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AssigneeAtlas Pacific Engineering Company
InventorsDouglas F. Paterson, Konrad Meissner, William V. Redd, Anthony D. Oliver, Michael S. Lipford, Don A. Perry, C. Richard Schoner
Estimating the term…
A pear processing method and apparatus is provided which includes several mechanisms for properly orienting the pear prior to coring, peeling and seed celling of the pear. Each pear is tumbled between a pair of orienting rolls to a position wherein the stem of the pear is oriented downwardly. Whiskers on one of the rolls speed up this orienting of the pear. A friction clutch on the other roll helps maintain the pear in its proper position, once the proper alignment has been attained. The pear is dropped downwardly into a transfer cup having four resilient fingers which tend to orient the pear. The pear is then pushed out of the transfer cup downwardly into a feed cup having a concave receptacle for centering the stem of the pear and three upwardly extending arms which grasp and center the blossom end of the pear. The pear is then transferred to a station wherein the pear is cored and thereafter peeled and seed celled simultaneously. The stem and blossom are also trimmed. The pear is thereafter passed into a slice cup having a design which more effectively separates the waste from the processed pear.
A method for orienting pears, each having a stem end and a blossom end, into a position wherein the stem end of each pear extends downwardly beneath its blossom end, the blossom end is moved to a known set height position, and wherein the stem end of each pear is thereafter centered in a concave receptacle wherein the blossom end is grasped at the known set height position and centered by a plurality of upwardly extending arms, comprising the steps:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.