Feeding, sorting and grading system for elongate produce
AssigneeMateriel pour l'Arboriculture Fruitiere
InventorJacques Pervieux
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Abstract
A feed device for a unit for sorting elongate items, particularly vegetables such as carrots, includes a slanted conveyor (23) with a plurality of freely rotatable transverse rollers (24) driven by two endless chains. The conveyor includes three longitudinal sections, i.e. a lower section (23a) having a device (30) for rotating the rollers (24) in the same direction as the forward direction of the conveyor (23), an intermediate section (23b) where the rollers (24) are freely rotatable, and an upper section (23c) having an element (33) for rotating the rollers (24) in the opposite direction to the forward direction of the conveyor. A unit for sorting elongate items is also disclosed.
Claims24
Feeding device for a unit for sorting elongate items of produce, and for arranging a shipment of said produce delivered in bulk in parallel rows in each of which the items of produce are aligned one after the other, the feeding device comprising:
- an upwardly inclined first conveyor extending at a constant inclination having a plurality of freely rotatable transverse rollers;
- each roller being mounted around a transverse axis borne near its ends by two endless chains extending in said constant inclination and driven synchronously;
- said rollers being spaced so that two successive rollers define therebetween a receptacle for an item of produce;
- said conveyor comprising longitudinally starting from its low end at which the produce is fed in:
- a first longitudinal lower section including means for rotating the rollers around their axis in the same direction as the forward direction of the conveyor;
- a second longitudinal intermediate section along the length of which the rollers are freely rotatable;
- and
- a third longitudinal upper section including machinery for rotating the rollers around their axis in a direction opposite to the forward direction of the conveyor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.