The present invention pertains to a fruit chunking and spear forming machine that is designed to automatically produce chunks and/or spears of fruit from fresh, unpeeled whole fruit. The invention applies to the production of melon, cantaloupe and pineapple chunks and/or spears, but the same technology can be applied to other types of fruit. As used herein, the word “spears” means an elongated piece of fruit; the cross-section can be rectangular or a variety of shapes.
The worldwide demand for fruit chunks and spears continues to rise, even as the cost of fresh fruit increases. Fruit chunks and spears are being sold in an increasing array of outlets such as restaurants, markets and fast food establishments. There is an increasing demand for fruit processing equipment that is efficient, reliable and cost effective. The prior art teaches the use of either manual techniques or the requirement for multiple machines to produce chunks and/or spears. Providing a single machine capable of chunking and/or forming spears from a variety of fresh fruits would help meet the burgeoning demand for these products.
The current methods of producing fruit chunks and/or spears from whole fresh fruit include hand cutting, mechanized peeling between centers and mechanized scooping. The present invention improves upon hand cutting by increasing throughput and reducing repetitive motion injuries. It improves upon prior art mechanized peeling by improving the quality of the finished product and it improves upon mechanized scooping by improving yield.
The prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 3,831,469 which teaches a system of peeling, slicing and chunking pineapples. The peeling is performed separately by a different machine. As described below, it would be advantageous to provide a system that could peel, core, sever seed cells, slice and chunk a wide variety of fruit with a single machine. The present invention does all these steps with a single machine, and with a minimum amount of waste. The present invention is not limited to the processing of pineapples. The invention described below includes rind or peel removal, core and seed cell removal and cutting into chunks and/or spears, all automated within one machine.