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PREFACE

This report presents results of research on
designing, constructing, and testing an item of
equipment for automatically placing apples into
pallet boxes. It is the second report in a group
to be published on contract research on designing
and testing of pallet boxes for in-plant handling
and storage of apples and other tree fruits. The
first report is “Cooling Apples in Pallet Boxes,”
Mktg. Res. Rpt. No. 532. Other reports will
cover: (a) Labor and equipment requirements
for handling apples in pallet boxes; (b) evalua-
tion of dumping methods for pallet boxes; and
(c) packing-room layouts for sorting and sizing
apples before storage.

Some of the results of this research are now
available in summary form in AMS-236, “Han-
dling and Storage of Apples in Pallet Boxes,” and
through the U.S. Department of Agriculture film
entitled “Handling and Storing Apples in Pallet
Boxes.” <A print of this film may be borrowed
from:

Visual Aids Service
University of Illinois

713% South Wright Street
Champaign, Illinois

Agricultural Extension Service
College of Agriculture

Cornell University

Ithaca, New York

Agricultural Extension Service
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, Colorado

The research on which this report is based was
conducted by the Fruit Industries Research Foun-
dation, Inc. (now known as Food Industries Re-
search and Engineering) under a research contract
with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Karl
W. Carlsen, Herman Ryder, and Alvan Baum,
all members of the foundation, conducted the re-
search and prepared the material for this report.

This study is part of a broad program of con-
tinuing research to increase the efficiency of the
physical handling of farm commodities during
marketing. Application of this research and de-
velopments brought about by this research pro-
gram on pallet boxes is now estimated to save
many hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.

Washington, D.C.

Other related reports covering handling. stor
Ing, and packing apples issued by the U.S. De
partment of Agriculture include:

Controlled-Atmosphere Storage of Starking De
licious Apples in the Pacifie Northwest. AMS
178. March 1957.

Storage and Cooling Capacity in Apple Storages
in the Wenatchee-Okanogan, Washington, District.
AMS-196. July 1957,

An Experimental Packing Line for McIntosh
Apples. An Interim Report. In cooperation with
N.Y. State Dept. Agr. and Markets, Division of
Markets, and Maine Agr. Expt. Sta., Dept. of Agr.
Econ. AMS-330. August 1959.

Apple Handling Methods and Equipment in Pacific
Northwest Packing and Storage Houses. Mktg.
Res. Rpt. No. 49. June 1953.

Methods and Costs of Loading Apples in the
Orchard in the Pacific Northwest. Mktg. Res.
Rpt. No. 55. January 1944.

Innovations in Apple Handling Methods and Equip-
ment. Mktg. Res. Rpt. No. 68. January 1955.

Handling Empty Apple Boxes in Pacific Northwest
Packing and Storage Houses. Mktg. Res. Rpt. No.
71. June 1954.

The Effect of Apple Handling Methods on Storage
Space Utilization. Mktg. Res. Rpt. No. 180. July
1956.

Comparative Costs of Handling Apples at Packing
and Storage Plants. Mktg. Res. Rpt. No. 215.
March 1958.

Apple Sorting Methods and Equipment.
Res. Rpt. No. 230. August 1958.

Heat Leakage Through Floors, Walls, and Ceil-
ings of Apple Storages. Mktg. Res. Rpt. No, 315.
October 1959.

Cooling Apples and Pears in Storage Rooms.
Mktg. Res. Rpt. No. 474. September 1961.

Apple Handling and Packing in the Appalachian
Area. Mktg. Res. Rpt. No. 476. June 1961.

Mktg.

Apple Packing and Storage Houses -Layouts and
Designs. Mktg. Res. Rpt. (In preparation.)

Air Door for Cold Storage Houses. AMS—-t5%.
December 1961.

Packing Apples in the Northeast. Mktg. Res. Rpt.
No. 543. (In press.)

November 1962

CONTENTS

Page
Sum mig ny mee Soles peas See See 4 Tested with five types of commercial boxes______
Ihaqhnoeto(ontoitle 3 lee og DAS see oo oe BU 5 Performancevof the fillers 2 =e eee
The filler operating model=_-2_-_--_2_--=__==--= 8 Operating over 4-week test period. ____________
Preliminary bruise damage study_________-___- 8 Brulise’study2k 5. ete eee oe een eee
Strengthening the design===--- 2222-5) a 10 Time-studiy results Besse a. eee eee as
AW HieKOtN ee ee Ee eo ae 11 Pex Gert orn eh Ge Gls eee eee a
Ibias se ae ee eee a 2 eee ee 14 Impact of the pallet-box filler] = 22-2 52a) ia

Right-angle and straight-through layouts-__----- 14

SUMMARY

A present trend in the apple industry is to handle an ever-increasing per-
centage of the crop in pallet boxes. This change has made possible the
introduction of cost-reducing mechanization. One of the more important
innovations is the development of a pallet-box filler, which automatically fills
apples into boxes after they are sorted and sized.

