Hold-down device

Abstract

A machine for cutting a block of soft material has a machine frame, a table adapted to support the soft-material block adjacent the machine frame, a center support shiftable transversely on the machine frame relative to the table, and a cutting tool carried on and transversely shiftable with the center support and engageable with the block on the table for longitudinally cutting the block. A hold-down device has a hold-down frame vertically displaceable on the machine frame above the table and a plurality of longitudinally shiftable hold-down plates longitudinally shiftable on the hold-down frame and separated by longitudinally extending gaps at least one which is transversely wider than the center support. The center support projects vertically through the one gap.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.