AU762117B2 - Wine-production method and installation and a vat and drive unit suitable for their implementation - Google Patents

Description

N,

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act COMPLETE SPECIFICATION

(ORIGINAL)

Class Int. Class Application Number: Lodged: Complete Specification Lodged: Accepted: Published: Priority Related Art: Name of Applicant:

SOMAVI

Actual Inventor(s): Didier Pera Jean Pera Address for Service: PHILLIPS ORMONDE FITZPATRICK Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys 367 Collins Street Melbourne 3000 AUSTRALIA Invention Title: WINE-PRODUCTION METHOD AND INSTALLATION AND A VAT AND DRIVE UNIT SUITABLE FOR THEIR IMPLEMENTATION Our Ref 590165 POF Code: 11188/366460 The following statement is a full description of method of performing it known to applicant(s): -1this inveti&,S IUffi6ng th best Documents received on: 0 0 6 JUL 1999 Batch No: -la- The invention relates to wine production from grapes in a vat.

It is known that one of the first steps of wine production is to introduce the grapes into a vat and to leave them in it for a certain length of time in order to effect fermentation or a simple steeping (depending on whether a red, rosd or white wine is being produced), and that there exists, for implementing this step, automatically-emptying vats provided on the inside with a grid separating the liquid part (the wine or juice) from the solid part (the marc), the wine or juice being discharged by simple gravity by virtue of a pipe situated in the bottom of the vat, the marc for its part being discharged subsequently through an emptying flap by a mechanical discharge means, generally a rotor having a certain number of radially oriented rakes, which circulate just above the bottom of the vat.

The invention aims to reduce the cost of this type of vat.

Wine production method including the use of a plurality of vats each permanently equipped with a mechanical means of discharging the marc and further including the use, for the respective discharge means of said plurality of vats, of one and the same drive means which is transported from vat to vat according to requirements, each of the said discharge means having no individual drive means and being able to be coupled to the said same drive 20 means.

it is necessary to discharge, from one of the vats, the marc which it •contains, the common drive means is transport to this vat and is *°oO* oo• *o 2 coupled to the latter, and is then started up to drive the discharge means, for example in order to rotate a rotor with rakes.

By avoiding providing, for each of the vats, a drive means which is peculiar to it, major savings are made, in particular when it is a case of large vats, which require high power for driving the discharge means.

It is of course not possible to discharge the marc simultaneously from several vats, but this does not in practice pose any difficulty, the vats being filled one after the other, as the grape harvest arrives, and having consequently to be emptied one after the other.

According to preferred characteristics, the said one and the same drive means is transported and coupled by travelling and lifting, each said vat being adapted to receive the said one and the same drive means from below.

This way of transporting and coupling the common drive means is particularly well suited to the general arrangement adopted in wine production installations, when in general a pathway is provided underneath the vats.

The invention also relates, in a second aspect, to a wine production vat suitable for implementing the method disclosed above, which is characterised in that it has a mechanical means of discharging the marc with no individual drive means and provided with a means of rapid coupling to a removable drive means.

According to preferred characteristics, for reasons of simplicity and convenience both at the time of manufacture and during use, the said rapid coupling means has, on an external portion of a shaft of said discharge means, a means of receiving a shaft on said removable drive means.

According to other preferred characteristics, the vat has a means of coupling its body to the stator of said removable drive means.

There is thus no need to take special steps to immobilise the stator of the drive means with respect to rotation, which can notably remain simply placed on a handling trolley during the driving of the marc discharge means.

According to other preferred characteristics of the vat according to the invention, its body has holes for receiving studs on the stator of the said removable drive means, whilst there is provided, on an external portion of a shaft on the said discharge means, a coaxial recess for receiving a shaft on the said removable drive means, the said recess and the said holes being oriented so as to be parallel.

The coupling between the common drive means and the vessel therefore takes place by a simple approach of the end of the drive means where the shaft and studs are situated, this approach being effected with the shaft of the drive means aligned with the shaft of the discharge means.

