Article-orienting conveyor
AssigneeSunkist Growers, Inc.
InventorsPaul F. Paddock, Jerry W. Cramer
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A conveyor having a single row of receptacles to seat individual fruit of a corresponding row of citrus fruit moves the fruit in succession past a station where it is required that the major axis of each fruit, i.e., the axis through the stem and blossom ends of the fruit be parallel to the direction of travel of the fruit. In each receptacle the individual fruit rests on a pair of parallel power-actuated spool-shaped rollers the axes of which are parallel to the direction of travel of the receptacles, which rollers spin the fruit to cause the major axes of the fruit to be oriented parallel to the direction of travel.
Claims35
In a system for moving successive ellipsoidal objects such as citrus fruit in a given direction of travel with the major axes of the objects at a selected orientation relative to the direction of travel,
- the combination of:
- a receptacle to carry an individual ellipsoidal object;
- means to move the receptacle in the given direction;
- a plurality of rollers on the receptacle arranged on laterally spaced parallel axes extending in the direction of receptacle movement to support the ellipsoidal object at four spaced points with said parallel axes at said selected orientation relative to the given direction of travel;
- and
- means on opposite sides of said receptacle responsive to the movement of the receptacle in the given direction to separately rotate the rollers on said respective axes to spin the ellipsoidal object to cause the major axis of the ellipsoidal object to seek said selected orientation.
In a system for moving successive ellipsoidal objects such as citrus fruit in a given direction of travel with the major axes of the objects at a selected orientation relative to the direction of travel,
- the combination of:
- a row of receptacles for the individual objects;
- means to move the row of receptacles longitudinally in said given direction;
- a plurality of rollers on each receptacle arranged on two parallel axes to cradle an ellipsoidal object at four spaced points whereby rotation of the rollers to spin the ellipsoidal object causes the object to seek said selected orientation with the major axis of the object parallel to the parallel axes of the rollers;
- toothed gearing on each receptacle to rotate the rollers simultaneously in a given rotary direction,
- said gearing including driven gear means operatively connected to the plurality of rollers;
- and
- means extending below the receptacles along the path of travel thereof to mechanically drive said gearing to actuate the plurality of rollers in response to the movement of the receptacles in said given direction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.