Abstract: An apparatus for bagging produce or other articles susceptible to damage upon impact. The apparatus includes a bag receiver and transfer assembly adapted to receive, hold upright, and gently transfer an open topped bag of articles, such as from an automatic bagger, to a bag closer and optional conveyor.

Abstract: An apparatus for bagging produce or other articles which minimizes the impact received by the articles as they are put into bags. The apparatus includes a bag support which may be positioned at a reduced angle to the horizontal to decrease the height of fall of the produce into the bag, but which also eliminates the problem of the formation of a single layer of the articles in the bag. The bag support may be used in conjunction with other produce bagging devices conventional in the art for automated or semi-automated bagging of produce or other articles.

Abstract: An apparatus for the mechanical bagging or packaging of produce or other articles susceptible to damage upon impact. The apparatus includes a tiltable support for temporarily holding a quantity of produce and having an end portion for discharging the produce or articles when tilted. A bag positioning assembly is provided to position a bag around the support such that the end portion of the support is nearly adjacent the closed end of the bag. When the support is tilted, the produce or articles will settle towards the closed end of the bag. Because the bag is positioned around the support, the impact and damage to the produce or articles is minimized.

Abstract: Means to control imbalance of an eccentric mass connected to a rotating shaft in a shaker housing wherein the eccentric mass is adjacent to but is not fixedly connected to the shaft, wherein a first end of the mass is connected to a mass moving means which can move one end of the mass to a plurality of different distances from the rotating shaft, and is able to hold that end of the mass at each of these distances during rotation; wherein a second end of the mass is restrained from centrifugal movement during rotation of the shaft.

Abstract: An apparatus for measuring and recording accelerations or other physical quantities experienced by easily damaged items of commerce such as fruit and electronic computers. A triaxial accelerometer or other suitable sensor produces signals which are sampled by a microprocessor operating according to a program stored in a read-only memory. When the sampled accelerations or other physical quantities exceed a predetermined threshold, samples are stored in a random access memory, along with their times of occurrence. The apparatus provides a serial port for reading out the recorded acceleration data. The data may then be subjected to further processing externally.

Abstract: An automatic vegetable buncher for use in combination with a mechanical harvester of leafy green vegetables conveys the greens to a packing station where a pair of packer fingers driven by a novel rectangular motion generator incrementally feeds the greens into one of a plurality of pockets mounted on a rotatable wheel. When a predetermined bunch size is accrued, the wheel rotates to position an empty pocket at the packing station and to advance the vegetable bunch to a device which ties it into a marketable bundle.

Abstract: An automatic vegetable buncher for use in combination with a mechanical harvester of leafy green vegetables conveys the greens to a packing station where a pair of packer fingers driven by a novel rectangular motion generator incrementally feeds the greens into one of a plurality of pockets mounted on a rotatable wheel. When a predetermined bunch size is accrued, the wheel rotates to position an empty pocket at the packing station and to advance the vegetable bunch to a device which ties it into a marketable bundle.

Abstract: A mechanical shaker assembly adapted for use with an over-the-row power frame for the continuous harvesting of horticultural crops uniquely combines oscillating sway bars for dislodging the crops with a pendulum system for absorbing vibrations otherwise transmitted to the power frame by the sway bars.