GB548940A - Improvements in or relating to fruit pitting mechanism - Google Patents

Abstract

548,940. Stoning fruit. STEVENS, A. H. (Lindsay Ripe Olive Co.). June 4, 1940, No. 16714. Divided out of 548,937. [Class 28 (ii)] Olives or other fruits roll down two parallel shoots 100 behind spacers 130, (see Specification 548,937), are engaged by cam-operated members 193 which hold them against the spacers, and are carried between dies 265 and stone-ejecting punches 241, whereupon the members 193 are retracted and the spacers, carried by a chain 160, pass tangentially on. The dies and punches are slidably mounted in two rotating drums 200 and are disposed alternately in each drum, being staggered so that each punch is opposite a die. Stationary cam drums 210 have cam grooves 212, 213 which impart to the dies and punches respectively the following movements:-A punch, passing through a small aperture 208 and a large aperture 209 in a U-shaped trough 207 formed on a disc 205 rotating with the drums 200, advances to spear an olive, and then a die advances to engage it from the opposite side, as shown in Fig. 5, a circular knife 270a slidingly disposed within the die cutting into the olive. The die than advances further, pushing the olive minus the stone through the aperture 209, the punch and knife meanwhile remaining stationary so that a space is formed in the die bore for the reception of the ejected stone, as shown in Fig. 6. The knife (which is controlled by a cam separate from the cam groove 212 which controls the die) and the die are then retracted, leaving the olive impaled on the punch; an enlargement 315 on the punch retains the olive thereon. Retraction of the knife creates in the die bore a vacuum which ensures retention of the stone in the bore. As the die retracts a plunger 272 ejects the stone which falls into a hopper 354. The punch is then retracted, stripping off the olive against the inside of the flange 207 whence it falls into a hopper 350 or on to a travelling belt. One or more rotating star wheels 360 strip from the flanges olives which have adhered thereto. If an olive is presented with its longitudinal axis across the die and punch, the punch penetrates only part of the way into the olive, the knife retains the olive, and the olive is ejected into the stone-hopper 354; springs 267,277 allow yielding of the die-knifeplunger assembly, and the punch itself is resilient so that it will spring rather than break if a stone deflects it. Specification 548,939 is referred to.