Patent ID: 8511226
Filing Date: 2013-08-20
Classification: A23L,A23N,B26D,G01N

Abstract:
1. A method of de-stemming peppers comprising: loading harvested peppers into a hopper; raising peppers to an increased height; dropping the peppers into a vibration hopper; distributing peppers from the vibration hopper onto a channeled vibrator to align them lengthwise; and feeding the peppers lengthwise to a pepper de-stemming apparatus where the stems are removed by sensing the location of a pepper shoulder on a pepper to be cut, and removing the stem and calyx at the shoulder of each pepper with a double bladed knife regardless of pepper length 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 the wall of a generally “V” shaped lane.