MULTILANE SINGULATOR FOR SORTING PEACH HALVES

• US 3,633,728 A
• Filed: 03/02/1970
• Issued: 01/11/1972
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/1970
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Donald W. Chamberlin
• Original Assignee: Donald W. Chamberlin
• Inventors: Chamberlin, Donald W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Aegerter, Richard E.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lane, H. S.
• Application Number:
  US05/015,527
• Time in Patent Office: 680 Days
• Field of Search: 198/29,30,32,34
• US Class Current: 198/448
• CPC Class Codes: A23N 4/04 for peaches, plums, apricots or the like
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 2201/0211 Fruits and vegetables
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 47/682 from a single conveyor lane consisting of one conveyor or several adjacent conveyors

Abstract

Peach halves are fed through a shaker for removing the pits and the pitted halves are delivered as a plurality of lanes to a singulating conveyor. The singulating conveyor belt runs beneath two curved walls, each for half of the lanes. The curved walls are in the form of an element of an ellipse disposed for providing a progressively decreasing retardation of the peach halves as they are slid along the walls by the conveyor belt, thereby causing each peach half to move somewhat faster down the conveyor than the one directly behind it. As a result, the peach halves from all the lanes are eventually singulated and presented to inspection devices which can reject those peach halves which retain pit fragments.

Claims

1. Apparatus for singulating articles, said apparatus comprising means for forming a plurality of laterally spaced, longitudinal lanes of the articles, an article singulator comprising a conveyor belt forming a longitudinal extension of said lane forming means, said conveyor belt being wider than the aggregate width of said lanes, said conveyor belt having a linear speed greater than the total linear rate of presentation of articles thereto, a curved retarder wall overlying said conveyor belt, said retarder wall running longitudinally along and laterally of said conveyor belt, said curved retarder wall starting from the outer edge of one outside lane and extending laterally beyond the outer edge of the other outside lane thus having a lateral extent greater than the aggregate width of all lanes, said curved retarder wall having a progressively increasing radius of curvature in the direction of conveyor belt motion, said retarder wall accommodating progressive longitudinal acceleration of articles received by said conveyor belt from all of said lanes for singulating the articles as they are carried along the retarder wall by said conveyor belt.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said curved retarder wall is substantially an element of an ellipse, said ellipse having a minor axis that is perpendicular to the conveyor path and near the delivery end of the curved wall, said substantially elliptical element of the wall encompassing substantially the outer half of the minor ellipse axis.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the said curved retarder wall extends laterally beyond said other outside lane by more than the width of a Single lane.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein said curved retarder wall extends laterally beyond said other outside lane by the width of about 1 1/2 individual lanes.