The purpose of the orienting system is to position each apple so that it is at rest with its core extending vertically and with the stem end either up or down. In this position, the apple can be effectively transferred to a machine for peeling and coring the apple such as is shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,586,081 and 3,586,151.
The orienting system in current use employs a cup, a rotating eccentric wheel located in the bottom of the cup and spring loaded wire fingers located at various space points about the orienting conveyor. Reference can be made to a showing of this in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,586,081 and 3,738,474. Apples are fed to each cup in an unoriented position. The rotating eccentric wheel contacts the side of the apple and turns it until the indent of the stem end or blossom end is reached. The wheel then can no longer touch the apple so the apple remains in its oriented position. The fingers aid harder to orient apples by slightly turning them in the cup so the eccentric wheel will turn the apple on a different track, thus enabling the indent to be reached more quickly.
Some problems have been encountered with this system. For instance, the fingers must be constantly watched and adjusted so that they do not disorient an already oriented apple. Long apples do not orient well with this system because of their concave sides and their tendency to lay horizontally rather than to stand vertically.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds