The straight slot geneva mechanism (SSGM) is a popular indexingdevice. It converts a uniform rotary motion to intermittent rotary motion. The mainadventage of the mechanism lies in its simplicity. However, the output motion starts andends with non-zero angular acceleration which usually induces shock loading andcan produce vibration in the driven system and impose several constraints on high-speed motion. The improved straight slot geneva mechanism (ISSGM) studied in this paperovercomes the main shortcomings of SSGM. Furthermore, its design and manufactu-ring are not very difficult in practice by comparing with SSGM. ISSGM is practicallyworth to the design and improvement for food processing machinery with high effi-ciency.