CN116568158A - Fruit classifier by means of selective pressure - Google Patents

Abstract

The present application relates to elements and machines for selectively processing fruits or seeds. In particular, the invention relates to a skirt having a channel in which an elastic insert is attached, having a C-shaped transverse profile and presenting a cut along its surface, which thereby can selectively process a mixture of ripe and unripe fruits or seeds by facilitating the application of individual pressure. Likewise, the invention also relates to a horizontal depulping machine comprising a skirt with elastic inserts, optionally depulping mature seeds, and which can be coupled to a separator module. The invention also relates to a method for the selective processing of a mixture of ripe and unripe fruits or seeds using the depulping machine according to the invention.

Description

Fruit classifier by means of selective pressure

Technical Field

The present invention is in the field of mechanics and refers to elements or machines intended to treat seeds (grains) or fruits selectively. In this sense, the present invention refers to a skirt with channels, in which an elastic insert with a C-shaped transversal profile is fixed, with cuts on the surface, and to a depulping machine comprising the skirt and allowing selective depulping of mature seeds.

Background

Fruits are often classified according to their maturity to ensure their use or to facilitate their subsequent processing and thus to obtain a superior quality product. Performing such classification manually, both at the time of acquisition and at a later stage, requires a significant amount of labor, which has proven to be expensive and inefficient.

In this sense, devices based on optical methods have been developed, classifying the fruits according to their colour, as this has proved to be a reliable indicator of the maturity of certain fruits. While recent developments in these devices have shown high precision and processing speed, the cost of these devices remains a disadvantage.

Furthermore, mechanical-based devices have been developed to rank fruits with pressure due to differences in hardness related to maturity.

In this sense, patent document FR2257358A1 mentions a device for classifying objects having a certain compressibility. According to this document, the device is characterized in that it comprises a substantially cylindrical hollow body with a horizontal axis, with ramps for the products to be sorted to enter one by one in its upper part and with unloading ramps for the incompressible products on one side of its lower part and on the other hand with unloading ramps for the compressible products.

In the device described in document FR2257358A1, the horizontal shaft houses a series of radial shells, each comprising at least one movable wall facing the opposite wall, means for controlling the access of the movable wall to the opposite wall, means for maintaining the movable wall in its closed position, and means for releasing the movable wall when the shell is placed in front of the discharge ramp of the compressible product. In this way, compressible products are kept clamped in the housing and released when the housing is placed beside the respective ramp, whereas incompressible products resist the movement of the movable wall, so that the latter cannot be kept in the closed position, so that these products remain free in the housing and can fall under the force of gravity when the housing is placed in front of the respective ramp.

Similarly, mechanical strategies have been developed for sorting fruits that have been combined with a depulping step, where the pulp or peel is removed, thereby releasing the seeds contained within the fruit.

Thus, for example, for the processing of coffee beans, machines have been developed with an iron cylinder with longitudinal welded plates, and a screen, which may be made of bars or steel mesh, forming a chamber around the cylinder in the form of a spiral. The coffee is fed through a hopper in the centre of the cylinder and the movement of the rotor pushes the coffee in opposite directions drawing the two flows towards outlets at the ends of the cylinder. In this way, the ripe and soft seeds are forced through the mesh, creating depulping thereof. The hard uncooked fruit then refuses to pass through the mesh and is directed to the outlet at both ends of the cylinder.

However, this type of machine has several drawbacks, including the use of large amounts of water and poor selectivity, which results from the ripe fruits not being depulped and thus mixed with the unripe fruits, and from the small unripe fruits trying to pass through the screen, mixed with the depulped seeds.

