ROTARY FEEDING MECHANISM TO FEED FRUITS TO A FRUIT JUICE EXTRACTOR

摘要

A rotary feeder mechanism capable of attachment to and synchronized operation with a variety of different types of fruit juice extracting apparatus, in which a fruit receiving hopper is rotatable about a generally vertical or tilted axis of rotation, the received fruit being moved under centrifugal force to the hopper periphery area containing entrance openings to depending magazines in which the fruits are stored in stacked relation. The lower ends of the magazines are respectively arranged with a pair of spaced-apart gating fingers which are controlled by separate cam tracks to successively release the lowermost fruit in the magazine, while opposing release of the other fruits in the magazine, at a predetermined point of the hopper rotation. The cam tracks are adjustable to advance and retard the fruit release point, and provision is also made for the selective interchange of gating fingers having greater and lesser spacing in order to accommodate the average size of fruits to be handled in a particular locality. The cam tracks are further arranged for mounting as a unit at relatively raised and lowered positions along the axis of rotation of the hopper.