Automatic celery sizer and sorter

A device for automatically sizing celery or other loosely limbed produce on a per volume basis rather than by weight comprising an endless conveying means mounted for movement past a measuring station, produce-receiving holders disposed at spaced intervals along said conveying means and movable therewith, said measuring station having produce-sizing means, with the operation of latter means being timed to concide with the speed of said conveying means, such that a proper size determination can be made of each piece of produce during its movement past said measuring station by physical contact of such produce by produce-contacting means, memory and control means, said memory and control means closely associated with said measuring station, such memory and control means being constructed and arranged such that the size of a given piece of produce as determined by said produce-contacting means will be registered in said memory means, a plurality of collecting stations disposed at spaced locations adjacent the subsequent path of travel of said conveying means, with there being at least one collecting station for produce of each size group with which said device is concerned, and means for removing produce from said conveying means at the collecting station appropriate for that size produce, so that over a period of time, all of the produce traveling along said conveying means will be collected at said collecting stations, said control means being caused by said memory means to selectively activate said produce removing means at whatever collecting station is appropriate for produce of that specific size and

• at least some sizes of produce being collected at two collecting stations, thus making possible for produce of a given size to be collected first at one station, and then at the other station, with the time interval thus provided being of sufficient length as to permit a reversal of collecting means, such that the direction of the stem ends in the collecting means is reversed on a layer-by-layer basis.

A device for automatically sizing celery stalks or similar articles into a plurality of size groups without damage thereto, compising a measuring station, an endless conveying means mounted for movement past said measuring station, article holders disposed at spaced intervals along said conveying means and movable therewith, a wheel-like sizing member having a plurality of spoke-like arms, said wheel-like member arranged to rotate so that the outer end of one of said arms contacts articles in said holders as each of said holders moves past said measuring station, each of said arms being spring biased in a radially-outward direction, and being individually arranged to retreat in a radially inward direction for a distance consonant with the size of the article encountered, with the distance of such retreat determining the size group to which each article moving in said holders belongs, control means at said measuring station operatively connected to said sizing member, said control means including memory means utilized in concert with the operation of said sizing member in order to enable a sorting operation to be performed, said memory means serving to store a representation of the size of a given article in a given holder of the conveying means, said memory means including retaining means for temporarily retaining each of said arms in one of a plurality of selected radial inward positions corresponding to pre-established size group, said retaining means comprising ratchet notches adjacent the inner end of each of said arms, said notches being spaced to correspond to such pre-established size groups, springloaded pawls disposed on said wheel-like member to engage said notches, thereby temporarily retaining each of said arms in an inward position as determined by the size of the article contacted, resetting means for disengaging each of said pawls from said notches prior to impending contact of each of said arms with subsequently presented articles, a plurality of collecting stations disposed at preascertained intervals along the path of travel of said conveying means, beyond the location of said measuring station, with each collecting station being associated with a size group different from that of at least some of the other collecting stations, removal means associated with at least some of the said collecting stations, said memory means causing said control means to actuate said removal means at such time as to cause such article to be selectively removed from said conveying means at a collecting station appropriate to the size group of such article.

A device for automatically sizing celery stalks or similar articles into a plurality of size groups without damage thereto, comprising a measuring station, conveying means mounted for movement past said measuring station, article holders disposed at spaced intervals along said conveying means, and movable therewith, article sizing means including a pliable inextensible contact surface at said measuring station, with the sizing operation of latter means being timed to coincide with the speed of said conveying means so as to contact each article held in said holders, such operation being utilized to determine the size group to which each article moving in said holders belongs, principal pneumatic control means at said measuring station operatively connected to said article sizing means, a plurality of collecting stations disposed at intervals along the path of travel of said conveying means and beyond the location of said measuring station, with at least one pair of collecting stations being associated with a size group different from that of at least some of the other collection stations, and pneumatically operated removal means associated with each of said collecting stations, said removal means connected to and operated by said principal pneumatic control means, whereby each article is removed from the conveying means and collected at a location appropriate to its size group.