Slitting apparatus

Slitting apparatus comprising spaced, parallel, upper and lower arbors, a plurality of sets of scroll-type rotary knives having sinuous cutting edges carried by said arbors with opposing edges of said sets synchronized with respect to each other for producing a scroll slitting pattern in sheet metal passed between said sets of knives, a movable housing for rotatably mounting one end of each of said upper and lower arobrs, a fixed housing for rotatably mounting opposite ends of said upper and lower arbors,

• means within each of said housings for effecting movement of at least one of said arbors to vary the spacing between said upper and lower arbors, intermeshing upper and lower synchronizing gears rotatably mounted outboard of said fixed housing, one of said upper and lower synchronizing gears comprising a split gear having two relatively adjustable sections for enabling all backlash between said upper and lower synchronizing gears to be eliminated, drive means connected to one of said synchronizing gears for rotation thereof, and substantially constant angular velocity, zero backlash torque-transmitting coupling interconnecting said upper and lower gears and said upper and lower arbors, respectively, while permitting relative movement of said arbors transversely of the axes thereof without substantial change in the angular velocity of said gears with respect to said arbors, thereby to permit said arbors to be spaced from each other at different distances to accommodate rotary knives of different diameters and produce scroll patterns of different amplitudes without the necessity of changing said synchronizing gears.