GB192812A - Improvements in fruit grading machines - Google Patents

Abstract

192,812. Purchas, F. B. Nov. 16, 1921. Separating by passing over or through graduated apertures.-In a fruit-grading machine of the kind in which the fruit is sized by means of graded apertures in a series of rotating discs mounted on a vertical spindle, fruit is fed from a hopper 73 to an outer series of small holes' 31 on a disc 11, Fig. 2, and is moved inwards by a stationary guide-wall 34 over the holes 31 and an inner series of larger holes 32, the fruit which will not pass through holes of either semes dropping through a central opening 33 in the disc on to a cushion. The sifted fruit is received in two annular trays on a disc 12, Fig. 4, and as the disc rotates the two sizes of fruit are passed to their respective collecting-trays 44, 46 by a stationary guide-wall 42. The fruit, which falls on to the cushion rolls off and is further sorted by a pair of discs similar to the discs 11, 12, but in which the movement of the fruit is from the centre outwards. The fruit too large to pass the holes in these discs is discharged through a side-wall opening to a collecting-tray. Spring-controlled jigging plates fitted under the sorting discs prevent large fruit from resting on the holes. To prevent damage to the fruit, the surfaces of the discs and walls may be covered with soft material.