Apparatus for longitudinally slitting sheet material

An apparatus for longitudinally slitting sheet material comprising:

• a supply assembly for supplying for unrolling a roll of the sheet material;
• a table surface for receiving the sheet from the unrolling cradle such that the sheet passes longitudinally across the table when fed from the unrolling cradle;
• a re-rolling cradle for receiving a cut portion of the sheet and driven to roll the cut portion into a roll;
• and a slitting assembly for slitting the sheet in a longitudinal direction at least at one position across its width, the slitting assembly comprising:
• an elongate support housing extending across the table transverse to the longitudinal direction of the sheet;
• at least one slitting knife member mounted on the housing for slitting the sheet, the knife member being movable along the housing for adjustment of the position of the knife member across the sheet so as to vary a width of the portion to be cut;
• a counter action member for cooperating with the slitting knife member in a cutting action, the counter action member extending across at least a portion of the table for co-operation with the knife member at a plurality of different positions thereof;
• the knife member including a rotating disk blade mounted in a plane longitudinal of the sheet and rotatable about an axis parallel to the sheet and transverse to the sheet;
• the knife member including a blade support carried on the housing for sliding movement along the housing, the blade support including a locking member for locking the blade support and the disk blade at a selected position along the housing;
• the housing including an elongate drive shaft extending across the table which is driven at one end;
• the blade support including a drive sprocket for receiving drive from the shaft, a driven sprocket attached to the disk blade and a continuous drive member connected between the drive sprocket and the driven sprocket;
• the drive shaft and the drive sprocket being shaped and arranged such that the drive sprocket is slidable along the shaft with movement of the blade support along the housing;
• and the drive sprocket and the drive shaft being shaped in crosssection such that rotation of the drive shaft causes rotation of the drive sprocket for driving the disk blade.