Comminuting apparatus for sheet material or sheet material layers

Claim 1

A cutting arrangement for comminuting sheet material, comprising: two cutting rolls rotatable around parallel axes in a common connecting plane, the rolls being drivable in opposite directions around said axes, each cutting roll having a plurality of cutting discs spaced from one another by a groove, the cutting rolls being spaced such that the cutting discs intersect one another, each disc between end discs of the rolls engaging in the groove between adjacent cutting discs on the other of said cutting rolls, each cutting disc having an outer periphery and two side faces, the outer periphery being provided with cut-outs, adjacent cut-outs on each of the discs defining teeth having apices and bottoms between the teeth, cutting edges on each cutting disc being defined by the teeth and the side faces; means for driving said cutting rolls in rotational synchronism, and the cutting rolls being rotationally offset with respect to one another by an angular offset of about half a circumferential distance between cut-outs, whereby each tooth of each cutting disc on one cutting roll is substantially aligned with a cut-out of said adjacent cutting discs of the other cutting roll as the rolls are rotated around said axes, the bottoms betweens the teeth on each cutting disc travel during rotation in a circle which does not intersect the bottoms circle of travel of the other disc; and, said teeth and the cutting edges defining an effective intersecting surface between adjacent side faces of each cutting disc in which area the cutting discs and the opposing teeth are very closely adjacent one another, said effective intersecting surface being a narrow zigzag-shaped band following an outer circumference of each cutting disc and continuous over at least two of said teeth, whereby at least two teeth on both cutting discs work exactly on gaps of the outer cutting disc.