the sliced loaf is resting on the bagging aid;
- a feed chute that adjoins the receiving chute except for a blade gap;
- a slicing blade, which is configured to be controllably driven by a slicing blade drive motor, is configured to be controllably rotated in a slicing plane or to be controllably moved in a circulating manner in the slicing plane to slice the unsliced loaf, and is configured to be controllably inserted into and retracted out of the blade gap, the slicing plane being arranged in the blade gap;
- an advancing plate that is configured to controllably travel from one end of the feed chute remote from the receiving chute, over the blade gap, and back to the one end, the advancing plate comprising a gripper comprising claws;
- and
- an electronic control device, which is configured to control the bread slicer in order to:
- prior to receiving the unsliced loaf,
- either position the slicing blade in the blade gap, or
- retract the slicing blade out of the blade gap and position the advancing plate beyond the blade gap in the receiving chute;
- after receiving the unsliced loaf in the receiving chute,
- either, beginning in a state where the unsliced loaf is resting against a face of the slicing blade, moving the advancing plate toward the unsliced loaf over the blade gap, with a concurrent retraction of the slicing blade from the blade gap, until the unsliced loaf is resting on the advancing plate, and then moving the advancing plate to the one end of the feed chute remote from the receiving chute until that the unsliced loaf is in the feed chute entirely on a side of the blade gap remote from the receiving chute, or
- beginning in a state where the unsliced loaf is resting against the advancing plate, moving the advancing plate to the one end of the feed chute remote from the receiving chute such that the unsliced loaf is in the feed chute and the unsliced loaf is in the feed chute entirely on the side of the blade gap remote from the receiving chute;
- moving the slicing blade into the blade gap;
- causing the unsliced loaf to be moved into a striking position by moving the advancing plate until the unsliced loaf rests on the slicing blade that is in the blade gap, thereby causing the unsliced loaf to be secured between the advancing plate and the slicing blade;
- inserting the claws of the gripper into a securing portion of the unsliced loaf while the unsliced loaf is secured between the advancing plate and the slicing blade;
- retracting the slicing blade out of the blade gap;
- moving the advancing plate toward the receiving chute while repeatedly inserting the slicing blade into and out of the blade gap to slice the unsliced loaf into the plurality of slices creating the sliced loaf;
- and
- stopping the advancing plate over the blade gap such that the entire sliced loaf is resting on the bagging aid,
- wherein:
- external dimensions of the feed chute in directions parallel to the slicing plane are selected to be greater than or equal to maximum external dimensions in directions of loaves to be sliced,
- external dimensions of a cantilevered portion of the bagging-aid, in the directions parallel to the slicing plane, are, at least at a free end remote from the feed chute, smaller than the external dimensions of the feed chute in the directions parallel to the slicing plane.