Top chuck plate and prune pitting apparatus including same

A fruit pitting apparatus, including:

• holders defining pockets for holding soft fruit, wherein each of the pockets is movable between an open configuration and a closed configuration;
• an excess fruit removal assembly;
• a pitting knife assembly;
• and
• a holder drive assembly configured to translate the holders along a closed loop past the excess fruit removal assembly and the pitting knife assembly, wherein the holders include at least one holder including a top chuck plate mounted to a pocket subassembly, the pocket subassembly defines at least one pocket movable between an open configuration and a closed configuration, the top chuck plate has a top surface and an overall width, wherein the top chuck plate also has a bottom surface, a front face, and a rear face, said chuck plate defines a set of openings, each opening in the set extends through the chuck plate from the top surface to the bottom surface, the top surface has sloping surfaces around each said opening for guiding an article of fruit through the opening, the chuck plate has, for each said opening, a curved top front edge between the sloping surfaces around the opening and the front face, and a curved top rear edge between the sloping surfaces around the opening and the rear face, wherein the top surface has a non-sloping surface portion between the sloping surfaces of each two adjacent openings in the set, each two adjacent curved top front edges, and each two adjacent curved top rear edges, and wherein the top chuck plate is shaped to guide an article of fruit into each said pocket and so that each said non-sloping surface portion has a leading edge at the front face, and each said leading edge has a width which is sufficiently small, relative to the overall width, such that there is an acceptably low risk that an article of fruit will remain lodged on the top chuck plate after the holder has translated past the excess fruit removal assembly.