Cutting machine for organic plant materials, especially for tobacco

A cutting machine for organic plant materials, especially for tobacco, comprising a frame and a cutterhead mounted in the frame, the cutterhead being in the form of a drum having cutting knives symmetrically arranged on its perimeter surface, the cutterhead being arranged on a drive shaft driven by a belt transmission, the shaft being coupled by a coupling mechanism with the main worm gear which is connected, by means of an articulated shaft and a conical gear, to a driving wheel, the wheel, by means of a driving chain, driving chain wheels mounted on knife extension rollers, the rollers directly driving the knife extension arrangement through another subsequent worm gear, is characterised in that the cutterhead comprises at least two separate knife extension arrangements (10, 10a) arranged alternately to each other below the perimeter surface of the cutterhead drum and actuated separately, preferably by two separate slidable coupling subassemblies (17, 17a) co-operating with corresponding two main worm gears (2, 2a) arranged on both sides of the cutterhead, each of the two knife extension arrangements (10, 10a) being connected to the corresponding cutting knives (16, 18) and equipped with a separate electric driving mechanism comprising an electric motor (1, 1a), revolutions of which being controlled by means of an external signal independent of parameters of the cutterhead drum motion, the signal being transmitted and adjusted by electric motors (1, 1a) by means of an electric signal specifying the required extension rate of the appropriate knives set, the motors (1, 1a) being arranged axially symmetrically on both sides of the drive shaft (15).