Patent ID: 9585421
Date: 2017-03-07
CPC Classifications: A23L,A23N,B26D,G01N

Claim:
1. A method of de-stemming peppers comprising: feeding peppers on a conveying lane to a pepper de-stemming apparatus where each of the peppers includes a pepper pod, a calyx and a stem, where the peppers are placed in line before de-stemming, where the stem and calyx are removed by determining an orientation of each pepper, sensing the location of a pepper shoulder on each pepper to be cut, and removing the stem and calyx using a knife within the de-stemming apparatus at a cut line based upon the location of the pepper shoulder as determined by a first sensor and a second sensor disposed beneath the first sensor, the first and second sensors disposed in side walls of the conveying lane, the side walls being generally “V” shaped.