Horizontal fruit press and process for pressing fruit

Abstract

Fruit press comprising a substantially rigid enclosure or cage having two parallel, vertical open ends and a closeable top for introduction of fruit pulp or other material to be deliquified, and including two platens, one abutting each of the two open ends of said enclosure, one of said platens adapted to substantially tightly and slidably seat in said enclosure and compress material to be deliquified against the other platen to form a cake, said other platen then being indexable away from said enclosure while the first platen indexes slightly beyond the distal end of said enclosure to displace said press cake out of said enclosure. Liquid is expressed from said press cake by drainage through suitable channels in the faces of one or both of the platens and/or the sides and bottom of the enclosure. The process comprises the steps of placing fruit or other material to be deliquified in a substantially rigid enclosure having parallel vertically extending open ends, rigidly supporting said fruit or other material at one of said open ends while compressing it from the other said open ends, and contemporaneously rapidly draining the expressed liquid therefrom, to create a press cake have a predetermined thickness, indexing the backup platen from said enclosure a distance greater than the thickness of said press cake and displacing said compressing means a further distance approximately equal to the thickness of said press cakes to discharge the cake from the enclosure.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.