Similarly, US 3139919a relates to a depulping machine in which seeds pass between a plurality of counter-clockwise rotating discs. The depulping disk has a scraper thereon for extracting pulp from the ripe coffee beans, the coffee beans moving between each side of the depulping disk and a limiting member arranged on the opposite side of the depulping disk. The spacing between the limiting member and the depulping disk is adjusted so that only pulp is removed from the ripe coffee beans, while other coffee beans pass through the machine without being damaged because they are smaller. In this sense, this size selective processing is not entirely effective, as it does not take into account that there may be large immature seeds mixed with mature seeds.

For this purpose, the patent document AU 638294B2 mentions a depulping machine in which the coffee beans pass between the drum and the tyre and pressure can be applied in a variable manner in order to depulp the ripe coffee beans instead of the unripe coffee beans. However, this process is not entirely effective and may cause mechanical damage to the seed.

Also, the document BRPI0802201A2 mentions a depulping machine having a rotor for exerting pressure on the beans so as not to crack the green beans and thus to maintain their original size larger than the size of the sieve holes, so that only the ripe beans are depulped. The machine requires water consumption and is very selective as it does not take into account that the uncooked seeds may be very small and try to pass through the screen.

On the other hand, document WO/2010/073163A2 discloses a conical helical skirt comprising vibrating elastic inserts, the flexibility of which allows to move it proportionally according to the size and hardness of different coffee cherries. Similarly, this document teaches a vertical depulping machine comprising a conical helical skirt with vibrating elastic inserts, which does not use water and is intended to receive a mixture of ripe and unripe coffee cherries, depulping the ripe coffee cherries, separating the semi-depulped unripe fruits using a separator, and removing the peel from the ripe fruits.

The pressure difference applied by the elastic insert allows breaking the crust of the ripe fruit, whereas only the crust of the unripe fruit is half depulped. Subsequently, separation was performed according to the size of the obtained seeds.

In view of the above, there is a need to develop a low cost machine or apparatus for selective depulping of mature seeds that can achieve high efficiency in processing mature seeds without mechanical damage to the seeds.

Disclosure of Invention

The application describes a skirt having a skirt body comprising a depulping channel in which inserts made of an elastic material are placed, each insert being fixed to a support plate. Each insert is secured in its support plate and is adjusted in the depulping channel using a set screw and spring.

Also described is a horizontal depulping machine, generally having a chassis or structure, a feed hopper, a doser, a cylinder covered by a toothed sheath and a skirt with elastic inserts, wherein the elements mentioned are assembled together with pinions, pulleys, nuts and/or screws.

In one embodiment of the invention, the depulping machine may be coupled to a depulping module comprising a size separation screen.

Thus, the skirt panels and machines developed in the present invention take advantage of the hardness differences that exist between ripe and unripe fruits, resulting in lower resistance to peel breakage in the case of ripe fruits. The present inventors have therefore developed a horizontal skirt with a series of elastic inserts, the flexibility of which allows individual selective pressure to be applied to each seed, which allows depulping of the ripe seed to obtain the seed contained therein, but prevents processing of the unripe seed.

The depulped seeds are smaller than the uncooked seeds and are easily separated according to size differences using a separation screen. The depulped seeds are smaller than the uncooked seeds and are easily separated according to size differences using a separation screen.

The skirt board and the pulp removing machine provided by the invention allow mature seeds to be subjected to pulp removing, are high in efficiency, have small mechanical damage to the seeds, and have low impurity content in the obtained seeds.

Drawings

FIG. 1A resilient C-shaped cross-section insert is shown attached to the support plate.

FIG. 2A diagrammatic view of a horizontal skirt with elastomeric inserts is shown.

FIG. 3A perspective view of a horizontal skirt assembled with an elastomeric insert is shown.

FIG. 4An interior view of a horizontal skirt assembled with elastomeric inserts is shown.

FIG. 5A diagrammatic view of a depulping machine comprising a horizontal skirt with elastic inserts is shown.

FIG. 6There is shown a front perspective view of a depulping machine comprising a horizontal skirt assembled with elastic inserts.

FIG. 7A front view of a depulping machine comprising a horizontal skirt assembled with elastic inserts is shown.

