TOMATO SORTING METHOD AND SYSTEM Russian patent published in 1997 - IPC

FIELD: agricultural equipment. SUBSTANCE: method involves removing subsequent tomato moving behind previous tomato of the pair of tomatoes only in case one tomato of the pair may be referred to as "red" and other as "green" or vice versa. Space between tomatoes is such that main actuating mechanism does not manage to sort out such pair of tomatoes due to restricted quick action. System has metering device, feeding mechanism, controller, electronic device, main and auxiliary mechanisms. During operation of the system, each pair of tomatoes is checked to determine class that each tomato may be referred to; distance between tomatoes in each pair of tomatoes is determined and compared with reference distance. In case second tomato is determined as tomato of other class, it is removed by means of auxiliary actuating mechanism. First tomato in the pair of tomatoes is sorted out by main actuating mechanism in accordance with its quality. When both tomatoes are determined as belonging to one class, auxiliary actuating mechanism does not operate and main actuating mechanism is in the position it had been during sorting out of first tomato. EFFECT: increased precision of sorting, enhanced reliability in operation. 3 cl, 2 dwg