A carrot topping machine in which carrots are delivered to an orientating apparatus by an upwardly-inclined elevator. The elevator has a box-like casing over which runs carrot-conveying flights carried by bars connected between conveying chains. A supply hopper is located adjacent the bottom of the elevator, the hopper permitting passage of the bars and flights to pick up carrots. Adjacent the top of the casing is an opening over which the flights pass so that excess carrots fall into the casing from which they are re-directed back to the hopper by chutes. Feed paddle wheels are located at the top of the elevator to receive the carrots and roll them on to the orientating apparatus.
An apparatus for removing strips (13) from compartments (2) wherein the strips (13) are disposed horizontally in hook-shaped brackets (3) comprises an inclined conveyor (7) movable into the region of a compartment (2) that is in the pickup position. A device (17) at the upper end of this inclined conveyor lifts the strips (13) off the conveyor, and an installation (23) removes the strips from the end of the device (17) on the delivery side.
A novel method and apparatus for aligning elongated articles, such as french fried potatoes, includes a bucket for receiving a charge of the articles. Configured with the bucket is a conveyor having an endless belt with a plurality of spaced flights that each receive a portion of the charge. The articles are aligned by the conveyor and presented to a collector bucket configured to store the aligned charge portions prior to discharge to a bagging machine.
A food processing apparatus for conveying food items such as carrots and the like to a cutter comprises a conveyor having a plurality of pockets for receiving the food items. The conveyor moves in a conveyor direction to the cutter for topping, tailing, or cutting the food items. A stationary feed chute is disposed adjacent a side of the conveyor for transferring the food items to the conveyor. The apparatus is disposed at a compound angle measured from the horizontal plane such that the food items are transferred from the feed chute to the conveyor by gravity. Food items which are not received into the pockets of the conveyor are carried by their momentum of feed to fall off from the conveyor by gravity in a direction away from the cutter, and are collected for return to the feed chute. This decreases the amount of misfed food items from reaching the cutter and the amount of uncut or improperly cut food items at the output of the cutter. Guiding the food items during the transfer from the feed chute to the conveyor at an angle having a component opposite to the conveyor direction helps align the food items with the pockets on the moving conveyor to increase the percentage of food items that are properly received into the pockets.