FIG. 8A left side view of a depulping machine comprising a horizontal skirt assembled with elastic inserts is shown.

FIG. 9A right side view of a depulping machine comprising a horizontal skirt assembled with elastic inserts is shown.

FIG. 10A rear perspective view of a depulping machine comprising a horizontal skirt assembled with elastic inserts is shown.

FIG. 11Horizontal cross sections of individual selective pressing processes for (a) mature beans (b) green beans are shown.

FIG. 12A side view of an individual selective pressing process for ripe beans and unripe beans using a "piano" configuration is shown.

FIG. 13The depulping machine of the present invention is shown coupled to a seed size sorting module.

Detailed Description

It is to be noted first that the terms used in drafting the present specification must be understood within the technical field of the present invention, always in its broadest and non-limiting sense.

According to fig. 1, the invention relates to an insert (A1) characterized in that it has a profile of C-shaped cross section, a seed inlet zone (A1') and a cut (A1 ") along its surface. The insert (A1) is fixed to the support plate (A2).

Preferably, the insert is made of an elastic or flexible material, chosen according to the hardness of the seeds or fruits to be processed. In a preferred mode of the invention, the insert is made of rubber.

On the other hand, the support plate (A2) is preferably made of a rigid metallic or non-metallic material to support the load of the insert.

Now, the space defined by the cut (A1 ") made on the surface of the insert (A1) is hereinafter referred to as individual pressure portion. In this sense, the distance y between each cut (A1') is modified according to the diameter of the seed or fruit to be processed, so that the seed or fruit occupies the area of the individual pressure parts.

Also, and according to fig. 2, the apron of the invention comprises an apron body (A3) having depulping channels (A4).

The skirt body is made of any rigid metallic or non-metallic material capable of withstanding the operating load. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the skirt body is made of a material having corrosion and wear resistance properties.

On the other hand, the number of depulping channels of the horizontal skirt panels will vary depending on the amount of seeds or fruits to be processed and the capacity of the machine in which the skirt panels are installed. Thus, in one embodiment of the invention, the apron body has one (1) to ten (10) depulping channels. In a preferred form, the skirt body has one (1) to six (6) depulping channels. More preferably, the body of the skirt has one (1) to three (3) depulping channels.

An insert (A1) is attached to each depulping channel (A4), fixed to the support plate (A2). The use of springs (A5) and classification screws (A6) to assemble the insert to the depulping channel of the skirt body allows easy alignment of the insert position according to the size of the seed to be processed.

The assembled skirt panels can be seen in figures 3 and 4 which show an internal view of the skirt panels.

Now, as shown in fig. 5, said horizontal skirt may be integrated into a depulping machine comprising the horizontal skirt (a), feed hopper (B), feeder or dispenser (C), cylinder (D) covered by toothed sheath, chassis or structure (E) described above, all elements being assembled with pinions, pulleys, nuts and/or screws.

In particular, the elements constituting the depulping machine, such as the feed hopper (B), the feeder (C), the cylinder (D) and the undercarriage (E), are preferably made of any rigid metallic or non-metallic material supporting the work load.

On the other hand, as can be seen in fig. 5 and 10, the cylindrical jacket (D) is characterized by a series of teeth or protrusions on its entire surface.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, and as shown in fig. 5, the operating mechanism of the feeder (C) is realized by assembling it to the chassis (E) by means of a single drive chain pinion (1), a bearing block (2), a radial shaft seal (3) and a deep groove ball bearing (4).

Likewise, the operating mechanism of the cylinder (D) is realized by a double drive chain pinion (15), a lock nut (10), a lock washer (11), a deep groove ball bearing (6) (12), a radial shaft seal (13), a lock ring (14) and a retaining ring (8), which are assembled to a chassis (E) together with a pulley system comprising a single V-pulley (9), a double V-pulley (7) and a fixed shaft as a pulley support.

