De-stoning assembly for fruit e.g. apricots combines the operation of a conveyer working in opposition to the stone removal station

摘要

An assembly removes the stones from fruit e.g. apricots and has a conveyer (2) delivering fruit to a stone removal station (3). The actions of the conveyer and stone removal station are combined such that the stone is removed opposite to the direction of conveyer travel. The conveyer (2) has a belt (5) incorporating detents and fabricated from plastic, rubber or a mixture of the two. The fruits are pre-positioned on trays with detents for the individual fruit pieces. The trays are loaded either automatically or manually and are made of e.g. plastic. The fruits are arranged in an optimum presentation for stone removal by a vibrator unit.