Two unsuccessful attempts were made to develop a workable filler; for-
tunately, the third attempt was successful. This filler, which employs a series
of rotating disks and cones, properly padded to reduce bruising, gently lowers
the fruit into pallet boxes. In the filling operation, the filler is first lowered
into the pallet box. The apples are then fed into the filler by a conveyor and
a chute which minimize the distance that the fruit must drop. The fruit
moves in steps on the series of disks and cones to the bottom of the box. As
the box fills, the filler raises gradually, until the box is filled. Then the flow
of fruit is stopped and the filler rises above the box. The filled pallet box
moves out from below the filler, an empty box is put in its place, and the
filling cycle is then repeated.

The filler can be adjusted to accommodate most of the types of pallet
boxes in use today, so that there should be no problem of technical obsolescence.

In performance tests, the filler handles almost seven standard-box (about
1-bushel) equivalents a minute, so that each pallet box can be filled in less
than 5 minutes. Time studies show that only 7 minutes of labor are required
to transfer 30 pallet boxes. With an adequate number of box fillers (and
allowing some lag time for the worker), one worker could handle 1,500
standard-box equivalents per hour._

Patent No. 3,000,162 was granted for this pallet-box filler by the U.S.
Patent Office, and assigned for public use to the Secretary of Agriculture,
September 19, 1961.

The impact of the filler on the apple industry is significant. Pallet boxes
alone save 20 percent in storage space. With this filler, presorting and pre-
sizing before storage could raise this saving in storage space to 35 percent,
because it is estimated that about 15 percent of the crop would be removed
from the fruit to be stored.

With apples presized, presorted, and refilled back into pallet boxes, opera-
tors of storages and packinghouses would have a complete inventory of their
salable apple stocks. This information would contribute to a better marketing
program, give consumers better quality apples, and hold down marketing costs.

4

The rapid expansion of the use of pallet boxes
in the apple industry has brought about many
changes in handling and packing operations, and
made cost-reducing mechanization practical. One
of the important innovations was the development
of an automatic pallet-box filler. Such a filler
should achieve low-cost filling of apples into pallet
boxes, so that fruit can be sized and sorted before
it is placed in storage. Presizing and presorting
| allow the removal of small and off-grade fruits,
| and thus make available more cold-storage space
for marketable quality fruit. It also should facili-
tate treatment of the fruit with a scald-preventive
chemical. Perhaps an even more far-reaching
ramification will be the distribution of apples in
pallet boxes to terminal markets. An automatic
pallet-box filler would make this practical by keep-
ing costs in the packing plant low and volume
high.
In developing the pallet-box filler, three dif-
ferent designs were conceived, and operating
models made. The first two were not successful.
This report will deal primarily with the-work on
the third, a successful design.
The first design was a rotating disk with a
“ladder” of baffles or padded steps (fig. 1). The
baffles did not function as planned. The apples
tended to roll to the sides and fall directly into
| the pallet box without making the gradual descent
_ over the baffles. To eliminate this, a net was placed
| around the center cone and a cloth rim around the
outer edge of each step. The cloth rim was ineffec-
tive, so the outer edge of each step was curved
upward. This corrected the problem of the fruit
falling prematurely from the steps. However,
after repeated trials, no way could be found to
| keep the steps above the level of the filling fruit
| without such a large quantity of apples remaining
_ on top of the steps that it became very difficult to
rotate the disks. In other words, the collapsed
steps formed too long a surface for the apples to
roll off as the upper disk rotated.

To obtain more information on the run-off ar-
| rangement that would be desirable, a continuous
cloth chute spiraling into the pallet box was tried

+ Compiled from the contractor’s report.

AN AUTOMATIC PALLET-BOX FILLER FOR APPLES

| Compiled by JosepH F. Herrick, Jr., marketing research analyst,’ Transportation and Facilities Research Division,
Agricultural Marketing Service

INTRODUCTION

as a means of gently lowering the fruit (fig. 2).
This, too, was found to be impractical because a
large quantity of fruit would tend to lie in the
drag cloth as it was pushed upward by fruit
passing into the pallet box.

