WO1988007333A1

WO1988007333A1 - Fruit processing apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO1988007333A1
Application number: PCT/AU1988/000076
Authority: WO
Inventors: Thomas George Franklin
Original assignee: The State Of Queensland
Priority date: 1987-03-23
Filing date: 1988-03-23
Publication date: 1988-10-06

Abstract

Fruit processing apparatus includes a first belt conveyor (23) for sections (47) of fruit from which the seed or core has been excised, and a second or cleated belt conveyor (15) for interacting with the fruit on the first conveyor (23) and carrying it over slicing blades (29) which slice the flesh of the fruit into pieces (47a) and further, bearing against the inside of the fruit peel (47b) serve as guides to bring the leading end of the fruit section (47) to and past a curved peeling blade (36) which parts the peel from the flesh, a peel tongue guide (42, 43) leading and discharging the peel clear of the flesh pieces. The fruit may be divided into cheek sections to be processed and a central excised section by a seeder consisting of a double conveyor (50) for holding fruit pieces and conveying each in sequence to and past a pair of adjacent seeder blades (64) with correspondingly outwardly bowed middle parts (67), the blades being counter-reciprocated by a motor (65), the excised central section being carried by a chute (68), the cheek sections by ramps (70).

Description

Title: "FRUIT PROCESSING APPARATUS" BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(1) Field of the Invention

THIS INVENTION relates to fruit processing apparatus.

(2) Prior Art

Currently, manual labour is largely used to process mangoes into peeled portions. The manual process consists of cutting portions of the mango from either side of the seed along the larger axis of the fruit and scooping the flesh out of the two resultant cheeks of fruit. The separation of the side sections or cheeks from a central portion containing the seed may be done mechanically by a known apparatus which conveys the fruit between two resilient belts to a pair of spaced circular cutters on a driven shaft, but the removal of the flesh from the cheek sections remains laborious and time consuming. Moreover, the portions of fruit thereby produced are likely to be of irregular shape and generally unattractive for presentation and marketing purposes, and a significant amount of the flesh is often left on the skin.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been devised with the general object of providing apparatus for the efficient processing of fruit including, but not restricted to, mangoes.

A further object achievable in preferred embodiments of the invention is to provide such apparatus which removes the seed or core of mangoes or other fruit in such a way as to reduce the amount of flesh of the fruit excised with the seed or core.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention resides broadly in a fruit processing apparatus including: a frame; a curved peeling knife mounted on the frame; conveying means for engaging sections of fruit and moving them in sequence towards the peeling blade; and guide means on the frame for guiding each fruit section to bring the leading end of its peel close to the convex face of the curved peeling blade; the curvature of the peeling blade substantially conforming to the cross-sectional configuration of the peel of the fruit being processed; and the conveying means being arranged to urge the fruit section past the peeling blade to separate its peel from its flesh.

Other features of the invention will become apparent from the following description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In order that a preferred embodiment of the invention may be readily understood and carried into practical effect, reference is now made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a partly broken-away front elevational view of a mango processing apparatus according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the apparatus, its carrier arm being moved from its operative position to the inoperative position shown, in part, in broken outline in FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is a perspective detail drawing of the peeling knife assembly of the apparatus;

FIG. 4 is a front elevational view of the mango seeder of the apparatus;

FIG. 5 is a perspective detail drawing of the cutters of the seeder; and FIG. 6 is a detail side view of a modified form of the slicing blades of the apparatus shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The mango processor shown in the drawings has a drive housing 10 enclosing an electric drive motor and reduction gearing (not shown) for driving the shaft 11 of a concave profiled roller 12 located in front of the housing.

A carrier arm 13 has one apertured end freely rotatable on the roller shaft 11 between a pair of spacer collars 14 on the shaft, so that it may be swung from its normal floating operative position to an inoperative position shown in part in broken outline in FIG. 1.

An endless transversely cleated belt 15 of rubber or like material is engaged in a peripheral recess 16 formed about the middle part of the concave roller 12. This belt is carried from the concave roller 12 to be led about a first idler roller 17, a second idler roller 18, a third idler roller 19, an idler sprocket 20 and back down to the concave roller 12. The first and third idler rollers 17 and 19 and the idler sprocket 20 are rotatable on axles 21 fixed to and extending perpendicularly from the carrier arm 13, the second idler roller 18 near the distal end of the carier arm being mounted for adjustment to vary the tension of the belt 15. The idler sprocket 20 meshes with the transversely cleated belt.

The concave face of the roller 12, to either side of the central peripheral recess 16, is formed with friction grooves 22 more or less corresponding to the transverse cleats of the belt 15 engaged on the roller. A conveyor 23 leading towards the concave roller 12 includes an endless belt 24 mounted on end rollers 25, the axle 26 of one of which is driven from the drive mechanism within the housing 10. The conveyor belt travels over a frame 27 the supports of which include a bracket 28 extending from the housing 10.

Parallel slicing blades 29 are located between the end of the conveyor 23 and the concave roller 12. These blades are mounted on a sleeve (not shown) engaged on a spindle 30 projecting perpendicularly from the front of the housing 10. The blades are maintained in spaced relationship by spacer collars 31 on the sleeve and are removably secured by a knurled nut 32 on the threaded end of the sleeve, which is removably secured by a second nut 32a engaging the threaded end of the spindle. A transverse locating bolt 33 through the blades, with spacer collars 34 between the blades, maintains the blades in alignment. The middle blades have points 35 projecting onto the conveyor belt 24.

The top or cutting edges of the blades 29 curve more or less arcuately down towards the roller 12 and terminate above a peeling blade 36, curved arcuately from side to side to approach closely the concavity of the roller 12. The peeling blade 36, as shown particularly in FIG. 3, is replaceably fitted to an arcuate blade holder 37 the ends of which are fixed to uprights 38 which are vertically slidable in channelled posts 39 and releasably secured by set screws 40. The lower parts of the uprights 38 are rigidly interconnected by a curved bottom bar 41. From the middle of the blade holder 37 a main peel guide tongue 42 extends downwardly with a curvature more or less parallel to the belt 15 about the roller 12.

The main peel guide tongue 42 leads to a secondary peel guide tongue 43 carried by a post 44 and curving under the bottom of the concave roller 12. The channelled posts 39 supporting the peeling blade assembly and the post 44 supporting the secondary peel guide tongue 43 are mounted on a bracket 45 fixed to and projecting forwards from a traveller 45a within, and projecting forwardly from, the housing 10. By means of a crank handle 46 acting through a screw and nut device (not shown) within the housing, the bracket 45, and with it the peeling blade assembly and peel guide tongue, and also the concave roller 12„ and the assembly of the cleated belt 15 and associated parts, may be moved close to or further from the slicing blades 29.

The bracket 45 may be advanced or retracted adjustably relative to the traveller 45a, fixing screws 45b passing through slots in the bracket and engaging in the traveller.

Mango cheeks, that is to say sections of the fruit cut (as hereinafter described) from a central section containing the seed, are fed onto the conveyor belt 24, and are indicated in broken outline at 47. The conveyor brings the mango cheeks in sequence between it and the run of the cleated belt 15 from the second idler roller 18 to the third idler roller 19. The conveyor belt and cleated belt, moving on convergent paths in the directions indicated by arrows in FIG. 1, bring each mango cheek 47 down onto the parallel blades 29 which are forced through the flesh of the fruit and to its peel. The peel is brought into contact with the downward run of the cleated belt 15 from the idler sprocket 20 to the concave roller 12 and the mango cheek is swept down past the peeling blade 36. The pieces of the flesh of the mango, indicated in broken line at 47a, separated by the slicing blades 29 and cut from the peel by the peeling blade 36, fall into a receptacle 48, and the separated peel, indicated in broken outline at 47b, riding over the main and secondary peel guide tongues 42 and 43, is discharged into a second receptacle 49.

By advancing or retracting the bracket 45 relative to the traveller 45a, as before described, the peeling blade 37 and the peel guide tongues 42 and 43 may be moved closer to or further from the cleated belt 15 about the concave roller 12, to vary the thickness of peel removed from the flesh of the mangoes.

The mango cheeks may be cut and fed onto the conveyor 23 by hand; or it may be preferred to use to a mango seeder as shown more or less diagramatically in FIGS. 4 and 5, to which reference is now made. This device includes a vertical conveyor 50 having a frame 51 carrying bearings 52 for the axles 53 of a pair of spaced parallel upper drums 54 and for the axles 55 of a pair of similar lower drums 56. Each of the drums includes a spaced pair of pulley wheels 57 mounted on its axle,, the pulleys of each upper d-rum 54 and those of the corresponding lower drum 56 being engaged by a pair of endless belts 58 interconnected by a series of fairly closely spaced resiliently flexible bars 59, which may suitably be of a plastics material. The axles 53 of the two upper drums carry sprockets 60 which are counter- rotated by an endless chain drive 61 from a motor-driven drive sprocket 62.

