Patents by Inventor Jeffrey T. Leitner

Jeffrey T. Leitner has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 4937088
    Abstract: A method of and apparatus for extracting the meat section and juice from a fruit while minimizing the amount of undesirable flavor components, e.g. peel oil, released from the fruit's peel. In one embodiment of the present invention, whole fruits are fed into a single station extraction apparatus that first cuts a equatorial groove in the fruit's peel while the fruit is rotated. A semicircular coring blade is then inserted into the groove and rotated 360.degree. which severs a spherical chunk of fruit meat from the peel. The small amount of fruit meat remaining on the peel's inner surface is then preferably extracted with a reaming element or fluid jet nozzle. In other particularly preferred embodiments, the grooving, coring, and reaming component mechanisms are incorporated into an indexing turret apparatus and a high-speed continuous motion turret apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 1988
    Date of Patent: June 26, 1990
    Assignee: The Procter & Gamble Company
    Inventors: Peter G. Gosselin, Ronald W. Kock, Michael S. Kolodesh, Jeffrey T. Leitner, Bruce A. Pierson, H. Norman Reiboldt, David A. Sabatelli, Vicki L. Weber, William Willhite, Jr.