DOUGH CUTTING AND PACKING APPARATUS

A dough cutting and packing apparatus for cutting a sheet of dough into dough pieces and transferring the dough pieces to containers. A cutting unit is defined by a plurality of cutting plates having dough retaining openings. The sheet of dough is pressed against the cutting plates by a presser roll which divides the dough sheet into dough pieces that are retained within the dough retaining openings. A packing mechanism transfers the dough pieces from the cutting unit to the containers as the containers are moved relative to the packing mechanism by a plurality of flighted augers. The packing mechanism is driven by a microprocessor controlled servo motor. The servo motor moves the packing mechanism through a packing stroke and a return stroke with each stroke having an acceleration stage and a deceleration stage.