The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 10, 1982
Filed:
Feb. 13, 1980
Gregory J Larsen, Lakeland, FL (US);
FMC Corporation, Chicago, IL (US);
Abstract
A hopper for feeding fruit in several transversely spaced lanes from a supply conveyor to the pick-up positions of a fruit feeder includes several drums mounted in spaced and downwardly inclined relationships. The spacing between the adjacent drums is adapted for the reception of a single file of fruit, and the inclination of the drums is sufficient to cause the fruit to gravitate downwardly to the feeder pick-up positions. A push-pull drive mechanism is provided to pivot the drums back and forth about their axes of rotation to cause the fruit to spin as they gravitate downwardly between the drums. Such spinning action facilitates rapid feeding of the fruit downwardly between the drums and, in particular, prevents irregularly shaped citrus fruit such as tangerines or lemsons from becoming enlodged against each other to thereby interrupt their flow to the pick-up positions.