Patents

The present invention relates to an orientation unit for a fruit sorting and grading machine, for rolling apples around their major axes at a fixed rpm depending upon the imaging and processing speed so as to make it possible for the camera to scan the entire periphery of each apple. This orientation unit of the present invention consists of a pair of rollers, wherein each of the rollers has a conical profile on one side and a flat laminar surface on the other side to orient an apple of any shape with its major axis aligned along the axis of rotation. This set of rollers is spring loaded to make it possible for the rollers move to and fro to accommodate apples of size ranging from 60 mm to 100 mm. A rotating belt is provided underneath the rollers to rotate the fruits at a desired rpm so that a camera with an image processing system can scan the entire periphery of the fruit, including the size and shape, and surface bruises, and grade them into multiple categories in terms of quality.