In one embodiment of the invention, the components are attached with a sleeve head screw and lock washer.

With respect to the operating mechanism of the machine described above, the seeds or fruits to be processed enter the machine through a feed hopper (B) and pass through a distributor (C) which, when rotated, regulates the feeding of the fruits into the machine. The seeds fall onto the cylinder (D) which, as it rotates, drives them into depulping channels in the skirt (a) and squeezes them as they move along the individual pressure portions of the resilient insert (A1).

As shown in the cross-sectional view of fig. 11 (a), when pressed against different parts of the resilient insert (A1), the mature seeds having low hardness and low compressive strength will not be able to displace towards the interior of the insert part in which they are located, and thus their shells will break and be depulped.

On the other hand, and as shown in the cross-section of fig. 11 (b), when pressed against different parts of the elastic insert (A1), the uncooked seeds featuring high hardness and high compressive strength will cause a displacement towards the inside of the insert part where they are located, so that they will not be depulped.

Also, the side view of fig. 12 demonstrates the selective process through a "piano" configuration, in which the ripe seeds are depulped (two seeds are obtained for each depulped ripe seed) because they cannot displace the portion of the insert in which they are located, while the unripe seeds can displace them and, therefore, they leave the machine intact.

The C-shaped geometry or the C-shaped transverse profile of the insert (A1) thus plays a decisive role in the individual selective pressing process, as does the dimensional variation of its geometry. In this sense, and referring again to FIG. 11 (a), it should be noted that the distances x and z may be modified to calibrate the necessary pressure applied to each individual pressure portion to move it.

For example, when the distance x is large, the pressure that must be applied to ensure displacement of the pressure portion of the individual is small. Conversely, when the distance x is smaller, the pressure that must be applied to move the individual pressure portion will be greater.

The above-mentioned dimensional changes are thus determined according to the hardness of the fruit or seed to be processed.

The person familiar with this problem will, by virtue of his knowledge, be able to adjust the dimensions of the C-shaped transverse profile in accordance with the hardness of the seeds or fruits to be selectively processed. Thus, knowledge of a person skilled in the art will be sufficient to build up inserts (A1) of different configurations depending on the seed or fruit to be processed.

Thus, depending on the size and hardness of the seed or fruit to be processed, modifications may be made in any or several of the following:

selecting an elastic material from which the insert (A1) is made,

the x and z dimensions of the C geometry of the insert,

-defining the distance between the incisions (A1 ") of the pressure portion of the individual, and/or

-the distance between the insert (A1) and the cylinder (D) can be calibrated by means of a spring (A5) and an adjustment screw (A6).

All that is said means that the skirt and depulping machine of the invention can be used to treat any seed or depulped fruit containing internal seeds.

Thus, the present technique can be used as long as the seeds or fruits to be processed have an outer pericarp of distinguishable firmness due to maturity. For example, the developed technology can be used for processing coffee beans, cherries, plums, chinaberry (neem), litchis, japanese loquat, etc.

In one embodiment of the invention, a depulping machine is connected to the classifier module, as shown in fig. 13, to separate the already depulped seeds from the intact immature seeds. In one embodiment of the invention, the module may include a size separation element, such as a screen with elongated perforations, that allows only smaller depulped seeds than intact immature seeds to pass through.

Finally, in one embodiment, the invention also relates to a method for selectively processing a mixture of unripe and ripe fruits, comprising the steps of:

a) Providing a mixture of immature and ripe fruits or seeds;

b) Subjecting the mixture to selective processing in a depulping machine;

c) Size separating ripe depulped fruits from intact immature fruits or seeds by sieving;

wherein step b) is performed in a depulping machine of a skirt of an elastic insert comprising a profile of a C-shaped cross-section as described herein.

Examples

The following examples are intended to illustrate the technical advantages of the present technology but in no way limit the scope thereof.