According to another preferred characteristic, having regard to the above mentioned arrangement of the vats in the wine production installations, the said rapid coupling means is disposed underneath the vat.

The invention also relates, in a third aspect, to a drive unit suitable for implementing the method disclosed above, which is characterised in that it :has a drive means having, at one end, a shaft which can be coupled, and a support with respect to which the said drive means can freely incline.

The possibility which the drive means has of freely inclining with respect to the support makes it possible to fit the drive means simply by lifting the support, even if the latter has a different orientation from that of the shaft on the means of discharging the marc out of the vat, by virtue of the possibility of inclination of the drive means with respect to the support.

According to preferred characteristics, for the reasons indicated above with regard to the vat, the said drive means has, at the said end, means of coupling its stator.

Preferably, for reasons of simplicity and convenience as well as economy, the said support has a bowl with an open end on which the said drive means rests by means of rollers, each carried by a projecting lug on the stator of the said drive means; and preferably the said bowl has an internal face on which the said rollers rest, having the form of a portion of a sphere; and/or preferably the said bowl is disposed at the top of a jacket, the said stator cooperating through its top with the said bowl so that the said jacket surrounds the part of the stator situated below the bowl. 1, 4 According to other preferred characteristics, the said support is provided with a base plate by means of which the said unit rests on a carrier surface.

The unit can thus be placed on the ground for storage or be disposed on the fork of a lift truck.

According to preferred alternative characteristics, the unit according to the invention has a chassis including travel means and means of lifting the said support with respect to the chassis.

The invention also relates, in a fourth aspect, to a wine production installation characterised in that it includes several vessels as disclosed above and a drive unit as disclosed above.

The disclosure of the invention will now be continued with the description of an example embodiment, given below for purposes of illustration and non-limitatively, with reference to the accompanying drawings. In these: 15 Figure 1 is a schematic view in elevation of a wine production vat according to the invention, in which the separation grid and the rotor discharging the marc are shown in section; Figure 2 is a view in elevation and section of a unit driving the marc discharge motor for the vat illustrated in Figure 1; and Figure 3 shows a variant of this drive unit, not having integrated rolling and lifting means, placed on the fork of a lift truck.

The wine production vat 1 illustrated in Figure 1 has a side wall 2, a cover 3, a base 4 and feet The side wall 2 is cylindrical in shape with a circular base oriented vertically.

The cover 3 has a convex wall 6, more precisely in the form of a truncated cone whose large diameter is connected to the side wall 2 and whose small diameter is connected to a grape feed pipe 7 whose top is closed off by a hatch 8.

The base 4 has a convex wall 9 which is connected to the side wall 2, a flat wall 10 which internally duplicates the wall 9 in a central portion, a marc discharge pipe 11 disposed just at the periphery of the wall 10, and a hatch 12 for closing the pipe 11.

At the connection between the walls 2 and 9, an annular, and more precisely frustoconical, grid is disposed, which delimits between it and the walls 2 and 9 a chamber 14 opening out into a liquid discharge pipe A marc discharge rotor 16 is disposed below the grid 13. It has a certain number of radially oriented rakes 17, which are designed so as to move just above the wall 10 and the part of the wall 9 situated between the wall 10 and the grid 13, each of the rakes 17 being connected to a central shaft 18 mounted on a bearing 19 fixed to the walls 9 and 10, forming a very slight projection above the wall 10, and projecting significantly below the wall 9, the bearing 19 being surrounded, close to its outer end, by a horizontally oriented annular flange 20, a reinforcement sleeve 21 disposed coaxially with the bearing 19 being connected to the walls 9 and 10 and to the annular flange 20, the latter having a part projecting beyond the sleeve 21.

The shaft 18 of the rotor 16 has on the outside a recess 22 provided with flutes (not shown), the recess 22 being oriented vertically, and more precisely coaxially with the shaft 18, which is itself also coaxial with the vat 1.

In the part of the flange 20 which projects beyond the sleeve 21 there are provided holes 23 oriented vertically, that is to say parallel notably to the recess 22 and to the shaft 18.