Another system of filling the pallet boxes was
tried in which the pallet box rotated above the
stationary filler. The least complicated method
of filling—the ladder-type filling arrangement
shown in figure 3—provided baflles over which the
apples could roll. As the pallet box filled, the
ladder was raised, and by a parallelogram ar-
rangement which altered the slope of the steps
as the ladder rose, the fruit was lowered into the
box one short drop at a time. A number of dif-
ferent angles for the parallelogram and different
methods of using drapes for retarding the flow
of the fruit were tried. After extensive trials, it
was found that it was difficult to get a uniform
fill of fruit in the pallet box. The corners re-
mained at a lower level than the center, so this
method was abandoned.

These trials showed the need for first procuring
uniform fill, and then perfecting the filling mecha-
nism. A study of distribution of fruit in filling
pallet boxes was made. A uniform distribution
was obtained with a simple wooden frame model
(fig. 4), by gradually changing the shape and
number of baffles over which the fruit was fed.

Some of the types of bafiles that were tried did
not distribute the fruit. If the drag cloths were
padded too heavily, the fruit would not roll off,
because the cloth had to be flexible enough so that
the fruit on top of the pad would be nudged off
by the apples underneath as the pads rotated.
However, to prevent bruising, the batiles had to be
somewhat rigid, and required a considerable
amount of padding.

The next baffles and pads that were tried were
made of polyurethane, glued in place by canvas.
By changing the shape of these pads, fruit could
be deflected either outward or inward, and almost
any desired distribution of fruit could be obtained.
Because the polyurethane pads did not long hold
their shape, a sheet metal core was built inside the
pad. Bruise studies, however, indicated that the
metal-cored baffles caused some bruising as they

BN 15713-X

Figure 1—First pallet-box filler had a rotating disk and Figure 3.—Ladder-filling mechanism with which the
a ladder of bafiles. pallet box rotated during filling.

BN 15707—-X

Re atibenmnsamatl
Spee

BN 15698—X

Figure 2

—Test unit equipped with continuous spiraling cloth chute.

rotated over the fruit. To avoid this, the metal
core was reduced in length, and the shape of the
bottom baffle was maintained by canvas glued to
the polyurethane. The fruit rolled on an extra,
short length of heavy canvas at the end of the
baffle so that it would reach the corners.
With these shaped bafiles, fruit could be well dis-
tributed by using one shape for five of the batflles,
and a different shape for the sixth. The sixth
batlle was designed so that all fruit falling on it
ras directed into the center of the pallet box, to
fill a void that would otherwise occur.
As the fruit rolled down through the baflles, it
tended to strike the sides of the pallet box. To
correct this, a drag cloth on the end of the baflle

was curved upward (fie. 5). Thus. the eanva
would pad the rae cloth when it was at the side
of the box and still leave the end open to fill the
corners adequately.

Another modification to improve fruit distribu
tion was adding extended rubber roses at the outer
edge of the drag cloths. These small hoses sup
plemented the drag cloths in distributing the fruit
evenly though the containers.

After a method of obtaining a good distribution
of fruit was found, the method of lowering the
fruit into the filler was studied, resulting in oa
design on which all the further testing was carried
out. This filler might be called a “rotating disk
filler” because of the type of construction (fig. 5)

-»*

BN 15710—-X

Figure 4—Wooden frame used for filling distribution study.

FIcurE 5.—Rotating baffles used to distribute the fruit in the pallet box.

BN 15706—X

THE FILLER OPERATING MODEL

The simplest method of lowering fruit was by
baffles that permitted the fruit to drop only a
small step at a time. Investigation showed that
this performance could be built into a rotating
filler with the steps made in the form of disks or
circles. The disks help distribute the fruit around
the entire pallet box, and spread the fruit, so that
there is less collision between fruits.

Concentric cones were designed to let the fruit
down into the box one step at a time. At first it
was thought that a shallow slope would retard
the flow of fruit, so the cones and disks were built
at a 45° angle (fig. 6). However, at that angle,
the fruit dropped straight through, and it was
difficult to get good distribution. Next,a 15° angle
was tried. This angle, however, was so slight that
some of the fruit rested on the cone, or disk, and
with the rotating motion, centrifugal force kept
the fruit on the disk. This fruit was struck by
other fruit as it dropped onto the disk. A 22°
slope was tried, but an 18° slope proved best. The

objective was to keep the fruit on the disks long
enough to be distributed evenly.

