GB2035061A - Automatic asparagus peeling machine - Google Patents

Abstract

A completely automatic asparagus peeling machine comprises a material feeding means vibrating with high frequency, a parallel guide means, a conveying means and an automatic peeling assembly. In the construction shown, material feeding means 1 vibrating with high frequency vibration permits a heap of asparagus to successively fall down on a parallel guide means 2, and pieces of asparagus move forward therefrom successively one at a time by means of upward and downward movement of parallel plates 21 in parallel guide means 17 until dropping on to conveyor belts 32 of a conveying means 3, thereby advancing to the inlet opening of an automatic peeling assembly 4 for undergoing automatic peeling operation. Alternate plates 21 move upwards as the other plates 21 move downwards. The peeling assembly 4 includes swingably- mounted drive rollers 42, 42b and knife tools 43. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Automatic asparagus peeling machine This invention relates to an automatic asparatus peeling machine having a highly effective combination of constructional features, whereby only a single operator may operate two to four peeling machines constructed in accordance with the present invention.

The difficuity with most conventional asparagus peeling machines is that operators must point the end tips of pieces of asparagus one at a time to a clamping means for mechanical peeling, thereby giving rise to unfavourable problems such as waste of man power, limited efficiency of production and ease of producing broken asparagus, thus causing a great increase in production cost which is of a great disadvantage especially at the present time when costs of labour and raw materials are sharply increasing. Besides, two to four operators are needed for operating a single conventional peeling machine.

There are four reasons why conventional peeling machines are not completely automated: In the first place, asparagus cannot advance successively one at a time with the end tip in the same direction into a peeling means; in the second place, there are differences in size and in shape among asparagus and furthermore asparagus is so brittle that it cannot be automatically sent to a clamping means for peeling; in the third place, such a machine is too complicated and too expensive; in the fourth place, the tip end of asparagus must not generally be peeled to avoid damage and only the body of asparagus peeled, thus making its automation appear to be practically impossible.

In view of the foregoing, the main object of the invention is to provide a completely automatic asparagus peeling machine so that operation by a single operator may be achieved thereby reducing production cost and offering considerable advantage to the public.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a completely automatic asparagus peeling machine for eliminating such operations of conventional peeling machines as require operators to manually correct the flow direction of asparagus and for replacing manual operation by automation to reduce both the chance of accidents to operators and the chance of accidental damage to the machine.

Another important object of the present invention is to provide a simple, inexpensive and highly efficient automatic asparagus peeling machine.

According to the invention, there is provided an automatic asparagus peeling machine comprising parallel guide means having a plurality of multiplicity of parallel plates closely arranged in a row, conveying means, and an automatic peeling assembly having several sets of clamp action oscillating arm cylindrical rollers lined up in parallel in two files and knife tool means engagabie or operatively associated with said cylindrical rollers, and an enclosure, wherein: said parallel guide means is such as to enable all of the oddnumbered parallel plates to simultaneously make an upward and downward movement and enable all of the even-numbered parallel plates to simultaneously make a downward and upward movement, whereby when all of said odd-numbered parallel plates are moving upwards said even-numbered parallel plates are moving downwards simultaneously, the upper end of each of said parallel plates having a circular curvature for advancing asparagus, said odd-numbered and even-numbered parallel plates making respectively upward and downward movement for advancing successively one at a time asparagus pieces fed from vibrating-type material feeding means to the last parallel plate, from which the asparagus falls down on a conveying belt or belts of said conveying means.

Also, according to the invention there is provided an automatic asparagus peeling machine comprising (a) guide means having a plurality of upwardly and downwardly-movable parallel guide members arranged in a row for advancing pieces of asparagus from a first end of said row to a second end of said row in a direction transverse to the said parallel guide members and to the length of the pieces of asparagus, the arrangement being such that, in operation, alternate ones of said guide members move upwards as the other said guide members move downwards, and vice-versa; (b) automatic peeling means com prising -(i) a plurality of displaceable drive rollers for yieldably clamping, and at the same time advancing, individual pieces of asparagus, and (ii) knife tool means for peeling the asparagus; and (c) conveying means for conveying pieces of asparagus from said second end of said row of parallel guide members to said automatic peeling means, In the accompanying drawings, which show by way of example an embodiment of the invention: Figure 1 is a partially sectional view of an embodiment in accordance with the invention; Figure 2 is a view on a larger scale of part of mechanism shown in Fig. 1 and shows the relationship between oscillating arm action parallel cylindrical rollers and transmission shafts; Figure 3 is a view on a larger scale of part of mechanism shown in Fig. 1 and shows constructional relationships of a knife tools assembly; Figure 4 is a block diagram of an operational arrangement controlling an air cylinder equipped with a micro-switch; and Figure 5 is a block diagram of another operational arrangement controlling opening and closing operation of a knife tool extension arm assembly shown in Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, Fig. 1 is a partially sectional view of an embodiment constructed in accordance with the invention and comprising a material feeding means 1, a parallel guide means 2, a conveying means 3, and an automatic peeling assembly 4.

