On-weight slicing system

An apparatus for on-weight slicing of a flow of sliceable items, comprising:

• a side strapping assembly, said side strapping assembly having means for positioning each of a series of sliceable bacon belly items with respect to a blade member of the side strapping assembly, said positioning means allowing for selection between a right-hand orientation and a left-hand orientation of said sliceable item, and means for transporting into a slicing plane of the blade member the sliceable item which had been positioned by the positioning means, said transporting means moving said sliceable item in a direction generally parallel to, into and through the slicing plane of the blade member, whereby either the right-hand longitudinal edge or the left-hand longitudinal edge of the sliceable item is severed from the sliceable item to form a side strapped item;
• a dimensioner assembly for receiving each of said side strapped items and for determining width and thickness data for each of said items, said dimensioner assembly including a plurality of pivotally mounted fingers, each said finger having a free end for engagement of the sliceable item and another end having a cam surface that engages means for transforming movement of said cam surface into a control signal;
• said cam surface of each said finger has a generally sinusoidal shape so as to provide a linear relationship between the free end of the finger and the means for transforming movement of said cam surface into a control signal, whereby movement of the free end is linearly translated into movement of a receptor member of said means for transforming movement of said cam surface into a control signal;
• means for slicing each of said items into a draft having a plurality of slices when each sliceable item is fed thereto;
• drive means for feeding each sliceable item into said slicing means and for precisely providing and maintaining a feed rate for each individual sliceable item into said slicing means;
• control means for determining said feed rate at which said drive means feeds each said individual sliceable item into the slicing means, said feed rate being that feed rate needed to produce the draft to have a target total weight by determining the number of slices and the slice thickness of each said slices which will combine to provide the draft of the target total weight and for providing a plurality of slices of equal thickness having a weight totalling said draft target weight, whereby the number of slices and the equal thickness of those slices vary from draft to draft in accordance with variations from sliceable item to sliceable item;
• and
• means for receiving the slices from said slicing means to thereby provide a flow of drafts composed of a plurality of said slices, each said draft having said target total weight.

A method for on-weight slicing of a flow of sliceable items, comprising the steps of:

• infeeding a flow of a plurality of sliceable food items such as bacon bellies, each of said sliceable food items having a top surface, a bottom surface, a right side and a left side;
• a dimensioning step for receiving each of said sliceable items and for determining width and thickness data for each of said items, said dimensioning step including engaging a free end of each of a plurality of fingers with a sliceable item, thereby moving a cam surface of the finger to provide a control signal;
• linearly translating said moving of the fingers into width and thickness data having a linear relationship to the actual width and thickness of each individual sliceable item, said linearly translating step including imparting a generally sinusoidal shape to said cam surface;
• determining a rate at which each said individual sliceable item is fed for slicing, said determining step processing said data from said dimensioning and linearly translating steps to determine a feed rate needed to produce each draft to have a target total weight by determining the number of slices and the thickness of each said slices which will combine to provide the draft of the target total weight when each slice has substantially the same thickness;
• feeding each sliceable item and precisely providing and maintaining said feed rate for each individual sliceable item;
• slicing each of said items for forming a draft having a plurality of slices of equal thickness when each sliceable item is fed thereto, said slicing step forming a plurality of said drafts having a plurality of said slices of equal thickness, which equal thickness varies from draft to draft in accordance with said data;
• and
• receiving the slices from said slicing means to thereby provide a flow of drafts composed of a plurality of said slices, each said draft having said target total weight.