The polyurethane-padded disks were covered —
with canvas, to prevent the polyurethane from —
wearing as the fruit fell on it. The heavily padded —
center posts not only helped to prevent damage to ©
fruit, but also distributed the apples more evenly |
in the pallet box. |

Preliminary Bruise Damage Study

As the development proceeded, bruise-free fruit.
was occasionally fed into the filler, and a study
was made of the condition of the fruit. The find-
ings resulted in changes of design of the pads,
baffles, disks, and in altering the way the fruit was
fed to the disks.

At first it was thought that the conveyor belt
could be used to feed the fruit directly onto the
upper disk, but the drop proved to be too great.
A chute was devised to break the fall of the fruit

| ai

BN 15701—-X

Figure 8—Belt guard used to hold apples in the disks.

BN 15703—X
Figure 6.—Center cone of 45° slope first tried with disks
EOFS LOM CE BE apples. Upper cones and disks are re- into two stages (fig. 7). Also, the fruit hit the
moved.

edge of the disk as the disk rose to the level of
the feed-in point from the chute. The chute was
made so that it automatically lowered as the top
disk approached the level of the feed-in point on
the chute. This operation is described in more
detail in the following section. Thisstaging chute
worked better with three disks than with the four
that were being tested, so one disk was dropped
from the design of the model.

Fruit often rolled from the disks to the floor,
or dropped into the bottom of the pallet box. To
prevent this, a large belt was mounted on the disk
to act as a retaining wall (fig. 8). Although this
adjustment was effective, it was simpler to mount
a collar around each disk. A 3-inch strip of belt-
ing was fastened around the disks, giving them
approximately a 1%-inch rim (fig. 9).

BN 15700—-X
BN 15705—-X

Figure 7.—Chute showing intermediate stage to break ; ; _
aro of fruit by an additional step. A belt drape has Figure 9.—Three-inch strip of belting affixed to one disk,
been thrown back to permit viewing of the chute. providing a 14-inch collar around the outer edge.

648522 O—62——_2 9

During the last stages of filling, when the pallet
box was nearly full, the fruit flowing from the
baffles frequently rolled off onto the floor. A ring
lined with belting was attached to the bottom disk
to act as a retaining wall. This ring, shown in
figure 10, might also be designed in the shape of
a square, to permit some of the last fruits to fill
into the corners. The square would also facili-
tate the lineup of the pallet box during the change
of boxes.

Strengthening the Design

As a result of the laboratory observations and
trials, several changes were made in the chute.
The chute was originally designed to be activated
by a solenoid. Sufficient strength could not be
obtained from the solenoid, and it also would have
added considerably to the cost of the mechanism.
Therefore, a mechanical means of operating the
chute was developed, using rods that moved up
and down with the filling mechanism.

The angle braces that supported the concentric
disks were redesigned. Initially, the vertical sup-
ports between the center cone and the outer disk
were close to the center cone. Fruit occasionally
lodged behind these, and blocked the flow of fruit. —
Therefore, the supports were redesigned to extend
outward from the center cone and support the
outer disk from underneath. This arrangement,
however, was unsatisfactory for the bottom disk,
because it was also being used for accumulating
fruit during changes of boxes, and the brace pro-
vided enough interference to jam the apples oc-
casionally, when the load was to be released to
begin filling a new box. For that reason, the last
disk was supported from the top rather than from
the bottom, as shown in figure 11.

An additional means of preventing the jam-

ming, or bridging, of fruit as it was released by the _
bottom center cone was necessary. The shaft, —
on which the bottom cone rested, slips inside an_ |

outer tube on which the bottom cone is mounted. —
The closure is effected by moving the shaft upward

about 2 inches inside the tube. The shaft and |

BN 10554-X

Figure 10.—Ring at bottom prevents fruit from rolling off filler at last filling stage.

|

st

BN 9096—X

Figure 11.—Brace supporting last disk covered with
padding.

tube rotate together. This is accomplished by an
outwardly projecting pin on the shaft extending
through an inclined keyway, or slot, in the outer
tube. The keyway, at first, was a straight slot,
lengthwise, of the tube. Then later, when the
keyway was made helical, the bottom cone twisted
as it opened, and dislodged “jammed” fruits.

The Machine

The resulting pallet-box filler was designed with
three series of concentric disks and cones attached

BN 15711-X

Figure 12—Housing for motor and gear mechanism as
shown looking down in the machine.

to a rotating shaft. These disks fed apples onto
a series of six baflles that distributed the fruit into
the pallet box. The disks were continuously ro
tated during the filling operation by il motor and
gear mechanism in a housing above the disks (fig.
12). The gear housing and the disks were raised
and lowered into the box by a hydraulic shaft
as pictured in figure 13.

