Slicing machine with accident protection

Abstract

A slicing machine has a housing, a rotatable blade on the housing having an edge defining a blade plane, and an input table on the housing displaceable parallel to the plane past the blade edge and having a holder adapted to hold a foodstuff to be sliced by the blade. The foodstuff is movable from a starting position by the table and holder toward the blade to slice the foodstuff. An abutment plate on the housing is displaceable between a shield position lying generally on the blade plane and a retracted position offset away from the table from the blade plane. An actuator connected between the housing and the plate sets the plate in its positions. A sensor generates an output when the foodstuff is moved out of the starting position. A control unit connected between the sensor and the actuator displaces the plate out of the shield position when the output is generated.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.