the product cut and a rapid retraction of the blade 54 from the food product 18 the ultrasonic knife assembly 52 is activated at the start of the motion and deactivated after the return of the cutting blade to its original vertical position the motion consists of a high acceleration period to obtain the required cutting speed fast advance into the product at cutting speed decelerating rapidly to a predetermined stop position which is sufficient to cut the product 18 but not damage the carrier of the product 18 or the conveyor 16 a rapid acceleration to the required retraction speed retraction of the cutting blade 54 from the product 18 and then stopping at its original position the stops on both the top and bottom of the travel are programmable by use of the control system 95 with processor 98 the motion required for rotation about an u03b8 axis 100 fig3 is a rapid rotary motion to move the cutting blade 54 from one rotary orientation to another the motion consists of a high acceleration period high speed rotary movement and high deceleration period to rotate the blade 54 from its initial position to its next required position the cutting blade 54 can be activated at each position and the cutting can be accomplished by the proper movement in the z axis as described above after the final cut is made the cutting blade 54 is rotated back to its original position referring to fig2 and 8 a product detector or sensor 102 such as a photoelectric sensor or vision camera of the type known in the art of optical sensing is mounted at the infeed end 22 of the conveyor 16 and.