Patent ID: 7926252

Claim:
A fruit decelerator apparatus for use with a pneumatic fruit-delivery tube, comprising: a housing comprising a padded fruit deceleration path, a pneumatic delivery tube inlet adapted to be connected to and receive fruit from an end of a pneumatic fruit-delivery tube, and a fruit exit, the inlet defining a direction of fruit delivery into the housing; a rotatably-driven decelerator body associated with the housing and comprising a padded surface at least a portion of which is in communication with an interior of the housing, the padded surface comprising at least a portion of the deceleration path, at least an initial contact portion of the padded surface positioned in substantially tangential alignment with the fruit delivery tube inlet at an initial fruit contact portion of the deceleration path adjacent the inlet to receive fruit entering the deceleration path from the pneumatic delivery tube inlet, the padded endless surface movable relative to the housing in endless rotating fashion in the direction of fruit delivery, the decelerator body having a rotational fruit-decelerating speed when rotatably driven relative to the housing comprising a speed slower than an expected pneumatically-delivered speed of fruit entering the deceleration path from the delivery tube inlet; and, at least a portion of the deceleration path comprising a compressive path defined between the housing and the padded endless surface of the decelerator body in the housing, the compressive path sized to receive fruit of an expected smallest size from the pneumatic delivery tube inlet and to carry such received fruit in a compressive moving fit, the compressive path extending through at least a portion of the housing between the inlet and the exit; and, a pneumatic fruit-conveying seal located in the housing between the fruit inlet and the fruit exit.