Mangoes, as indicated at 63, are fed manually or otherwise to the conveyor 50, the flexible bars 59 of which bend to accept their The conveyor carries the mangoes downwardly in sequence to a pair of oppositely reciprocated seeder blades 64, driven by a motor 65 connected to the blades at one end, their other ends being slidable in a bearing block 66. As shown in FIG. 5, the blades 64, with serrated cutting edges, are closely adjacent except for their middle parts 67 which are bowed outwardly, away from each other. Each of the mangoes 63 is forced by the conveyor 50 past these blades which are rapidly reciprocated through small opposed strokes, so that a central seed section is excised from the mango to fall through a central chute 68 into a receptacle 69. The two cheek sections of the mango descend a pair of ramps 70 to a pair of oppositely travelling belt conveyors, which are the conveyors 23 of two of the processing devices described with reference to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 of the drawings. The single mango seeder, then, will deliver mango cheeks simultaneously to two slicing and peeling machines as before described. The contoured seeder blades will enable a greater recovery of the flesh of the fruit than is obtained by parallel cuts at opposite sides of the mango seeds.

The excised central sections containing the mango seeds may be delivered to a brush processor (not shown) of well-known type, for recovering any available flesh of the fruit for pulp. Although the invention has been described with relation to the processing of mangoes, it is applicable, with suitable modifications which will be readily apparent to persons skilled in the art, to the processing of other fruits and vegetables, such as, for exampled, halved and seeded avocados. The slicing blades 29 have been found to operate satisfactorily on mangoes without sharpened cutting edges, but such edges may be required for the processing of other fruits. The- functions of these blades includes that of guiding the fruit sections from the conveyor 23 to the peeling blade 36 by their contact with the inside of the fruit peel, and their number may be varied as required.

The fixed slicing blades 29 described and illustrated may be replaced by disc cutters 71, as shown in FIG. 6. These disc cutters are fixed on the spindle 30 which, in this case, is rotated, driving the cutters to assist in carrying the fruit to the curved peeling blade 36. The disc cutters vary in diameter to accommodate themselves to the curvature of the peel of the fruit and to that of the peeling blade.

The foregoing and many other modifications of constructural detail and design are considered to lie within the ambit of the invention hereinafter claimed.

Claims

1. Fruit processing apparatus including: a frame; a curved peeling knife mounted on the frame; conveying means for engaging sections of fruit and moving them in sequence towards the peeling blade; and guide means on the frame for guiding each fruit section to bring the leading end of its peel close to the convex face of the curved peeling blade; the curvature of the peeling blade substantially conforming to the cross-sectional configuration of the peel of the fruit being processed; and the conveying means being arranged to urge the fruit section past the peeling blade to separate its peel from its flesh.

2.. Fruit processing apparatus according to Claim 1 wherein: the guide means includes at least one slicing blade for parting the flesh of the moving fruit section and supporting and guiding its peel.

3. Fruit processing apparatus according to either of the preceding claims wherein: the guide means includes a series of slicing blades in spaced parallel arrangement.

4. Fruit processing apparatus according to Claim 3 wherein: the slicing blades are coaxially mounted on a driven shaft.

5. Fruit processing apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the conveying means includes: a first endless-belt conveyor, for receiving fruit sections to be processed; and a second endless belt conveyor arranged to interact with each fruit section carried by the first endless belt conveyor and move it from the first endless belt conveyor to the guide means and to and past the peeling blade.

6. Fruit processing apparatus according to Claim 5 wherein: the second endless belt conveyor includes a transversely cleated belt engaged on a series of rollers including a concave roller about the central reduced diameter part of which_βthe cleated belt travels; one run of the cleated belt is arranged to interact with each fruit section carried by the first endless belt and move it therefrom to the guide means; and a further run of the cleated belt leading to and around the concave roller is arranged to engage the fruit section and move it to and past the peeling blade.

7. Fruit processing apparatus according to Claim 6 wherein: the concave roller, to both sides of the cleated belt, is formed with friction grooves.

8. Fruit processing apparatus according to either of Claims 6 or 7 wherein: a tongue extends from the central part of the curved peeling blade substantially parallel to the run of the cleated belt on the concave roller for guiding and discharging the peel clear of the flesh parted therefrom by the peeling blade. 0

9. Fruit processing apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims wherein sections of fruit are fed to the conveying means from a seeder device including: a pair of adjacent seeder blades with b corresponding parts bowed outwards away from each other; a seeder conveyor for conveying fruit to and past the seeder blades to cause such blades to divide the fruit into two cheek sections and an excised central section containing the seed or core of the fruit; and 5 means for directing the cheek sections to the said conveying means.

10. Fruit processing apparatus according to Claim 9 wherein: the seeder blades have serrated cutting 10 edges and means are provided for counter-reciprocating them.

11. Fruit processing apparatus substantially as herein described with reference to FIGS. 1, 2, 3 and 6 of the accompanying drawings.

15 12. A seeder for fruit processing apparatus substantially as herein described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5 of the accompanying drawings.