As will be seen subsequently, the recess 22 is designed to couple the drive shaft of a motor unit serving to rotate the rotor 16, and the holes 23 serving to couple the stator of this drive unit to the body of the vat 1.

In order to fill the vat 1, the hatch 8 is opened and the grapes are introduced through the pipe 7, and once the vat is full the grapes are let to stand for the required time, a certain degree of separation between the solid and liquid parts of the grapes then occurring.

In order to empty the vat 1, the first step is to discharge the liquid parts, 30 by opening a cock (not shown) which closed off the pipe 15, through which the :juice or wine is then discharged.

CB W.documeatstfo Not Delete AmendmentsXJRN590165.doc 24 March 2003 -6- Once the liquid part has been discharged, the marc drainage hatch 12 is opened and the rotor 16 is turned by means of the motor unit coupled by the recess 22 and holes 23, the rotation of the rakes 17 enabling the marc to be discharged through the pipe 11.

A description will now be given, with the help of Figure 2, of a mobile unit including a motor unit 26 for driving the rotor 16 of the vat 1.

In addition to the motor unit 26, the mobile unit 25 has a support 27 for the unit 26, a chassis 28 provided with wheels 29 and jacks 30 disposed between the chassis 28 and the support 27 in order to lift or lower the latter with respect to the chassis 28.

The motor unit 26 includes a fluted drive shaft 31 adapted to engage in the recess 22 in the shaft 18 so that the shafts 18 and 31 are connected with respect to rotation, the shaft 31 being disposed at the end of a stator 32, of which a flange 33 forms part, the said flange being provided with studs 34 adapted each to be receive in one of the holes 23 in the flange 20, the flange 33 coming against the latter when the studs 34 are engaged in the holes 23 and the shaft 31 in the recess 22.

The support 27 has a bottomless bowl 35 and a jacket 36 situated underneath the bowl S 20 The bowl 35 has on the inside the shape of a portion of a sphere narrowing towards the bottom whilst the jacket 36 is formed by a cylindrical wall with a circular base with a diameter slightly greater than the minimum diameter of the bowl The motor unit 26 has lugs 37 each carrying a roller 38, the motor unit 36 resting on the support 27 because the rollers 38 are in abutment on the internal face of the bowl The motor unit 26 can thus rock about the mean position depicted in Figure 2, with its geometric axis 38 remaining included within the cone 40, the io°: maximum inclination being obtained when the stator 32 comes into contact with 30 the jacket 36.

:The rollers 38 being situated practically at the top end of the body 32, the t centre of gravity of the unit 26 is situated very much below the rollers CB W.Adoctments\Do Not Delete\Amedments\IRN590165.doc 24 March 2003 38, so that the unit 28 adopts a relatively stable condition with respect to the support 27, this position being vertical in the absence of any external force.

The end of the rod of each of the jacks 30 is fixed to a lug 42 on the support 27 projecting externally to the jacket 36, whilst the body of each of these jacks is fixed to the chassis 28, the support 27, and therefore the unit 26, rising up when the rods 41 are caused to emerge, and lowering when they are retracted.

When it is wished to discharge the marc contained in a vat 1, the unit 25 is transported by causing it to run on the ground 45, with the rods of the jacks 41 retracted (motor unit 26 and support 27 lowered) until the unit is situated below the vat 1, and then the rods of the jacks 41 are brought out and the position of the unit 25 is adjusted so that the shaft 31 is aligned with the shaft 18 and each of the studs 34 is aligned with a hole 33, and then the rods of the jacks 41 are continued to be brought out until the shaft 31 is engaged in the recess 22 and each of the studs 34 are engaged in a hole 23, until the flange 33 bears against the flange 20, the ability of the motor unit 26 to incline with respect to the support 27 affording perfect alignment of the shafts 18 and 31, even if the ground is relatively sloping, as is often the case as in wine *eoe** production installations.

The motor unit 26 has then connected, if this has not already been done, to the power source, and then the shaft 31 is rotated for the necessary amount of time for the rotor 26 to discharge the marc.

