Abstract: A decelerator apparatus for mounting at the end of a pneumatic or gravity-fed fruit harvesting or delivery tube. The decelerator comprises a housing with a moving decelerator body aligned with a fruit-receiving inlet connected to the delivery tube. The decelerator body, for example a padded rotating wheel, moves at a speed slower than the speed at which the fruit is delivered into the housing, includes multiple depressions or indentations for receiving and separating fruit, and further defines a compressive deceleration path that moves the fruit in a compressive but protective fit toward a housing exit, releasing the fruit after the fruit has been decelerated to the speed of the moving body.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
March 1, 2012
Date of Patent:
April 7, 2015
Assignee:
DBR Conveyor Concepts, LLC
Inventors:
Charles Dietrich, Michael Rasch, Philip A. Brown
Abstract: A decelerator apparatus for mounting at the end of a pneumatic fruit harvesting or delivery tube. The decelerator comprises a housing with a moving decelerator body aligned with a fruit-receiving inlet connected to the pneumatic delivery tube. The decelerator body, for example a padded rotating wheel, moves at a speed slower than the speed at which the fruit is pneumatically delivered into the housing, and further defines a compressive deceleration path that moves the fruit in a compressive but protective fit toward a housing exit, releasing the fruit after the fruit has been decelerated to the speed of the moving body.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
January 6, 2010
Date of Patent:
April 19, 2011
Assignee:
DBR Conveyor Concepts, LLC
Inventors:
Charles E. Dietrich, Philip Brown, Michael Rasch