In this respect, as described above, a horizontal depulping machine is built with a skirt with elastic inserts having a profile of C-shaped cross-section. To evaluate the performance of the selective individual stress technique developed, a processing test was performed on a mixture of ripe and unripe coffee beans, wherein the weight percentage of unripe coffee beans is greater than 20%, using a depulping machine involving the following techniques:

1. horizontal cylinders with individual selective pressure skirt panels of the invention.

2. A horizontal cylinder with a fixed skirt.

3. Horizontal cylinder with rubber skirt

4. Vertical cylinder with fixed skirt

5. Cast disc with fixed channel

6. Vertical cylinder with vibrating elastic insert

In these tests, the performance of each of the above techniques was analyzed according to the following variables:

power in Horsepower (HP) required per ton of fruit during processing.

The efficiency of separating the unripe fruits, i.e. the weight percentage of unripe fruits which have not been depulped and thus have been successfully separated subsequently.

Mechanical damage of the depulped seed, corresponding to the weight percentage of seeds that have undergone some physical damage. For coffee beans, physical damage is considered to be a partial or total loss of the cortex (endocarp) or a partial loss of the core (seed).

The impurities in the depulped seed refer to the weight percentage of the hulls or pulp present in the depulped seed.

The loss of seeds in the pulp corresponds to the weight percentage of seeds that are washed away with the pulp and therefore cannot be recovered.

The results obtained for each variable mentioned in each of the techniques evaluated are summarized in table 1:

table 1. Results obtained during processing of mixtures of ripe and unripe coffee beans using different techniques.

In view of the above, it is evident that the use of individual selective pressure techniques achieves excellent selectivity in separating unripe fruits, greatly reduces mechanical damage to the seeds obtained by depulping ripe fruits, and reduces the percentage of impurities in the depulped seeds.

Also, while achieving all of these technical advantages, the power requirements equal to or lower than other techniques are maintained, and a 0% seed loss in the pulp is ensured.

Finally, it is notable that the economic investment in equipment per ton of process for the individual selective pressure technique can be 50% less than other techniques involving separation of unripe fruits without water.

Claims (7)

1. A skirt panel (a) for selectively processing a mixture of mature and immature seeds, comprising:

a skirt panel body (A3) having a depulping channel (A4);

a C-shaped cross-section insert (A1), characterized by having a seed inlet area (A1 ') and a cross-section (A1') on its surface and being fixed to a support plate (A2);

wherein the number of C-shaped cross-section profile inserts (A1) is equal to the number of depulping channels (A4), and wherein the C-shaped cross-section profile inserts (A1) are coupled into the depulping channels (A4).

2. Apron (a) according to claim 1, wherein the profile insert C (A1) of the cross-section is attached to the support plate (A2) and is engaged in the depulping channel (A4) by means of a spring (A5) and a classification screw (A6).

3. The apron (a) according to any one of claims 1 to 2, wherein the cross sections (A1 ") are made at equal distances at the surface of the transversal profile insert C (A1).

4. A skirt (a) according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the profile insert (A1) of C-shaped cross-section is made of a resilient or flexible material.

5. A depulping machine, comprising:

a feed hopper (B);

a feeder or dispenser (C);

a cylinder (D) covered by a toothed sheath;

a chassis or structure (E); and

the apron (a) according to any one of claims 1 to 4.

6. The depulping machine of claim 5, wherein the elements are assembled by pinion, pulley, nut and/or screw.

7. A method for selectively processing a mixture of green and ripe fruits, comprising the steps of:

a) Providing a mixture of immature and ripe fruits or seeds;

b) Subjecting the mixture to selective processing in a depulping machine;

c) Size separating the ripe depulped fruit from the intact immature fruit or seed by sieving; wherein stage B) is performed in a machine comprising a feed hopper (B); a feeder or dispenser (C); a cylinder (D) covered by a toothed sheath; a chassis or structure (E); and a skirt (a) according to any one of claims 1 to 4.