Automatic Device for Separating Products According to External Defects, and Method for Releasing Said Products
AssigneeCitrodiagnosis Selectiva, S.L.
InventorMariano Gual Pasalodos
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Abstract
An automatic device for separating products based on their external flaws, includes a mechanism for selective separation and discharge of the products, in which the suitable products are unloaded onto a first discharge conveyor, and the unsuitable products are unloaded onto a second discharge conveyor; and a set of securing clamps for the products in their radial displacement on the discharge head of the machine jointly and simultaneously with the transport items of the products, whose activation depends on the suitable or unsuitable status of the product.
Claims13
An automatic device for separating products on the basis of detected external flaws thereof, that can be integrated in a processing line of a machine in a fruit processing and packaging plant, of a type having transport elements which transport the products, the transport elements being formed of a set of supporting pads, in which each two successive pairs of supporting pads determine a housing for one said product, the device comprising:
- a mechanism for selective separation and discharge of the products, in which suitable ones of the products are removed onto a first discharge conveyor, and unsuitable, flawed ones of the products are removed onto a second discharge conveyor;
- and
- a set of retainer elements for radially displacing the products on a discharge head of the machine jointly and simultaneously with the transport elements for the products, upon activation thereof in dependence on a suitable or unsuitable status of the product.
A method for removing products on the basis of external flaws thereof, comprising the steps of:
- individual transport of the product in housings made up of pairs of supporting pads, and
- separation of one of the products which do not comply with certain parameters by holding said products in their housing by holding clamps during part of outlet travel thereof, preventing the products complying with these parameters from falling by gravity onto a conveyor for collecting the products, and releasing this hold when the product reaches a position of a second conveyor for collecting products which do not comply with those parameters.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.