GB1270015A - Mushroom handling apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

1,270,015. Conveying mushrooms; shoots. AMERICAN MUSHROOM CORP. 15 April, 1969 [18 April, 1968; 28 Feb., 1969], No. 19169/69. Headings B8A and B8S. [Also in Division A4] Apparatus for handling mushrooms continuously comprises means for continuously feeding mushrooms in a flow of hydraulic fluid, means 20, Fig. 1, for controlling the rate of movement of the mushrooms so fed, and means 30, Fig. 2, downstream of the means 20, for orienting the mushrooms into at least one row so that their stem axes are substantially parallel to the direction in which the mushroom is flowing or is to flow. The rate control means 20 comprises two, three or more serially operating transverse, foraminous paddle wheels, e.g. 204, 206, 208, Fig. 1 and Fig. 7 (not shown). Each wheel rotates at half the speed of the immediately downstream wheel, the mushrooms being fed to the wheels from a reservoir tank owing to a head of water maintained in said tank. A plurality of jets 220 create a head of water in the means 20 and remove mushrooms stuck on foraminous paddles 210. The axis orienting means 30 comprises a plurality of channels between inverted U- section baffles 308, Fig. 2, near which water jets 314 create a head of water and prevent mushrooms from catching on the tops of the baffles. The water depth in the means 30 is less than that in the means 20 producing a higher flow rate to thereby propel the mushrooms from said channels into a plurality of U-sectioned flumes, one flume per channel. The walls 324 of the flumes are spaced apart by a distance slightly greater than the mean mushroom cap diameter so that the mushrooms become axially oriented and pass to an orienting means 40. The direction orienting means 40 comprises a plurality of segmented conveyer belts (402), (404), Fig. 8 (not shown), defining therebetween truncated V-sectioned channels, one per flume, for receiving the mushrooms, the stems and roots falling between the belts and the caps being supporting by them. Vertical guide plates (420), (422) below the truncated V-sectioned channels prevent pendulum swinging of the mushrooms. A stop plate 428, Fig. 3, engages the mushroom stems causing them to fall cap first into a plurality of tubes 502. The step feeding means 50, Fig. 3, comprises one tube 502 per truncated V-sectioned channel. Water jets 440 help propel the mushrooms down the tubes. Each tube has two gates 508, 510 opened and closed synchronously with movement of an inverting conveyer 60 by rotating eccentrics 518, 520 so that mushrooms fall one into each of a plurality of cavities 610, Fig. 9, along the top flight of conveyer 60 which transfers the mushrooms stem down into apertures in the top flight of a synchronized cutter conveyer 70. The cutter conveyer 70, Fig. 9, is of the type disclosed in Specification 1,270,016 and cuts off mushroom roots at location 740 and mushroom stems at location 742.