Transfer mechanism in a peach pitter

Abstract

In a peach pitter of the type including a pair of blades which both bisect the peach and grip the peach pit, a pair of jaws which twist the peach halves to remove them from the pit, and an aligner which orients the peaches so that their suture planes lie in the plane of the blades, a transfer mechanism is disclosed which accurately feeds individual, oriented peaches from the aligner to the blades in a sequence which minimizes the time required. A pair of claws grasp a peach at a transfer point on the aligner when it is momentarily substantially stationary and immediately carry the peach through an arc toward the blades. As the peach is impaled on the lower of the pair of blades, the upper blade descends to grip the pit. The claws, which are specially designed to insure that the peach is properly aligned with the pitting axis extending between the blades, are then released from the peach and rapidly returned to the transfer point in spread-apart condition ready to receive the next peach. A quick-acting four-bar linkage is disclosed which rapidly closes the claws on the peach at the aligner, translates the claws from the aligner to deposit the peach at the pitting station, and releases the claws and retracts them in the brief interval before the pitter jaws grasp and twist the peach halves loose from the held pit. The linkage is also timed with the aligner and pitter functions so as to expedite the overall pitting operation.