Apparatus for cutting elongate pieces

A power-driven chopper for cutting elongate material in chunks comprising:

• a frame,
• feed roll means including a pair of opposed rotatable feed rolls mounted on said frame for rotation about horizontal axes and means biasing the rolls toward each other to press against opposite sides of material fed to the feed rolls, feed roll powered means for rotating the feed rolls, the feed rolls advancing material along a feed path extending transversely of the rolls and downstream from the rolls,
• an anvil downstream from the extending transversely of and on the underside of the path of material from the feed rolls for supporting material to be chopped, said anvil having a horizontal anvil cutting edge,
• a knife and a pivot arm mounting the knife, pivot means mounting the pivot arm for pivotal movement about a horizontal axis located along the feed path downstream from the anvil and the axis extending transversely of the feed path, the knife having a knife cutting edge and the knife cutting edge moving in a cutting pass with pivoting of the pivot arm and the cutting edge during a cutting pass moving from a starting position which is above said feed path to a finish position where the knife cutting edge has moved across and below the anvil cutting edge, a guide surface mounted on said pivot arm which extends at an incline across the feed path in a region located downstream from the cutting edge of the anvil with the cutter knife held by the pivot arm in the starting position for the cutter knife, and
• cutter powered means operatively connected to the pivot arm for pivoting the arm under power.