The material feeding means 1 comprises a bottom body 11, a tapered feeding guideway 1 2 and a vibrating box 1 3. The bottom body 11 has four surround walls for aesthetic and supporting purposes and a plurality of concave guideways 1 7 are provided at appropriate positions on the inside surfaces of two opposite walls. On the upper surface 14 of the bottom body 11 there is provided the said vibrating box 13, which is driven by conventional eccentric cams or by any suitable simple mechanical means, or by any suitable electrical means, to produce a vibrating effect.

On the upper surface of the vibrating box 13, there is provided a tapered feeding guideway 1 2 which vibrates as the vibrating box 1 3 vibrates upward and downward with high frequency to gradually advance the asparagus piled thereon in the downward direction until the asparagus falls successively on the upper ends of parallel plated 21 of the parallel guide means 2 located below an end 1 6 of the tapered feeding guideway 12. In the present embodiment, the end tips of asparagus 1 5 placed on the tapered feeding guideway 1 2 are presented in the same direction as the moving direction of a conveying belt.The angle inclination of the tapered guideway 1 2 in this embodiment is approximately 1 5 and the vibration frequency of the vibrating box is approximately 3600 cycles per minute. This kind of feeding means can be readily constructed by those who are familiar with mechanical engineering and is not a feature of the present invention, and thus will not be described further in detail.

The parallel guide means 2 comprise the parallel plates 21 arranged closely in a row, a motor 22, and a transmission shaft 23 having a plurality of eccentric cams 24, wherein the odd-numbered convex wheels 24a are disposed in the same eccentric position and the even-numbered wheels 24b are disposed in a different eccentric position. Furthermore, the odd-numbered parallel plates 21 a are engaged respectively with the corresponding odd-numbered convex wheels 24a located therebelow;and the even-numbered parallel plates 21 b are engaged respectively with the corresponding even-numbered convex wheels 24b located therebelow. On one end of the transmission shaft 23, there is provided a sprocket wheel 25 which is connected by means of a chain 26 therefrom to the sprocket wheel 28 mounted on a spindle shaft 27 of speed reducing means 30.When the motor 22 operates to rotate the transmission shaft 23, the even-numbered parallel plates 21 band the odd-numbered parallel plates 21 a in turn make upward and downward movement. In other words, the odd-numbered convex wheels 24a and the even-numbered convex wheels 24b are so arranged that when the odd-numbered parallel plates 21 a move upward, the even-numbered parallel plates 21 b move downward in the opposite direction. As the upper ends of all the parallel plates 21 have a forwardly-presented tapered spherical or convex curvature, the pieces of asparagus advance one after another thereon and fall successively on belts of conveying means 3 located beyond the end of the row of parallel plates.Both sides of each parallel plate 21 are guided in the respective concave guide-ways 1 7 provided on the inside surface of the bottom body 11, thus the parallel plates 21 execute stable upward and downward motion along the concave guideways 17.

In this embodiment, the rotational speed of the sprocket wheel 28 mounted on speed reducing spindle shaft 27 is approximately 1000 RPM, and the rotational speed of transmission shaft 23 driven by the chain 26 is approximately 240 RPM. Simultaneously, when the odd-numbered parallel plates 21 a move downward to the lowest position, the difference of distance therebetween is approximately one inch. As the support for the transmission shaft can be a conventional bearing support, it will not be detailed hereinafter.

The conveying means 3 comprises two sets of cylindrical conveying rollers 31, and conveying belts 32, which belts collectively form a V-sectioned conveyor. At one end of the cylindrical rollers 31 is installed a driving motor (not shown in the drawing) which drives the belts 32 of the V-sectioned conveyor to rotate continuously in the direction of the arrows, thereby conveying the asparagus pieces successively one at a time to the inlet opening of automatic peeling assembly 4. In this embodiment, the angle between the belts 32 of the V-sectioned conveyor is approximately 70 to 90 .

The automatic peeling means 4 comprises an enclosure 41, several clamp action oscillating arm cylindrical rollers 42, movable clamp action knife tools operatively coupled with the cylindrical rollers 42, and two transmission shafts 44.

Conveniently, reference can be made to Figs. 2 and 3, wherein Fig. 2 is a view, on a larger scale, showing the constructional relationship between transmission shafts 44 and clamp action oscillating arm cylindrical rollers 42 and Fig. 3 is a view, on a larger scale, showing details of the movable clamp action knife tools 43.

