Fruit treating apparatus
AssigneeToyo Seikan Kaisha, Ltd.
InventorsYasuhiro Sato, Toshio Sato, Shuichi Kawasaki, Toshio Takaishi, Sadao Okuyama, Norio Yamanashi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In the case, where fruits, which are relatively soft and liable to be bruised upon contact or collision with another object such as particularly in the case of white peaches, are to be separated into flesh and pit automatically, apparatus for assuring a high efficiency and a high yield is provided for separating and taking out flesh from the fruits without brusing the flesh as much as possible.
Claims5
A fruit treating apparatus for fruits each having an indent therein and a sature line comprising a fruit treating mechanism including a tank having a water level therein for receiving and advancing fruits to be treated in such a manner that the fruits are longitudinally aligned in the water for preventing the fruits from bridging one another, said tank having an inlet end for introducing fruits into the tank and an outlet end for removing fruits from the tank, a lifter at the outlet end of said tank;
- a connecting mechanism for receiving fruits from said lifter and for smoothly conveying the fruits received from said lifter;
- a fruit posture control mechanism arranged to receive the fruits from said connecting mechanism and including cup-shaped receivers for receiving the fruits and means cooperating with said cup-shaped receivers for orienting the fruits in such a manner that the indents of the fruits are oriented substantially in the vertically downward direction, said means including a finder gear mechanism which operated only when the fruits are placed thereon and said finder gear driving mechanism including a plurality of finder gears arranged with a phase difference of 90.degree. to each other and disposed in successive order, said finder gear driving mechanism also including a wedge-shaped projection so that the combination of said finder gears and said projection orient the sature line of the fruits in a predetermined direction with said wedge-shaped projection registering with the stem indent of the fruits;
- fruit slivering mechanism for slivering the posture-control fruits on said receivers including an upper cutter and a lower cutter;
- a fruit pitting mechanism arrange to receive the fruits from said fruit slivering mechanism for severing each of said fruits slivered and separating the flesh and pit, said fruit pitting mechanism including an upper rotary cutter and a lower rotary cutter;
- and a flesh-pit separating and recovering mechanism arranged to receive the separated flesh and pits for separating the flesh and pits and for recovering the flesh, said flesh-pit separating and recovering mechanism including means for flowing the flesh along a path of travel while the pits are dropped out of the path of travel.
A fully automatic fruit treating apparatus comprising a fruit feeding mechanism including a tank having a water level therein and said tank having an inlet end and an outlet end, a fruit charging portion located within said tank adjacent the inlet end thereof, a bridge preventing portion located within said tank adjacent to the downstream end of said fruit charging portion, a file transfer portion located within said tank and located adjacent to the downstream end of said bridge preventing portion, and a subsided portion located between the downstream end of said file transfer portion and the outlet from said tank and including a vertical lifter positioned therein;
- a connecting mechanism located adjacent the outlet from said tank for receiving fruits therefrom and including individual chambers for temporarily receiving the fruits transferred from said fruit feeding mechanism, each of said chambers comprising a door and a pusher and said pusher capable of penetrating freely through the lower portion of said chambers, a posture control mechanism arranged to receive fruits from said connecting mechanism and including cup-shaped receivers for supporting the fruits and a stem indent finding mechanism for locating the stem indent portions of the fruits in a vertically downward position in said receivers;
- a fruit slivering mechanism associated with said posture control mechanism and including an upper cutter and a lower cutter for slivering the fruits into two halves leaving the pit portion in the fruit oriented in said cup-shaped receiver, means for moving said cup-shaped receivers through said fruit slivering mechanism;
- a pitting mechanism arranged adjacent said fruit slivering mechanism and in association with said posture control mechanism and including an upper rotary cutter and a lower rotary cutter for severing between the flesh and the pit of the fruits which have been slivered by means of said slivering mechanism as said cup-shaped receivers are advanced;
- and a flesh-pit separating and recovering mechanism including a water tank for receiving the flesh and pits separated in said pitting mechanism, said water tank having a perforated bottom, pit recovering means operatively associated with said perforated bottom, and said water tank having a section thereof with a curved and raised bottom and an overflow port and means for flowing water through said tank for forwarding the flesh over said curved and raised bottom.
A fully automatic fruit treating apparatus comprising a fruit feeding mechanism including a tank having a water level therein and having an inlet at one end thereof and an outlet at the other end thereof, a fruit charging portion located within said tank at the inlet end thereof, a bridge preventing portion located within said tank downstream from and adjacent said fruit charging portions, a file transfer portion located within said tank adjacent to and downstream of said bridge preventing portion, and a subsided portion located adjacent and between said file transfer portion and the outlet end of said tank, a vertical lifter located within said subsided portion;
- a connecting mechanism including individual chambers for receiving fruits from the outlet end of said tank in said fruit feeding mechanism, each individual chamber provided with a door and a pusher for freely penetrating through a lower portion of each said chamber, a posture control mechanism for the fruit located adjacent said connecting mechanism and including caterpillar belt extending from said connecting mechanism, cup-shapedreceivers formed on said caterpillar belt, and stem indent finding mechanisms associated with said cup-shaped receivers for locating the stem indent portion of the fruits in said receivers in a vertically downwardly directed position;
- a sature line registering mechanism located in said posture control mechanism for positioning the sature line of the fruits in said receivers, a fruit slivering mechanism operatively associated with said cup-shaped receivers and located downstream from said sature line registering mechanism and including an upper cutter and a lower cutter for slivering the fruits in said receivers in two halves while leaving the pit portion therein;
- a pitting mechanism located adjacent to and downstream from said fruit slivering mechanism and associated with said cup-shaped receivers, said pitting mechanism including an upper rotary cutter and a lower rotary cutter for severing between the flesh and the pit of the fruits which have been slivered in said fruit slivering mechanism;
- and a flesh-pit separating and recovering mechanism located adjacent and downstream from said pitting mechanism and including a water tank for receiving the fruits discharged from said cup-shaped receivers and which have been separated into the flesh and the pit of said fruits;
- said water tank having a perforated bottom, pit recovering means associated with the perforated bottom of said tank, said tank including a section having a raised curved bottom and an overflow port for separating the flesh from the pits and for forwarding the flesh to an end portion thereof.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.