7  EP 3 800 019 A1 8  tener62.Asevidentfrom FIGS.6 and 7,thelever64has forced one end of the radially outer holder 27a against the clamping rod 78, which in turn forces the opposite end ofthe radiallyouterholder27a intoengagementwith the knife14,forcingthe knife 14 againstthe radiallyinner holder 27b. The knife 14 can be release by rotating the lever 64 clockwise (as viewed in FIG.7), such that a flat 66 on the lever 64 faces the radially outer holder 27a, releasing the radially outer holder 27a from its engage- ment with the clamping rod 60. 5 10 15 tinuous and accurate alignment of individual food prod- uctsthroughoutthe slicing thereofbythe knives 14.While FIG. 5 represents the entirety of these surfaces as con- tinuously and uniformly corrugated, it is foreseeable that only portions immediately adjacent the knife assemblies might be corrugated. Furthermore, the corrugated shapes of the shoes 22 and knife holders 27 can be re- lieved in key areas (shaped differently than the knife ge- ometry)to minimize surface contact(andthe proportional surface friction) between the unsliced food product and the cutting head 12 to minimize the amount of additional energy required to rotate the impeller 10 while pushing food product. Such an effect is represented in FIG. 10, which shows a sectional view of a shoe 22, knife holder 27, and food product slice during the slicing operation. Grooves defined by the corrugation shape in the shoe surface 34 are notfully complementary to the cross-sec- tional shape of the slice as a result of the shoe surface 34 having localized reliefs or recesses 38 located at the peaks and valleys of the slice as well as midway there- between. [0020] According to a first aspect of the invention, the knives 14 are corrugated asrepresented in FIG.8 topro- duce a food product slice having a periodic shape and a large-amplitude cross-section of the type shown in FIG. 9.FIG.9 also references variables thathelp to define the shape of the food product slice, including a definition of "amplitude" as based on a distance "A" between an ad- jacent peak and valley of the product. The cross-section represented in FIG. 9 is referred to herein as a parallel cut in the sense that the product has a generally uniform web thickness, as opposed to the variable and discon- tinuous thickness of a waffle/lattice cut. Whereas pitch, includedangle,web thickness,outside (peak)radius,and inside (valley)radius are allofinteresttoproducing potato chips and a variety of other food products having con- sumerappeal,the invention isparticularlyconcerned with chips having cross-sections with large amplitudes about 0.100 inch (about 2.5 mm) and greater. 20 25 30 [0023] According to a preferred aspectofthe invention, the knife holders 27 comprise meansforaccuratelyalign- ing their corrugated shapes with the corrugated shapes oftheirrespectiveshoes 22,preferablytoachieve a linear misalignment of less than 0.004 inch (about 0.1 mm), more preferably less than 0.001 inch (about 0.025 mm), and most preferably less than 0.0005 inch (about 0.013 mm). In the particular embodiment represented in FIG. 8, the alignment means is shown as a pin hole 52 that can be used to align the knife holder 27 to its shoe 22 (notshown in FIG. 8),though other means foraccurately aligning the knife holder corrugations with the corruga- tions in the shoe 22 are also foreseeable and within the scope of the invention. [0021] According to another aspect of the invention, FIG. 8 shows the clamp 26 used to secure the knife 14 to the knife holder 27 as having fingers 50 that engage the valleys defined by the corrugated shape of the knife 14. Due to the large amplitude of the slices (chips) being sought, a conventional clamp 26 of the types often used with Model CC® machines, represented in FIG. 3, likely could not be used for manufacturing and material rea- sons.Consequently,the toothedclamp 26 seen in FIGS. 5 and 8 were manufactured to secure each knife 14 to its knife holder 27. Various embodiments of the clamp 26 were investigated. For example, in one embodiment, the peaks of the knife 14 are not contacted by the clamp 26. In an additional embodiment, the bend line of the clamp 26 was positioned behind the base of the fingers 50 to maintain the stiffness of the clamp 26. However, this embodiment resulted in a relatively steep outer sur- face ofthe clamp26 thatsliceswererequired to surmount after slicing, which had the unintended consequence of producing through-slice cracks. 35 40 45 [0024] According toyetanotheraspectoftheinvention, the knife holders 27, knives 14, and knife clamps 26 are adjusted tohave a relativelylow rake-off angle toreduce the probability ofslice damage.As used herein, the term "rake-offangle"ismeasured as the anglethata slice has to deviate relative to a tangent line that begins at the intersection of the radial path of the product sliding sur- face of the leading shoe 22 and the knife edge. The line isthen tangentto the radialproductsliding surface ofthe leading shoe 22. This angle of deviation is a function of both the hardware and the gap setting ("d$_{gap}$") at which the entire knife holder 27, knife 14, and shoe assembly is positioned. FIGS. 11a through 11e represent a series of iterations that were investigated, during which knife angles, rake-off angle, knife extension, and clamp set- back distance were explored. (The meanings of these terms are identified in FIGS. 11a through 11e). The in- vestigation explored knife angles (" θ$_{h}$ ") within the knife holder 27 of about 11 degrees to about 15 degrees (cor- responding to knife angles (" θ$_{t}$ ") relative to the tangent line ("L$_{shoe}$") of about 4 degrees to about 8 degrees), rake-off angles (" θ$_{r}$ ") with respecttothetangent("L $_{shoe}$") of about 17 degrees to about 27 degrees, radial knife [0022] For reasons discussed in reference to FIGS. 11a through 11e, the fingers 50 of the clamp 26 shown in FIG. 8 are beveled on the surface of the clamp 26 facing the impeller 10. The clamp 26 is also shown as having more than two fasteners (three in FIG. 8) achieve a more uniform clamping pressure across the length of the knife 14. As shown in FIG. 5, the surface of each shoe 22 and knife holder 27 facing the impeller 10 hasa corrugated shape corresponding to the corrugated shape of its knife 14, which is intended to provide con- 50 55 5