The filling operation starts with the disks low
ered into the pallet box to the point where the
baflles ride on the bottom of the pallet box. Fruit
coming from the sizer spills from the feed belt into
a chute that is fitted to the circumference of the
disks. As the fruit flows over the disks and cones
into the pallet box, the baflles can gradually change
their slope, because they are hinged on rods from
the center shaft. Microswitches on two of these
baffles are activated as the incline of the bafiles is
decreased. A happenstance high fruit would not
cause the mechanism to rise, because both baflles
have to be elevated at the same time. When the
microswitches on these two baffles close, a solenoid
activates a valve, and allows an additional amount
of hydraulic fluid to force the shaft upward, ele-
vating the filler about 14-inch at a time. This
process of elevation continues until the pallet box

is filled.
AY 4
tales?

|
a

BN 15702—-X

e

i is ai res rer as ‘ket, which
Figure 13.—Hoist chain threaded over a sproc :

a connected to a hydraulic shaft used to raise and

lower the filler unit.

BN 15708-X
Figure 14.—Lever which lifts center rotating shaft to
close bottom disk.

When the final filling stages are reached, another
microswitch is activated, which lifts the filling
mechanism completely out of the pallet box. Just
as this last stage of elevation commences, a block
at the top of the filler frame presses against a
lever which lifts the center rotating shaft approxi-
mately 2 inches (fig. 14). This closes an inner
cone under the bottom disk so that the disk acts
as an accumulation receptacle during the change

—_

i
7

of boxes. To avoid possible bruising damage by
this closing mechanism, the bottom cone is padded
much more heavily than the other center cones. In
addition, the bottom inner edge of the lower disk
is padded so that if fruit halfway through the
opening is caught as the filler elevates, it will be
held by heavy padding on both the top and bottom.

When the operator has removed the full box
and moved an empty pallet box into place, he
presses a control button which quickly lowers the
whole filler mechanism into the pallet box and
repeats the filling cycle.

The flow of fruit is unobstructed throughout
the filling operation by synchronizing the relative
positions of the chute and disks with the position
of the conveyor. At the start, the lip of the chute
is fitted onto the rim of the top disk. The disks
are about 12 inches above each other, and as the
box fills, they slowly rise. When the top disk
reaches a position where its rim would obstruct
the flow of fruit from the chute, the chute is auto-
matically detached, and drops 6 inches, to a posi-
tion 6 inches above the second disk. A step or
ledge in the chute, heretofore hidden under the

BN 15699—X

Figure 15.—Chute positioned to feed fruit into bottom disk while pallet boxes are being changed.

_ conveyor, now appears to slow the drop of fruit
| to the optimum distance in the lengthened chute
(fig. 7). As the second disk rises, the process is
| repeated with the third disk. As the pallet box
fills further, and the filler rises, the chute moves
upward, until the step rolls back under the
conveyor.

At the last filling stage, the chute continues to
feed fruit into the bottom disk which has been
closed while the full box is removed and the
empty pallet box is moved into filling position.
While the filling mechanism is being lowered into
the empty box, a gate is momentarily raised at
the head of the chute holding fruit back onto the
belt for a period of about 6 seconds. As soon as
the filling mechanism is at the bottom, the retard-
ing gate drops to allow the fruit to flow into the
chute.

The chute mechanism is operated by a series of
fingers and plates on two shafts that move up and
down with the filling mechanism as pictured in
figure 15. The stops on one of these shafts con-
trol the gate at the head of the belt that is moved
into position as the pallet box lowers. The other
stops control the staging of the chute as the pallet
box is filled. Figures 16 through 19 illustrate
the cycle of filling a pallet box with the filler.

BN 9095—X

Figure 16.—Empty pallet box ready for filling; filler
lowered inside box.

BN 10556-X
BN 9058—X

Figure 18.—Filled pallet box which has just been moved
Figure 17.—Pallet box nearly filled ; filler raised. from under the filler unit.

13

ant Wy

BN 9093-—X

Figure 19.—Filler in raised position ready to be lowered into pallet box.

TESTING THE FILLER

Many trials were made with the filler in the
process of the development work and these re-
sulted in the changes described above. After com-
pletion of these initial trials, experimental and
commercial pallet boxes were used in two different
layouts with five different types of commercial
boxes to determine the capacity of the machine
and to learn the ability of the machine to operate
under sustained commercial conditions.

