Castle & Cooke, Inc.

Frank D Pierce

Don H Lenker

Bradford E Knickerbocker

The invention is directed to a system for peeling an object having a generally soft interior portion surrounded by a generally hard external surface, where the system is suitable for use by consumers or in areas with consumers. According to one aspect of the invention, the apparatus of the invention includes a knife means for removing the hard external surface from the object, leaving substantially the soft interior portion. The apparatus also includes a housing enclosing the knife means to protect consumers or an operator of the apparatus from the knife means. The housing has two openings, one for receiving the object and one for discharging the soft interior portion after the object has been peeled. For some objects to be peeled, such as pineapples, the hard external surface of the object has two end portions and an intermediate body portion. According to another aspect of the invention, the apparatus of the invention includes a first knife means and means for grappling the object and rotating it towards the first knife means for severing the two end portions of the external surface. The apparatus also includes a second knife means and means for urging the object towards the second knife means to sever the intermediate body portion of the external surface.

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Pacific Grove, CA, United States of America

Frank D Pierce