Foods and beverages: apparatus – Means to treat food – By isolating a fluid constituent
Patent
1981-12-30
1984-07-03
Simone, Timothy F.
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Means to treat food
By isolating a fluid constituent
99513, 99637, 99638, 100117, 100145, A23N 100, A23N 1502
Patent
active
044572239
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to the crushing of grapes, and more particularly to a crusher adapted to rupture the skins of the grapes in a simple manner.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Conventionally grape crushers include the step of passing the bunches of grapes through at least a pair of grooved spaced rollers so that the grape berries are crushed to allow the juices to be extracted therefrom by a pressing operation.
These rollers through which the grapes pass must crush the grapes and also tend to damage the stems and stalks, and often tend to break these into smaller pieces.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,034,423 by Albert Demoisy discloses a continuous rotary press for extracting liquid from fragile products (for example fruits) where a rotor operates within a perforated housing, the rotor being divided into a plurality of compartments and carrying rollers and endless track members to press the material retained by the perforated housing.
R. G. Lohre et al in U.S. Pat. No. 2,682,832 discloses an apparatus for removal of juice from citrus fruit, with the rotor being mounted eccentrically within the rotatable outer casing so that the fruit is compressed to squeeze the juice therefrom.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,011,430 discloses an orange juice extractor wherein the fruit is subjected to a gradually increasing pressure, to squeeze the juice from the orange, the extractor including a rotor acting in conjunction with a surrounding drum.
U.S. Pat. No. 292,524 by Wilson and U.S. Pat. No. 2,119,972 by Steinbiss each disclose apparatus having a spiral or similarly shaped rotor to move the material, the spiral body increasing in diameter to produce an increasing pressure.
It is an object of this invention to provide a grape crusher in which the grape berries are crushed, split or opened in a simple manner to allow the juice to be extracted therefrom.
It is a further object to provide a grape crusher in which there is a ready separation of the stalks and stems from the crushed berries and pips with there being a minimum of damage to the skins themselves and also to the stems and stalks.
BRIEF STATEMENT OF THE INVENTION
Thus there is provided according to this invention a grape crusher comprising spiral means to transport the grapes through a treating zone, means for rotating the spiral at a speed such that the grapes are forced by centrifugal force to the wall of the crusher so that the action of the spiral on the grapes adjacent the wall causes the berries to be split and opened.
Throughout the specification while reference is made to the invention as a grape crusher, it is to be realised that the term crusher is not used in the usual sense of pressure being applied between rollers or the like, that is merely used to refer to the action of breaking the skins of the grapes to open up the grapes so that the juice can be extracted.
In a preferred form the crusher is a cylindrical drum, a spiral being mounted within the drum.
The spiral in its preferred form can comprise a two bladed spiral having a large pitch, the spiral blades being mounted on radial arms.
The cylindrical drum is preferably formed of metal and is provided with a plurality of apertures. Adjacent the inlet end these apertures are of relatively small size, and then increase in diameter toward the outlet end.
It is to be noted that in the preferred form the spiral is not mounted centrally within the cylindrical drum, but is so positioned that it has a small clearance at the bottom while at the top there is a larger clearance.
The drum is provided with an inlet chamber or hopper, this being offset from the central axis of the drum and is thus positioned to one side of the vertical diameter of the drum and on that side where the spiral blades pass downwardly so that there is little or no tendency for any of the grapes being fed in to fly up out of the drum.
Means are provided to drive the spiral at a relatively high speed, this being preferably by an electric motor or the like, either mounted on or adjacent to the cylindrical drum. It has been found that with the above clearanc
REFERENCES:
patent: 539055 (1895-05-01), Holthaus
patent: 1428687 (1922-09-01), Ferencz
patent: 2088657 (1937-08-01), Lindley
patent: 2089215 (1937-08-01), Lomax
patent: 2172790 (1939-09-01), Ferrari
patent: 2398440 (1946-04-01), Monnet
patent: 2478651 (1949-08-01), Blachere
patent: 2543571 (1951-02-01), Ferrari
patent: 2682832 (1954-07-01), Lohre et al.
patent: 3034423 (1962-05-01), Demoisy
patent: 3478796 (1969-11-01), Ranfanelli
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