Foods and beverages: apparatus – Means to treat food – By isolating a fluid constituent
Patent
1983-01-24
1984-10-30
Simone, Timothy F.
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Means to treat food
By isolating a fluid constituent
83856, 83874, 99508, 99509, 100110, 100213, A23N 100
Patent
active
044794258
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to apparatus for automatically obtaining juice from citrus fruits, particularly oranges. Apparatus of this type is generally well known and is employed both in commercial juicing operations and in food serving establishments where juice is fresh squeezed for the consumer.
In all such operations, it is necessary that the citrus fruit, particularly oranges, be fed to a surface where a cut surface of the citrus fruit is exposed, for example by halving the fruit, and then squeezing the cut pieces so as to extract the juice, without removing the undesirable flavor components from the rind or peel. The juice which has been expressed from the pieces is then recovered, while the rinds are discarded.
Many patents have described the type of machinery generally used in accordance with the present invention. For example, an overall system for fruit juice extraction is shown in Matthews, U.S. Pat. No. 2,273,618 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,311,565 in the name of Talbert G. Nelson. Each describes a system where oranges, for example, are cut into halves, the halves advanced, cut surface downward, over stationary male press elements and then squeezed by cup-like female press elements which are moved down axially to interact with the male press elements. When the female press elements are retracted, the rinds are ejected, while the juice from the citrus fruit is recovered.
Similar machines and operations are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,629,317, Nelson; U.S. Pat. No. 2,572,286, Smith; U.S. Pat. No. 2,413,866, Du Lamey; U.S. Pat. No. 2,531,026, Cadella; U.S. Pat. No. 3,185,072, Rickard; U.S. Pat. No. 2,199,876, Brown; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,088,070, Montagroni et al. The referenced patents employ knives for cutting the citrus fruit, the knives generally being of the rotating blade, horizontal blade, or vertical blade types. With the vertical and horizontal blades, in particular, a mechanism is employed for forcing the citrus fruit to be cut over the blade.
It has been found that none of these blades perform totally adequately when the fruit to be cut has softened, a frequent condition.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
As indicated, in an automatic citrus juice juicing machine, the citrus fruit which is to be expressed from the fruit is frequently obtained from a fruit which is not firm, but which is in one way of varying degrees of softness. If this softness is not taken into account during severing or halving of the fruit, then the juice obtained is not of the high quality desired and frequently all of the juice contained within the fruit is not obtained.
When soft fruit is to be cut, an improperly angled knife can cause the fruit to collapse before cutting begins. Under these circumstances, one may express some of the undesirable materials from the rind and, additionally, the orange half which is obtained can never be properly placed within the squeezing mechanism to obtain the desired expressing operation. Either some of the flesh never has the juice expressed from it, additional undesirable materials are pressed from the rind, or both. These problems are particularly severe with horizontal and vertical knives particularly employed in the prior art, as illustrated, for example, in the afore-referenced Matthews patent, U.S. Pat. No. 2,723,618, where a vertical blade is employed. This vertical blade is the type normally used in present commercial machines.
The problem is not solved through use of the rotating knives of some of the other patents referred to, as control is lacking.
In accordance with the present invention, it has been found that even softened fruit can be adequately and accurately severed employing a knife which is sloped. The slope involves angling the blade of the cutter at between 45.degree. and 80.degree. from the horizontal. The cut citrus fruit sections are then forced along cam surfaces to the squeezing mechanism. Because of the slope of the knife blade, it is also possible to slope the cam surfaces, onto which the halves are forced, so
REFERENCES:
patent: 1888528 (1932-11-01), Faulds
patent: 2065271 (1936-12-01), Faulds
patent: 2199876 (1940-05-01), Brown
patent: 2667118 (1954-01-01), Nelson
patent: 3139126 (1964-06-01), Fromm et al.
patent: 4088070 (1978-05-01), Montagroni et al.
Automatic Orange Juicer Corp.
Simone Timothy F.
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