Patent GB-402270-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to fruit pitting machines
IPC: A23N4/02
Filed: 1933-01-24
Abstract: 402,270. Stoning fruit. FROVA, G., 9, Via Balsamo, Sesto San Giovanni, Milan, Italy. Jan. 24, 1933, No. 2295. [Class 28 (ii).] Relates to improvements in the fruit-stoning machine of the kind described inU.S.A. Specification 1,876,492 and comprising a hopper for the fruits to be stoned, one or more tubes each communicating at their upper end with the bottom of the hop - per and provided at their lower end with an aperture through which the fruits issue one at a time, and one or more reciprocating stoning - tools aligned with the apertures and adapted to engage the fruits. The fruit hopper 40 has an inclined bottom 1 spaced from the side walls to permit the passage of a reciprocating slide 7 having a row of fruit holding apertures 9 which, when aligned with the tops of the tubes 31, drop a fruit into each tube. The slide 7 is connected by a link 10 to the reciprocating cross head 18 carrying the stone-extracting jaws, and rollers or balls 5 facilitate the movement. Brushes 2<1> and 81 prevent the escape of the fruit from the hopper, and to ensure that one fruit only is delivered at a time to each tube 31, a flexible wiper, comprising a slitted rubber strip, is arranged immediately over the slide 7 adjacent to the tubes 31. The fruits are ejected from the bottom of the tubes 31, Fig. 6, by a gang of plungers 12 having concave pushing faces, and the emerging fruits are centred by guides 34 which may take the form of converging blocks, or frusto-conical or frusto-pyramidal sleeves. Resilient flaps may be arranged in the guides to prevent precipitate ejection. The jaws of the stoning tool pass through a plate 47, Fig. 13, and then through the plate 33, Fig. 12, the plate 33 holding back the body of the fruit when the jaws are moving back from the tubes 31, whilst the inwardly projecting points of the apertures 45 in the plate 47 engage the stones in the jaws and eject them therefrom. The plates 33, 47 are slidable on guide bars which also serve as guides for the cross-head 18, the plate 33 being normally held by springs away from the tubes 31, and being moved towards the tubes by the forward motion of the plate 47. The movements of the plates 33, 47 are limited by stops on the guide bars. To prevent the stoned fruit from rebounding from the plate 33 back into the guide 34, a plate 53, Fig. 22, is arranged to swing down on the fruit as it leaves the guides. An improved arrangement of stone gripping and extracting jaws is shown in Fig. 24, the jaws 64 being pivoted at 63 in slots in an enlarged end portion of a shank 61 which is slidable in the sleeve 71. Lubrication is effected by a grease-gun nipple communicating with a blind axial bore in the shank 61 connected by radial passages to a helical groove 78. The rear shanks 65 of the jaws bear on the bevelled rim of a partly screwed sleeve 82 which is locked by a lock nut 77. In a modification, the sleeve 82 is plain bored and is revoluble on the enlarged end of the sleeve 71 to which it is secured by radially arranged screws passing through oblique slots in the sleeve 82 whereby adjustments may be effected. In a further modification, Fig. 30, the sleeve 82 is dispensed with, and the jaws 64 are normally opened by a resilient ring 62 acting on the rear shanks of the jaws, or an independent spring may act on each jaw. Means are provided for ensuring that, if for any reason the stone is not extracted from the fruit, the still unstoned fruit is deposited in a receptacle different from that receiving the stoned fruit. This is effected, as shown in Fig. 35, by arranging a rubber sheet 33" in front of the plate 33 to hold back the fruit, whilst the stone 97, if properly gripped, is engaged before its final ejection, by pivoted fingers 92 which project between the jaws of the gripper. If the stone is not in the jaws, the fingers 92 are not swung and the fruit drops vertically. If, however, the stone is properly gripped, the shoot 93 is displaced as shown, to divert the stoned fruit into its proper receptacle. In modifications, the stone engaging fingers are arranged to perform a straight sliding motion in unison with the jaws, and a shoot directly secured thereto, or linked thereto, is positioned to divert the fruit or, if the stone remains in the fruit, is unaffected to permit the fruit to drop vertically. Specification 347,776 is referred to.