Filper Corporation

Henry L Spence

Thomas J White

Etheridge R McClelland

A torque-type pitter for pitting drupes such as cling-stone peaches and the like, having coplanar, body-bisecting and pit-holding blades, and coaxial elements for gripping the peach body at opposite sides of the plane of said blades for twisting the peach halves from the blade-held pit. One of said blades has pitting knives or a pitting spoon in the plane of said blade that are normally inoperative where the pit in the peach between the blades is sound, or momentarily appears to be sound, but upon said blade passing between the halves of a split pit without hesitation, said knives or spoon will automatically be projected into the gripped halves to positions in which the rotation of said halves by said elements will spoon-pit the halves. Where a pit is momentarily engaged by the pair of pit-holding blades as though it were sound and then the blades travel past the edges of the defective (or 'late' split) pit, the pitting knives will remain in inoperative in the plane of the blade, thereby precluding mutilation of the halves as would occur were the knives to engage the pit or to cut remote from the pit during rotation of the bisected halves.

Selective peach pitter

A torque-type pitter for pitting drupes such as clingstone peaches and the like, having coplanar, body-bisecting and pit-holding blades, and coaxial elements for gripping the peach body at opposite sides of the plane of said blades for twisting the peach halves from the blade-held pit. One of said blades has pitting knives or a pitting spoon in the plane of said blade that are normally inoperative where the pit in the peach between the blades is sound, or momentarily appears to be sound, but upon said blade passing between the halves of a split pit without hesitation, said knives or spoon will automatically be projected into the gripped halves to positions in which the rotation of said halves by said elements will spoon-pit the halves. Where a pit is momentarily engaged by the pair of pit-holding blades as though it were sound and then the blades travel past the edges of the defective (or 'late' split) pit, the pitting knives will remain in inoperative in the plane of the blade, thereby precluding mutilation of the halves as would occur were the knives to engage the pit or to cut remote from the pit during rotation of the bisected halves.

In the overall system, vertically disposed, primary bags are filled with articles to a predetermined weight and conveyor means conduct the filled primary bags to a discharge point where a predetermined number of said filled bags are discharged at a discharge point and fall into an upright master bag, after which the filled master bag is carried away and closed, and an empty bag is positioned to receive primary bags of said predetermined number from said conveyor means. During the interval of time when a filled master bag is moved away from the receiving point where it is filled, and an empty bag replaces it, the discharge of bags continues at said discharge point, but are accumulated until the replacement empty master bag is in receiving position, and then the accumulated bags are released to fall by gravity into the empty master container as a unit, and the passage through the accumulator remains open until the additional bags to make up the total required predetermined number pass directly into the primary bag from said discharge point. Also the conveyor means toward the discharge point is continuous up to a transfer location and is intermittent from said location to the discharge point, and control means automatically precludes the occurrance of an underfilled master bag without stopping or slowing the conveyor means.

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Pleasanton, CA, United States of America

Henry L Spence