Photographic print cutter

Claim 1

For use in a high speed cutting system for severing individual photographic prints from a continuous strip of such prints, of the type including feed means for providing an intermittent feed of the roll to the cutting unit and cutter drive means including a reciprocating member for actuating the cutter blade in response to a signal from the control circuit that the print roll is stationary and in proper cutting position under the blade, an improved cutter unit capable of use as a conversion unit to convert the system from conventional bordered style prints to borderless style prints, comprising: a base adapted to be secured to the cutting system at the cutting station; a punch pivotally mounted on said base and oriented so that its pivot axis lies parallel to the plane of the print strip and transverse to the direction of feed of the strip through the cutting system; said punch being dimensioned in shape to remove from the print strip a narrow elongated transverse chaff strip running the full width of the print strip and shaped generally like a Roman ''''I,'''' with the serifs thereof being slightly rounded, so that the punching out of such chaff strip from the print strip severs two adjacent prints from each other and leaves the corners of the prints rounded; said punch being adapted to be eccentrically connected to the reciprocating member to cause said punch to stroke along an arcuate path in response to movement of the reciprocating member; and a die mounted on said base and having a cavity shaped and dimensioned to receive such punch, and positioned on the opposite side of the print strip path from said punch, whereby said punch and die cooperate to punch out a chaff strip from the print strip upon actuation by the cutter drive means.