Foods and beverages: apparatus – Means to treat food – Subdividing into plural products
Patent
1995-12-11
1997-06-24
Simone, Timothy F.
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Means to treat food
Subdividing into plural products
99589, 99590, 99592, 99593, 99595, 99596, 99599, A23N 700
Patent
active
056408986
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a machine for automatically peeling elongated fruits, advantageously for peeling fruits such as kiwis.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a machine which allows the skin of said fruits to be automatically removed and which, at the same time, allows the opposed ends thereof to be removed.
Italian patent application No. VR91A000090, in the name of the present applicant, discloses an automatic machine enabling the removal of the opposed ends of elongated fruits such as kiwis.
Said machine comprises a first working station, in which the machine is continuously fed with fruits which are disposed one by one on a roller conveyor.
Each roller has a concave outline, and each fruit is placed between the outlines of two adjacent rollers; furthermore, the rollers may be rotated about their longitudinal axis.
This rotational movement is transferred to the fruits and, in the case of kiwis, which have an elongated shape, the rotation results in the opposed ends of the fruits becoming aligned to an axis which is parallel to the rollers' axis.
During the advancing movement of the conveyor the aligned fruits reach a second working station, in which each of them is individually canalized between a pair of guides and pressed against said rollers, while the opposed ends are simultaneously removed, e.g. by means of a pair of opposed millers.
The fruit is then released and sets forth its advancing movement on the conveyor towards a discharging station.
The present invention aims to improve the machine disclosed in the patent application cited above in that, it aims to provide for a machine for automatically and entirely peeling fruits such as kiwis.
The automatic machine according to the invention achieves this purpose by carrying out the features disclosed in claim 1.
The dependent claims outline particularly advantageous forms of embodiment of the invention.
The automatic machine according to the invention comprises a first working station in which the fruits are loaded and aligned, and a second working station, in which the opposed ends of said fruits are removed.
According to the invention, the machine is provided with a third working station, in which the individual fruits, as coming from said second working station, are entirely peeled and then transferred to further working and/or discharging stations.
Said third working station comprises means suitable for advancing the kiwis on the conveyor, by rotating them about their longitudinal axis, as well as cutting means carrying out a surface cut on the skin of the kiwis advancing on the conveyor, thereby continuously removing the skin which had previously been cut.
According to a particularly advantageous form of embodiment of the invention, said cutting means comprise a device having a chain movable along the external surface of a kiwi in a direction which is substantially parallel to the kiwi's longitudinal axis, said chain being provided with a series of L-shaped cutting blades which on one hand cut the side surface of the kiwi and, on the other hand, raise the cut surface.
In this way, during the simultaneously occurring movement of the chain along the kiwi's side surface, and the rotation of the kiwi about its longitudinal axis, the whole skin of the kiwi is removed in the course of a complete rotation of the kiwi about its axis, thereby achieving the purposes of the invention.
According to another form of embodiment of the invention, the automatic machine comprises means for automatically loading and feeding the fruits on the conveyor.
According to a further advantageous form of embodiment of the invention, the automatic machine comprises means suitable for subdividing the peeled fruit into a series of circular sectors.
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent by reading the following description of a form of embodiment of the invention, given as a non-limiting example, with the help of the figures shown in the annexed sheets, in which:
FIG. 1 shows partial schematical side view of an automatic
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