Importance

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Abstract

A fruit pitting machine includes a feeder tray for feeding fruit singly to a fruit conveyor chain which travels around a rotatable support to convey the fruit along a feed path. The rotatable support carries a plurality of pitting plungers and coring knives which are axially aligned and movable by cams toward each other such that a plunger pierces one end of the fruit and a coring knife cuts out a core cap at the other end of the fruit. Thereafter, the pitting plunger pushes the core cap and pit into the coring knife and the pitting plunger and coring knife are retracted away from the feed path. The plunger is retracted with the pitted fruit thereon past a guide member which strips the pitted fruit from the plunger while the coring knife is retracted until a free end thereof is positioned between another guide member and a pitting chain which is rotated around the rotatable support. A core cap ejection rod slidably fitted in each coring knife causes the pit to be maintained in the pitting chain while the core cap is held in the coring knife. Each core cap is separated from its associated pit by movement of the pitting chain with the pit therein away from the rotatable support. The coring knife is then further retracted and the core cap ejection rod causes the core cap to be ejected from the coring knife. Finally, ejection rods remove the pits from the pitting chain.

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First Claim