GB901563A - Fruit grader - Google Patents

Abstract

901,563. Fruit-grading machines. BARTLETT, N. M. Nov. 10, 1960, No. 38707/60. Class 117. [Also in Group XXX] A fruit-grading machine comprises a horizontal endless conveyer belt 5, a driven rotatable disc-like resilient element 8 spaced above the belt for brushing fruit of a predetermined size sideways off the belt and means to alter the fruit-carrying face of the belt from flat to concave form for changing it from being suitable for round fruit to oblong fruit. As shown, Fig. 1, there are two conveyer belts on opposite sides of a casing 2, involving two similar sets of mechanism. The belt 5 (refering to one side only) moves between the casing 2 and a side plate 6 in which are gaps 7. Each sizing disc 8 is of synthetic sponge rubber, cemented to the underside of a disc 9 which is rotatable on the lower end of a spindle 12 and has a groove in which a V-belt 20 fits, whereby drive is transmitted from a motor 18. The spindle 12 may be raised and lowered in a bracket 13 by a screw-threaded rod 14, to adjust the gap between the sizing disc 8 and the conveyer belt 5. Fruit smaller than this gap passes on to the next sizing disc which is closer to the belt, and so on. A pointer (not shown) extends from a block 16 on the spindle and indicates the size of the gap on a scale. The sizing disc and the conveyer are both inclined transversely to the direction of movement and the sizing disc is also inclined longitudinally, whereby the edge of the disc with which fruit carried by the belt first makes contact is closest to the belt and such fruit is thus brushed off immediately. The transverse inclination of the conveyer belt 5 causes fruit to wheel about its axis in approaching the sizing disc so that it is sized according to its diameter. The flat fruit-carrying face of the conveyer belt, Fig. 4, used for round fruit, is changed to the concave face, Fig. 5, used for oblong fruit, by pushing a V-shaped member 25 into an endless slit 24 in the belt, extending inwards from its edge. The member 25 is mounted on the ends of arms 26 and extends parallel to the slit edge of the belt, the arms 26 extending from a shaft 27 which may be turned by an arm 30 with a handle-and-rod member 31. Fruit brushed through a gap 7 encounters a flat circular foam-rubber covered table top 33 which is slowly rotated by a spindle which frictionally engages the edge of the table and has a pulley 37 which is driven from a motor 36. Sponge-rubber surfaced flaps 32, hinged to the casing 2, engage the fruit on the belt 5 and turn it into the required position.