Apparatus and process for weighing articles successively

Abstract

An article weighing machine having a turntable with fixed rakes for directing articles, i.e., fruits or vegetables, on the turntable along prescribed paths into side-by-side metering assemblies where successive articles are placed in successive pockets formed by opposed fingers on continuous chains, the fingers moving in linear parallel paths above cooperating parallel feed belts. Brushes over the entrance and exit of each assembly engages each article as it enters and leaves the fingers. The parallel belts receive the successive, equally spaced articles thereon and transport them successively to weighing cells where such articles are individually weighed and analog signals corresponding to the weight of the individual article are fed to a control logic which then converts such signals to digital form and transfers the logic output to a computer. The speed of the feed belt is also fed to the computer which signals as a function of the weight the opening of a selected air nozzle, of a series of longitudinally spaced air nozzles, when the individual article has been transported to the vicinity of such air nozzle, whereby the air blows the article laterally off of the belt and onto a discharge belt, feeding to a container positioned by a container conveyor to receive the articles. When the computer totals the appropriate weight for a given container, the conveyor is indexed.