Avocado Cutting and Splitting Device

A device for cutting generally spherical objects into two pieces, comprising:

• a rotatable blade with an engaging section to be rotating in a direction D1;
• a pair of parallel, movable conveyor belts, each said belt forming a closed loop terminating at a drive spindle located in back of said rotatable blade and an idler spindle located in front of said rotatable blade, said belts each defining a substantially flat upper surface and a plurality of ridges protruding from a bottom surface opposite to said upper surface, with said belts cooperatively positioned to form a V shaped valley therebetween passing beneath said rotatable blade in direction D1;
• at least one belt agitation finger positioned beneath each said conveyor belt, each said belt agitation finger defined by a tip that is positioned in close proximity to a said conveyor belt bottom surface, such that when said belts move in direction D1, said ridges strike said tips as they pass by said tips;
• and
• first and second stationary feed support members extending upwardly and outwardly from said movable conveyor belts at a location between said drive spindles and said rotatable blade.

A method for splitting avocados into two pieces, comprising the steps of:

• placing a whole avocado into a V-shaped gap between a pair of generally parallel moving conveyor belts;
• transporting said whole avocado along said conveyor belts to a cutting area, while said conveyor belts are caused to shake;
• cutting said whole avocado completely through by a circular blade rotating such that the lower edge of said blade is moving in the same linear direction as said conveyor belts;
• guiding each individual half of said cut avocado to each slide down a curved ramp formed from a plurality of elongate fingers to a moving exit conveyor belt;
• and
• transporting said cut halves away from said circular blade on said exit conveyor belt.