Right-Angle and Straight-Through Layouts

_ The pallet-box filler has been so designed that
it can be used for either a right-angle or a straight-

14

through layout. That is, the boxes can either be
fed in from one side and out to the front, or they —
can be moved underneath the filler and straight
out the opposite side. These layouts are shown
diagramatically in figure 20. q
Neither type of layout complicates the equip-
ment installation. The only difference in the filler
would be the arrangement of the roller conveyor
for moving the boxes in and out and for the at-
tachment of the shafts that control the staging of
the chute. For a straight-through layout these
shafts are attached to the front of the filler (fig.
21). For the right-angle layout, the shafts for
controlling the stage in the chute are at right

STRAIGHT THROUGH

| SIZER BELT |

RIGHT ANGLE

Figure 20.—Straight-through and right-angle layouts for use of the pallet-box filler.

angles to the gear housing of the pallet-box fillers
as shown in figure 22.

No difficulty was experienced in feeding the pal-
let. boxes in either installation. It initially re-
quired about 20 seconds to change the box, but
after the operators became more proficient, this
time dropped to 14 seconds for the straight-
through layout and 16 seconds for the right-angle
layout. This time included the time of lowering
the pallet-box filler into the empty box.

Tested With Five Types of Commercial Boxes

Four or more pallet boxes of five different com-
mercial types were tried with the filler. No diffi-
culty was experienced, except that one box needed
to be placed a little more carefully than others,
because it had slightly smaller inside dimensions.
Observations indicate that there will be no diffi-
culty in handling pallet boxes of even greater
variety of design. Adjustments now can be made
on the filler that would permit using pallet boxes
up to 30 inches in outside height and 25 inches in
inside depth. Any shallower box could be used
equally well by resetting the stops for the last
cycle which closes the gate in the filler and ele-
vates it.

With a side-lift box, it would be necessary to
move the disks 4 inches lower into the container;
again, stops on the machine could be adjusted to
take care of this. However, should pallet boxes
of greater outside height than 30 inches be used,
the machine would need a longer shaft than the
one used here.

15

Performance of the Filler

The pallet-box filler was operated at maximum
capacity on several occasions. In a sustained 30-
minute run, the filler averaged one pallet box
every 5 minutes. The fastest filling of a pallet
box during this period was 4.05 minutes, so that
the machine could reasonably be expected to oper-

ee |

ry
TY pony at

1

{

TE SE PP

BN 9094—X

Figure 21.—Pallet-box filler set up for a straight-through
layout with shafts controlling staging to the front
(left) of the housing.

BN 15712-xX

Figure 22.—Pallet-box filler set up for a right-angle layout with shafts (right) controlling staging of the chute at
right angles to the housing.

ate at 6.77 standard-box (about 1-bushel) equiva-
lents per minute.

The capacity of the machine could be altered
somewhat by changes in design. In this installa-
tion, the belt feeding the pallet-box filler was 10
inches wide. <A 12- or 14-inch-wide belt would fill
the box even faster, and at the same time permit
running the belt at a lower speed, which might
lessen bruising of the fuit. The limiting factor
in the high-capacity operation is the amount of
fruit that can be accumulated in the bottom disk
during the change of boxes. If the machine is fed
too rapidly, the holding capacity is insufficient.
Should the machine be used where high capacity
will always be the rule, a return-flow belt or ro-
tating disk could be installed to accumulate fruit
on the conveyor system before feeding it to the
filler. Another solution would be to synchronize
a system of stopping and starting the belt conveyor
with the operation of the filler. —

Over a sustained operating period of 4 hours,
the pallet-box filler performed satisfactorily, ex-
cept that some difficulty was experienced with the

16

gate at the head of the chute during the lowering
of the mechanism into empty pallet boxes. Apples
lodged underneath the upper lip of the gate which
was bent over to give a smooth surface on top and
padded with polyurethane so that apples would
not be damaged. The gate was redesigned to give
a uniform surface that would not be obstructed
by fruit. Results of the tests indicate that during
the period needed to change the pallet box it would |
probably be better to stop the belt which feeds
the fruit to the filler rather than close the gate |
to cut off the flow of fruit. This could be accom-
plished with a simple switching system.

