Article slicer with integral pick and placer

An integrated pick and placer and article slicer for simultaneously placing several articles on the article slicer and for simultaneously slicing the several articles received from said pick and placer, said article slicer comprising:

• a plurality of cutter blades extending in parallel planes and spaced from one another for cutting the articles into slices,
• an article locator positioned above said cutter blades and configured for aligning the articles with said cutter blades,
• a movable support plate,
• article pushers supported by said movable support plate for pushing a plurality of the articles downwardly through the article locator and through said cutter blades,
• pusher power means operatively connected to said article pushers for moving the article pushers:
• forwardly from withdrawn positions spaced laterally behind the article locator to over the article locator,
• downwardly through said article locator into engagement with articles located at the cutting blades and downwardly through the cutter blades to push the articles through the cutter blades,
• upwardly from the cutter blades back to the positions over the article locator, and
• rearwardly from the positions over the cutter blades to the withdrawn positions,
• said pick and placer supported by said movable support plate for movement in timed relationship with the movements of said pushers, and
• pick and placer power means for moving the pick and placer:
• forwardly with the forward movement of said pushers from over positions of said article locator to positions of articles to be picked,
• rearwardly with the rearward movement of said pushers to move the picked articles to be sliced to the positions over said article locator, and
• downwardly to place the articles in the article locator.