Abstract: A bag opening apparatus comprises a pair of pivotable pins mounted on a movable carriage. The carriage is mounted on the rod of the first piston and cylinder assembly so that is may move in and out of proximity with a stack of mesh bags to be opened and filled. The mesh bags are supported on one face only so that the opposed face may be opened by inserting the pins into the bag and moving the pins outward to engage the mesh faces. Only the face which is not suspended will be opened as the pins are drawn away on the movable carriage. A second piston and cylinder assembly includes a stop pumper which is located to control the extent that the carriage is retracted and to thereby control the extent of the bag opening.

Abstract: Improvements to a torque-type peach pitter and method, during each cycle of which a peach is presented to a pair of peach bisecting and pit gripping blades for cutting the flesh of the peach to its pit at its suture plane and gripping the edges of the pit to hold it stationary and wherein the peach halves are twisted to separate them from the held pit. The improvements reside in a pre-slitter blade positioned to cut a portion of the peach flesh at the suture plane prior to its presentation to the peach bisecting and pit gripping blades.The peach pitter includes a normally inoperative curved spoon which is extended upon the detection of a split or defective pit and serves to cut such pit from the peach. The pre-slitter blade detects the absence of a peach in any pitting cycle and triggers means to disable the spoon operating mechanism so that the spoon will not be extended during such cycle.

Abstract: In a peach pitter of the type including a pair of blades which both bisect the peach and grip the peach pit, a pair of jaws which twist the peach halves to remove them from the pit, and an aligner which orients the peaches so that their suture planes lie in the plane of the blades, a transfer mechanism is disclosed which accurately feeds individual, oriented peaches from the aligner to the blades in a sequence which minimizes the time required. A pair of claws grasp a peach at a transfer point on the aligner when it is momentarily substantially stationary and immediately carry the peach through an arc toward the blades.As the peach is impaled on the lower of the pair of blades, the upper blade descends to grip the pit. The claws, which are specially designed to insure that the peach is properly aligned with the pitting axis extending between the blades, are then released from the peach and rapidly returned to the transfer point in spread-apart condition ready to receive the next peach.

Abstract: A peach pitter of the torque type in which the space between the pit gripping teeth on the peach bisecting blades at the pitting station is open at both ends and each successive peach is fed into said space through one open end and the preceeding pitted peach and separated pit are discharged out of the other open end of said space.

Abstract: A torque-type pitter for pitting drupes such as cling-stone peaches and the like, having coplanar, body-bisecting and pit-holding blades, and coaxial elements for gripping the peach body at opposite sides of the plane of said blades for twisting the peach halves from the blade-held pit. One of said blades has pitting knives or a pitting spoon in the plane of said blade that are normally inoperative where the pit in the peach between the blades is sound, or momentarily appears to be sound, but upon said blade passing between the halves of a split pit without hesitation, said knives or spoon will automatically be projected into the gripped halves to positions in which the rotation of said halves by said elements will spoon-pit the halves.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for continuously forming and filling bag-type packages from a continuous supply of tubular packaging material, such as the plastic mesh tubing or netting manufactured and sold by E.I. Dupont De Nemours & Co. under the trademark VEXAR. The tubular packaging material is drawn over a mandrel from the continuous supply in the rope form in which it is manufactured. The mandrel includes a hollow portion preferably having a cross-sectional area at least as great as that of the desired package. The open end of the tubular packaging material is clamped adjacent the mandrel, and the tubular material is partially slit to form a fill opening adjacent the desired site of the other end of the package, aligned with a corresponding fill opening in the mandrel.

Abstract: A torque-type pitter for pitting drupes such as clingstone peaches and the like, having coplanar, body-bisecting and pit-holding blades, and coaxial elements for gripping the peach body at opposite sides of the plane of said blades for twisting the peach halves from the blade-held pit. One of said blades has pitting knives or a pitting spoon in the plane of said blade that are normally inoperative where the pit in the peach between the blades is sound, or momentarily appears to be sound, but upon said blade passing between the halves of a split pit without hesitation, said knives or spoon will automatically be projected into the gripped halves to positions in which the rotation of said halves by said elements will spoon-pit the halves.

Abstract: In the overall system, vertically disposed, primary bags are filled with articles to a predetermined weight and conveyor means conduct the filled primary bags to a discharge point where a predetermined number of said filled bags are discharged at a discharge point and fall into an upright master bag, after which the filled master bag is carried away and closed, and an empty bag is positioned to receive primary bags of said predetermined number from said conveyor means.