Inspection and cutting apparatus

Inspection and cutting apparatus for inspecting elongated articles to detect shade variation defects in the articles and for cutting one or more sections from the articles to remove the detected defects from the articles, comprising:

• an article conveyor having a plurality of transversely spaced conveying lanes for receiving the elongated articles and moving the elongated articles single file in a plurality of transversely spaced lanes successively past an inspection station and a cutting station;
• an electro-optical inspection means positioned at the inspection station for viewing the articles as the articles move through the viewing area at the inspection station and for generating electrical signals when defects are observed in which the signals are characteristic of the defects;
• a cutting wheel assembly positioned at the cutting station at a selected downstream distance from the inspection station;
• said cutting wheel assembly having a plurality of knife support rings aligned with the conveying lanes and mounted for rotational movement about a transverse axis in which the knife support rings have a periphery that moves in a circular path that is substantially tangent to the path of the articles;
• said cutting wheel assembly having a set of cutter knives mounted for radial movement on each knife support ring at angularly spaced increments about the transverse axis for radial movement between retracted noncutting positions and extended cutting positions;
• said cutting wheel assembly having a knife positioning means for selectively directing a fluid against the knife at a preselected angular position to push the knife radially outward from the retracted noncutting position to the extended cutting position;
• drive means operatively connected to the knife support ring and responsive to the article conveyor for rotating the knife support ring in a forward direction about a transverse axis in coordination with the movement of the articles to synchronize the movement of the knives past the preselected angular position of the knife drive means in relation to the movement of the articles past the cutting station;
• said cutting wheel assembly having track means for receiving the cutter knives when the cutter knives are in the extended cutting positions and for maintaining the cutter knives in the extended cutting position without the air of fluid as the knives move from the preselected angular position past the cutting station to cut the articles;
• and
• control means operatively connected to the electro-optical inspection means for sensing the generation of the electrical signals and in response thereto selectively activating the knife positioning means to direct fluid against selected knives as the knives move past the preselected angular position of the knife drive means to push the selected knives outward to their extended cutting positions to enable the cutting track means to maintain the cutter knives in the extended cutting position to cut the sections containing the defects from the articles as the projected knives are progressively moved into the path of corresponding articles moving past the cutting station.