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AssigneeThe Proctor & Gamble Company
InventorsMichael S. Kolodesh, Walter Cash, Jr., Jerry E. Davis, Peter G. Gosselin, Ronald W. Kock, Bruce A. Pierson, H. Norman Reiboldt, David A. Sabatelli, Douglas Toms
Estimating the term…
A method of and apparatus for extracting the fruit meat section of a fruit, and subsequently separating and removing the sectional membranes and seeds from the fruit meat section to produce free juice and an abundance of unruptured juice sacs. In one embodiment of the present invention, whole fruits are fed into a dual turret extraction apparatus that includes a plurality of matched resilient cups for holding the fruit. After the fruit is cut in half, the halves are indexed through successive coring and reaming stations. The coring station includes a coring element that cleanly extracts a hemisperical section of fruit meat from the peel. The reaming station includes a reaming element that gently removes any fruit meat remaining within the peel. The fruit meat sections are then fed into rag separator apparatus that uses a rotating screen drum and a counterrotating shaft having striker bars projecting radially therefrom to strip the juice sacs from the sectional membranes. The resultant juice/juice sac slurry is then deposited on the upper surface of an inclined vibrating bed that causes the seeds to bounce and tumble down the bed while the juice sacs travel up the bed to a point where they are collected.
An apparatus for extracting fruit meat from a fruit, said apparatus comprising:
An apparatus for extracting fruit meat sections from a fruit, said fruit meat sections containing sectional membranes and juice sacs, and for separating said juice sacs from said sectional membranes to produce a juice and juice-sac slurry, said apparatus comprising:
An apparatus for extracting fruit meat sections from a fruit, said fruit meat sections containing seeds, sectional membranes and juice sacs, and for separating said juice sacs from said sectional membranes to produce a juice and juice-sac slurry containing seeds, and for separating said seeds from said juice and juice-sac slurry, said apparatus comprising:
A method of extracting fruit meat from a fruit, said method comprising the steps of:
A method of extracting fruit meat sections from a fruit, said fruit meat sections containing sectional membranes and juice sacs, and separating said juice sacs from said sectional membranes to produce a juice and juice sac slurry, said method comprising the steps of:
A method of extracting fruit meat sections from a fruit, said fruit meat sections containing seeds, sectional membranes and juice sacs, and of separating said juice sacs from said sectional membranes to produce a juice and juice sac slurry containing seeds, and of removing said seeds from said juice and juice sac slurry, said method comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.