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AssigneeThe United States of America, as represented by the Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services
InventorsVincent P. Williams, Shelly S. Sandifer
Estimating the term…
A gel slicer consisting of a support with a gel guide trough and a feed screw journalled parallel to the trough. A feed plunger assembly is threadedly engaged on the feed screw and has a plunger portion slidably engaged in the trough. The feed screw is intermittently driven by a power shaft via selectable identical-diameter gear discs with different-length tooth configuration for varying the increment of feed of the gel per revolution of the power shaft. The gear discs have smooth peripheral portions providing dwell periods of the feed screw. A pivoted transverse cutting blade is spring-biased toward cutting position over the trough and is held elevated by a follower lug engaging a cam on the power shaft, the cam having a blade-release notch. The cam is synchronized to release the cutting blade during the dwell period of the feed screw. Thus, the thickness of the slice depends on the amount of teeth on that gear disc which is selected to drive the feed screw. The selected gear provides desired incremental steps of longitudinal movement of the gel.
A gel slicer comprising a support formed with a gel guide trough;
A gel slicer comprising a support formed with a gel guide trough, a feed screw journalled on said support parallel to said trough, feed plunger means threadedly engaged on said feed screw and having a plunger portion engaged in the trough, means to drive the feed screw intermittently and to define a predetermined dwell period between driving periods of said feed screw, transverse cutting blade means provided on said support adjacent said trough, means normally maintaining said blade means elevated relative to said trough, and means to drive said blade means downwardly through the trough at a predetermined time following the initiation of a a dwell period of said feed screw, and wherein said drive means to drive the feed screw intermittently includes motor means and gear train means between said motor means and said feed screw, said gear train means including a driven gear coupled to the feed screw and a plurality of drive gears coupled to said motor means and respectively having peripheral teeth of different number arranged at times to mesh with said driven gear and having toothless peripheral portions defining dwell periods of the feed screw, and means to selectively couple the drive gears to said driven gear.
A gel slicer comprising a support formed with a gel guide trough, a feed screw journalled on said support parallel to said trough, feed plunger means threadedly engaged on said feed screw and having a plunger portion engaged in the trough, means to drive the feed screw intermittently and to define a predetermined dwell period between driving periods of said feed screw, transverse cutting blade means pivoted on said support adjacent said trough, means normally maintaining said blade means elevated relative to said trough, and means to drive said blade means downwardly through the trough at a predetermined time following the initiation of a dwell period of said feed screw, wherein the means to drive the blade means downwardly comprises spring means connected between the blade means and the support to urge the blade means downwardly, motor means, drive shaft means coupled to said motor means, cam means on said drive shaft means, and follower means connected to said blade means and engaging said cam means, said cam means being shaped to normally maintain the blade means elevated and to release the blade means at said predetermined time following the initiation of said dwell period, and
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.