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:
Dec. 05, 1989
Filed:
Feb. 24, 1988
Leon P Ventura, Watsonville, CA (US);
Javier Diaz-Infante, Salinas, CA (US);
Bud of California, Salinas, CA (US);
Abstract
A lettuce packing machine for the packing of heads of lettuce in corrugated, carboard cartons is disclosed. A lettuce head holding tray is loaded with lettuce. Thereafter, the tray is utilized to pack cartons. The lettuce head holding trays has discrete lettuce receiving cells upwardly exposed. Each tray contains four columns of cells, each column of cells being three wide for a capacity of 12 heads of lettuce. Each discrete lettuce receiving cell in the tray is defined by four semirigid, flexible sides, which sides extend downwardly and inwardly, are elastically biased and form an inverted pyramid-like profile truncated at an open bottom. The lettuce head holding tray is loaded at a picking station and conveyed to a packing station. When the lettuce head holding tray arrives at the packing station, a packing apparatus having discrete plungers--one for each cell--unloads the tray overlying a box to be packed. A first loaded lettuce holding tray with lettuce stems downwardly placed packs the lower layer of a box. A second lettuce holding tray with the lettuce stems exposed to the side corner of the cells packs the upper layer of a box. In each case, the lettuce of each layer moves as a mass into the lettuce box with no relative movement between the discrete side by side lettuce heads of a single layer.