Adjustable size sorting apparatus for round produce

Abstract

An apparatus for sorting round produce by diameter size using a conventional transport conveyer assembly and including a sorting size adjustment mechanism to automatically adjust the produce sorting size and an anti-pinch mechanism to prevent damaging the produce during the sorting process is disclosed. The conveyer assembly has a horizontal top run and a V-shaped bottom return run formed by a plurality of elastic conveyer bands trained about three elongated roller shafts. The conveyer bands are spaced across the width of the roller shafts at a fixed horizontal distance. As the produce is transported across the top conveyer run, the produce, whose diameter is smaller than the spacing between the adjacent conveyer bands, falls between adjacent conveyer bands for collection and the remaining produce travels to the end of the top conveyer run for separate collection. The sorting size adjustment mechanism used by the sorting apparatus of this invention allows the spacing between adjacent conveyer bands to be varied without altering the horizontal spacing of the conveyer bands. The size adjustment mechanism raises and lowers alternate conveyer bands over the sorting portion of the top conveyer run. Raising and lowering alternate conveyer bands increases and decreases the spacing between adjacent conveyer bands diagonally without changing the horizontal distance between the conveyer bands. The anti-pinch mechanism includes a second set of parallel elastic bands trained about the conveyer bands drive roller shaft and a pinch roller shaft between the conveyer bands. The anti-pinch bands prevent produce from being pinched between adjacent conveyer bands.