Operating Over 4-Week Test Period

At the time the design was completed, the pack- —
ing season had advanced to the point where only
a few packinghouses were operating on an inter-
mittent basis, depending upon the market for —
fruit. A simulated commercial packing opera-
tion for feeding the machine was tested (fig.
23). This test included emptying fruit from pal-

Figure 23.—Overall view of setup used for dumping and filling operations for the 4-week

let boxes into a submersion-type dumper and moy-
ing the fruit by means of a conveyor belt (that
simulated a sizer) to a belt conveyor which moved
the fruit into the filler (fig. 24). ~ The capacity of
the dumper was large enough so that any desired
flow of fruit could be obtained (figs. 25 and 26).
This arrangement permitted the machine to be
operated on a more continuous basis than at a

WATER

OEGER CONVEYOR BELT

——_—

SIMULATING

BN 15714—X

test period.

commercial plant where the flow of fruit might
have been intermittent, depending upon the way
fruit was peaking at various sizes. During most
of the test, the filler was being fed at a rate of
150 standard loose box equivalents or more per
hour, which was estimated to be approximately
the flow that might be expected in one of the peak
sizes in a presizing packing line that would be

SIZER

—_——__

BELT CONVEYOR
FEEDING FRUIT
TO FILLER

ROLLER

CONVEYORS <

PALLET BOX
—
FILLER

Figure 24.—Layout of equipment used for dumping and filling operations for the 4-week test period.

17

Figure 25.—Start of water dumping of pallet box.

running at a rate of 750 box equivalents an hour.
At times during the run, fruit was fed at varied
rates, which simulated shifts in the peak of sizes
of fruit in a typical packing operation.

During the sustained run some weaknesses
showed up in the filler—especially in the chute
mechanism where some of the pins were not heavy
enough or were not securely anchored. The canvas
covering the polyurethane padding absorbed water
and shrank, throwing the outer rim of the chute
out of shape. The surface was given a coat of
waterproof paint and the outer ring replaced. As
the drag cloths at the end of the baffles became wet,
their shape changed slightly so that the corners
of the pallet boxes were not filled as well as before.
This weakness was corrected by reinforcing the
outer edge of the drag cloth. During a 4-week
period of testing, the pallet-box filler was in con-
tinuous operation at a higher rate than that of
commercial conditions, averaging one pallet box
every 5.76 minutes.

Bruise Study

A study of bruise damage with the pallet-box
filler was made by placing bruise-free apples onto

18

BN 15704—X

Figure 26.—Pallet box being turned over almost com-
pletely emptied and about to be placed upside down on
the roller conveyor.

the belt conveyor that fed into the filler. These
apples were of the Delicious variety, sizes 138
through 113. ;

The filler was tested with two different types
of boxes, a maximum-cooling box and maximum-
bruise-prevention box. Preliminary bruise studies
indicated that most of the bruise damage occurred
to the first apples that were fed into the box. They
were brushed across the bottom of the box by the
bottom baffles bumping them more than the apples
that followed them. The maximum-bruise-pre-
vention box had a smoother bottom, which should
have a tendency to eliminate such bruising. Half
of the apples in each of the two pallet boxes were
examined individually to determine the amount of
bruising, which is shown in table 1.

The bruising caused by the pallet-box filler at
the time of the tests was higher than that which
might be expected when running freshly harvested
orchard-run fruit. It is during the fall harvest
that the filler would be in commercial use; at that
| time the fruit tests 16 pounds or higher. How-
ever, a pressure test of the fruit used in this bruise
study averaged only 1014 pounds, and the fruit
| was at 86° F., during the tallying period. The
| fruit quickly softened further. It is quite pos-

sible that some of the bruises tallied actually oc-
| curred from the weight of fruit in the box on
quickly deteriorating apples.

The average overall bruising on the apples
studied was 21.5 14-inch and larger bruises per
100 apples. Most of the areas of the pallet boxes
inspected averaged near this 21.5 bruise figure;
however, the bottom apples showed a large in-
crease in bruising—78.8 bruises per 100 apples.
The number of apples touching the bottom is rela-
tively small, so that even this severe rate of bruis-
ing does not have a great effect on total bruising.
The smooth-bottom box, in these tests, appeared
to permit more of this bottom-layer bruising than
did the maximum-cooling pallet box.

