TODAY’S PATENT – FRUIT HARVESTING MACHINE

The FRUIT HARVESTING MACHINE was invented by Curtis E. Gerber (Tampa, FL) on the 21^st of June 1983 , bearing patent number US4388798A.

The present invention relates to vacuum operated fruit harvesting machines. More particularly, this invention relates to picker heads, airflow control valves, and discharge valves of fruit harvesting machines and further relates to a transport for transporting the fruit harvesting machine between adjacent rows of fruit trees.

Fruit harvesting machines typically comprise some type of twisting mechanism which operates to twist the fruit as the fruit is conducted into the conduits by the vacuum source. Unfortunately, the twister heads usually comprise complex mechanisms which increase the cost and the reliability of the fruit harvesting machine when operating in working conditions. Moreover, the twister heads tend to be heavy thereby causing great fatigue to the operators harvesting the fruit. For these reasons, twister heads have not been widely accepted in the trade.One of the objective of this invention is to provide an apparatus which overcomes the aforementioned inadequacies of the prior art devices and provides an improvement which is a significant contribution to the advancement of the fruit harvesting machine art.