초록 ▼

Successive pairs of rollers in a plurality of juxtaposed continuous feed chain conveyors receive articles, such as fruits and vegetables at an upstream portion of a sorting conveyor system and by movement of the rollers between inclined walls, position the articles in succession so as to pass the sa

Successive pairs of rollers in a plurality of juxtaposed continuous feed chain conveyors receive articles, such as fruits and vegetables at an upstream portion of a sorting conveyor system and by movement of the rollers between inclined walls, position the articles in succession so as to pass the same through color sortors and, then, below pneumatic rollers to deposit them into successive cups of a sorting conveyor system. Excess articles on the feed conveyors are released near the downstream end of the feed conveyors and are returned to their upstream end for reprocessing. Adjustable synchronizing linkage tie the two systems together and permit the relative adjustment of the positions of the cups with respect to the positions of the rollers. Spinning of the rollers is accomplished by the rollers riding in the through assemblies for the upper flights of the feed conveyors. Rails lift the rollers when they are not to spin. The color sortor examines the articles as they are spun by the rollers. The cups form a part of a soring conveyor system for dropping the articles according to prescribed color and/or weight.

대표청구항 ▼

In a process of sorting articles fed along a prescribed path by discharging articles of similar weight ranges in prescribed zones, and wherein a prescribed weight respectively forms a high weight cut off point for one adjacent drop zone and a low weight cut off point for another adjacent drop zone,

In a process of sorting articles fed along a prescribed path by discharging articles of similar weight ranges in prescribed zones, and wherein a prescribed weight respectively forms a high weight cut off point for one adjacent drop zone and a low weight cut off point for another adjacent drop zone, the step of automatically adjusting the cut off points for a prescribed zone after a prescribed numbers of articles have been accumulated in each zone, according to the total weight of the prescribed number of articles so as to improve the probability that the next accumulation of the prescribed number of articles for that zone will more nearly approach said prescribed weight.