Time-Study Results

The amount of labor required to attend the
pallet-box filler proved to be nominal. A box
could be changed by one man in as short a time
as 14 seconds. For a packing line to run 750
standard-box equivalents an hour, 30 pallet boxes
would be changed per hour. This would require
only 7 minutes of actual labor per hour. It would,
however, be necessary for the operator to move

19

PABLE Is Braise s found

Ovi Li] / ij
pall t-boua tiller studi
Sruise per LOO appl
iat Appl
Position in pallet box in incl
spected, '4-ineh and lotal
bruises) larger | bruise
bruise
. Number | Number 1 ihe
a ae 174 10. 1 9.9 20. 0
ain E = 212 dD. I 23. 7 78.8
POND Uae eae : : 36 22. 4 6.7 29. 1
Interiorea-222-2 1, 675 5.9 a8 14,2
Weighted

average _ 10.0

from one filling station to the other and to be at
the station a little in advance of the time the box
needed to be changed. It therefore has been as
sumed that 1 minute would be required to change
each box. The total labor requirement to tend a
box filler under these assumptions would be 30
minutes per hour, or, one worker handling 1,500
standard-box equivalents per man-hour.

In a commercial packinghouse operation, where
as many as six fillers would be operating simul-
taneously, on occasion, two pallet box fillers would
need to be attended and boxes changed at the same
time. This difficulty could be avoided in either
of two ways. Either pallet boxes could be re-
moved before they are completely filled and then
leveled by hand afterwards, or an additional
worker could be employed. If an additional
worker were employed and two men tended the
fillers, labor costs would still be relatively low com-
pared with those of existing filling methods.

The labor of tending the pallet-box filler with
lift trucks, while it is not directly part of the
packing operation, has been calculated. If one
pallet box at a time is moved by the forklift truck
operator over a distance of 280 feet, 1.36 man-
hours would be required per 1,000 box equivalents.
If two boxes are lifted and handled at a time, the
man-hour requirements would decrease to 0.71
man-hour per 1,000 box equivalents. In the latter
case, the layout would need to be altered only to
the extent of making the roller conveyors feeding
into and out of the pallet box filler 4 feet longer,
so that two empty boxes could be positioned at
one time for feeding the filler and two full boxes
could be accumulated for later handling.

—

PATENT GRANTED

After satisfactory tests with the pallet-box filler,
the United States Department of Agriculture filed
for a public-use patent for this item.

Patent No. 3,000,162 was granted by the U.S.
Patent Office and assigned to the United States of
America as represented by the Secretary of Agri-
culture, September 19, 1961.

A copy of Patent No. 3,000,162—‘*Pallet-Box
Filler” may be obtained by writing the Patent
Office, United States Department of Commerce,
Washington 25, D.C. and paying the usual fee of
25 cents per copy.

$$

IMPACT OF THE PALLET-BOX FILLER

The impact of a workable pallet-box filler on
pallet-box designs and standardization, storage-
space utilization, and apple marketing programs
and practices should be quite significant.

Use of a pallet-box filler requires that pallet
boxes have approximately the same dimensions so
that the filler can be adjusted to do the most satis-
factory job.

Use of pallet boxes permits the holding of about
20 percent more fruit than standard boxes on
pallets in the same storage space. However, if
presorting and presizing were done (and the
pallet-box filler provides this capability) the stor-
age space would be used only for marketable fruit.
Culls, subsize fruit, and off-color fruit would
not go into storage. If this sort-out amounted to
15 percent, this space would then become available
for quality fruit, which is the equivalent of pro-
viding an increase in storage space. Thus, the
shift to pallet boxes from standard boxes handled
on pallets, and the sizing and sorting of fruit be-
fore storage, would make possible a saving in
storage space of about 35 percent.

With apples presized, presorted, and refilled
back into pallet boxes before storage, the operators
of apple storages and packinghouses would have,
for the first time, a complete inventory of their
on-hand stocks of apples. Separations could be
made by grade, size and variety, providing plant

{howe

operators with the information they need to carry
on a good merchandising program. Filling orders
as they are received would be more readily ac-
complished. Advertising programs could be ar-
ranged to promote those sizes and qualities that
provide the highest returns at the time when the
demand for specific sizes or qualities is the
greatest.

During the 1961 harvest season, at least two
firms in the Pacific Northwest were reorganized
to size and sort fruit before storage. This ap- |
parently is the beginning of what could become
standard practice throughout the more important
apple producing areas.

The contributions of the pallet-box filler to
fruit-packing-equipment design are small com-
pared to the cost reduction and changes in market-
ing practices that will be brought about by the
use of fillers of this or other design. Not only
can handling costs be kept low, storage space be
saved, and other advantages result, but there are
also the possibilities of selling graded and sized
fruit in wholesale quantities to firms specializing
in finish packing, or to terminal market whole-
salers or operators distributing directly to retail
stores. Thus, the added advantages of develop-
ments of pallet-box filling will benefit the con-
sumer as well as the grower.

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1961 O—648522

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