When the marc discharge operation has ended, the rotation of the shaft 31 is stopped, the unit 26 is if necessary disconnected from the power source, and the rods of the jacks 41 are retracted. The unit 25 is then available to enable another vat to discharge the marc which it contains.

In the variant 25' shown in Figure 3, the chassis 28 provided with wheels 29 and the jacks 30 are replaced by a lift truck 46 having a vertically movable fork 47, on which the support 27 is placed, a base plate 48 being provided in the latter at the base of the jacket 46 to enable it to be placed without damage on the fork 47 or on the floor.

In a variant which is not shown, the coupling between the stator of the motor unit 26 and the body of the vat 1 is completed by a locking preventing the lowering of the motor unit, rather than counting solely on the maintenance in height by the lifting means.

Numerous variants are possible according to circumstances, notably for the means of coupling between the drive shaft of the motor unit and the rotor shaft or more generally the shaft of the means of discharging the marc out of the vat, for the means of coupling between the stator of the motor unit and the body of the vat, and to enable the motor unit to rock with respect to the support.

More generally, it should be stated that the invention is not limited to the examples described and depicted.

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Claims (14)

1. Wine production method including the use of a plurality of vats each permanently equipped with a mechanical means of discharging the marc and further including the use, for the respective discharge means of said plurality of vats, of one and the same drive means which is transported from vat to vat according to requirements, each of the said discharge means having no individual drive means and being able to be coupled to the said same drive means.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the said one and the same drive means is transported and coupled by travelling and lifting, each said vat being adapted to receive the said one and the same drive means from below.

3. A wine production vat suitable for the implementation of the method according to either one of claims 1 or 2, said vat being permanently equipped with a mechanical means of discharging the marc which has no individual drive means and is provided with a means of rapid coupling to a removable drive means. 2 00

4. A vat according to claim 3, wherein the said rapid coupling means has, on an external portion of a shaft of the said discharge means, a means of receiving a shaft of the said removable drive means.

5. A vat according to either one of claims 3 or 4, including means of coupling the vat to a stator of the said removable drive means.

6. A vat according to claim 5, wherein holes are provided for receiving studs on the stator of the said removable drive means whilst there is provided, on an 30 external portion of a shaft on the said discharge means, a coaxial recess for receiving a shaft on the said removable drive means, the said recess and the said holes being oriented so as to be parallel. CB W:\documentsDo Not DeletemedmentsMRN590165.doc 24 March 2003

7. A vat according to any one of claims 3 to 6, wherein the said rapid coupling means is disposed below the vat.

8. A wine production installation suitable for implementing the method according to either one of claims 1 or 2, wherein the installation includes a plurality of vats according to any one of claims 3 to 6, and a removable drive unit having a drive means having at one end a shaft which can be coupled to the discharge means of a respective vat, and a support with respect to which the said drive means can freely incline.

9. An installation according to claim 8, wherein the said drive means has, at the said end, means of coupling a stator.

10. An installation according to claim 9, wherein the said support has a bowl with an open bottom on which the said drive means rests by means of rollers each carried by a projecting lug on the stator of the said drive means.

11. An installation according to claim 10, wherein the said bowl has an internal 20 face on which the said rollers rest, having the form of a portion of a sphere. 4* .l. t*o S

12. An installation according to either one of claims 10 or 11, wherein the said bowl is disposed at the top of a jacket, the said stator cooperating through its top with the said bowl so that the said jacket surrounds the part of the stator situated below the bowl.

13. An installation according to any one of claims 8 to 12, wherein the said 0* support is provided with a base plate by means of which the said unit rests on a carrier surface. o* to: CB W:\documents\Do Not Delete\AmendmentsJRN590165.doc 24 March 2003 1Qa

14. An installation according to any one of claims 8 to 12, wherein it has a chassis having travelling means and means of lifting the said support with respect to the said chasses. 000 0 0000 *0. CB W.Adocumerits\Do Not Delete\Amerdmeits\IRN590165.doc24Mrh20 24 March 2003