A bevel gear wheel 45 and a supporting mounting 46 are installed at a suitable location on each of the transmission shafts 44 as shown in Fig. 2. The cylindrical rollers 42 are made of a light material (such as aluminium alloy) and are each provided with a covering made of a material with high resistive coefficient (such as a rubber layer). To the upper part of each cylindrical roller 42 there is secured an extension arm 47, the upper part of which passes through a narrow opening 70 at the bottom of the respective supporting mounting 46 and is connected to a bevel gear wheel 49 operatively meshed with the bevel gear wheel on the respective transmission shaft 44. The extension arm 47 is disposed inside a protecting tube 54.On one end of a transmission shaft 44 is provided a sprocket wheel 50 connected by means of a chain 51 to a sprocket wheel 53 mounted on speed reducing means 52 driven by a driving motor 54, the motor 54 being capable of making the cylindrical rollers rotate in the direction of the arrows. The cylindrical rollers 42 are provided in parallel at corresponding positions relative to the respective shafts 44 and the upper part of the respective extension arm 47 passes as described above through the bottom part of the respective supporting mounting 46 and is operatively engaged with the respective transmission shaft 44 by means of the bevel gear wheels 45 and 49. The air gap between the two cylindrical rollers in parallel is approximately 5 mm (smaller than the outside diameter of asparagus) and the two cylindrical rollers in parallel spin in opposite directions (as shown in Fig. 2).With this construction, the end tip of a piece of asparatus advances by means of the V-sectioned conveyor formed by the belts 32 to the air gap between the cylindrical rollers 42, and then the husk of the asparagus end tip comes into contact firstly with the cylindrical rollers 42. The asparagus is then brought into the air gap by the contact friction force developed at the cylindrical rollers 42 and pushes each of the cylindrical rollers 42 slightly outward due to the appropriate angular pendulum action of supporting mountings 46 which pivot by means of bearings 48 around the respective transmission shafts 44.In addition, there is attached to the protective tubes 54 a restoring spring 55 which enables the two cylindrical rollers 42 to advance asparagus and to hold asparagus as well, the end tip of the asparagus being pushed through the gap between the first set of the parallel cylindrical rollers, namely the rollers 42, into a gap between an adjacent second set of parallel cylindrical rollers 42b.

Each of the second parallel cylindrical rollers 42b is then likewise pushed slightly outward and said rollers 42b clamp the asparagus and push it in the forward direction. After the end tip of asparagus passes between the two parallel cylindrical rollers 42b, the asparagus advances to clamp action knife tools 43 having an opening and closing action located in the rear of the cylindrical rollers 42h The clamp action knife tools 43, driven by either air pressure or electrical means, clamp the asparagus body securely and peel both sides of the asparagus husk at the proper width as the asparagus is being pushed continuously through the first and the second set of cylindrical rollers and the knife tools. The partially peeled asparagus then advances to a third set of cylindrical rollers (not shown in the drawing) located directly behind the knife tools.

After passing through a fourth set of cylindrical rollers (not shown in the drawing), the asparagus is clamped and peeled by a second set of clamp action knife tools (not shown in the drawing) which is so arranged that its angle of installation is different from that of the aforementioned knife tqols 43, thereby peeling a different portion of asparagus husk.

Thus the asparagus moving through several sets of cylindrical rollers and clamp action knife tools constructed in accordance with the invention becomes completely peeled, and comes out of a product guideway 56.

Figure 3 shows two clamp action knife tools each of which is secured to the forward end portion of a hollow extension arm 57, another end of which is situated in a concave or channelled guideway 59 of a fastening plate 58, thereby permitting both of the extension arms to execute a certain degree of opening and closing movement. On the inside surfaces of the knife tools situated at the forward end portions of extension arms 57 are several water nozzles 60 and to a suitable part of each extension arm 57 is secured a flexible water tube 61 suppling water to the water nozzles 60, which are for removing the remains on the knife tools. A transmission rod 62 is provided on each of the two extension arms 57, and the other ends of the transmission rods are connected to the upper end of a piston rod 64 of an air cylinder 63.The movement of the piston rod 64 is controlled by a micro-switch 65 carried by the oddnumbered set of parallel- cylindrical-rollersassociated protecting tubes 54. In other words, when two parallel cylindrical rollers are pushed slightly outward whereby to permit the micro-switch to be free from depression and to take up a closing position, the air cylinder 63 is filled up with air thus pushing the piston rod 64 upward. The extension arms 57 are then pushed inward by means of the transmission rod 62 thus enabling the knife tools 43 to hold asparagus for peeling its husk.After asparagus passes completely through the front set of odd-numbered parallel cylindrical rollers, the two cylindrical rollers restore to the original position by means of restoring spring 55 whereby to permit the micro-switch to be depressed and take up an opening position, whereby the air in air cylinder 63 is discharged and the extension arms 57 are pulled outward by means of the springs 66 whereby to permit the piston rod 64 to move downward. The fastening plate 58 can be secured to an inside surface corresponding to the inside surface shape of the enclosure 41. As the art of controlling an air cylinder by means of a micro-switch is well known to those familiar with mechanical and electrical engineering, the block diagrams shown in Figs. 4 and 5 are provided as examples for the explanation of two means of implementation, without further description.

Furthermore, the knife tools 43 formed on the forward end portions of extension arms 57 are adjustable through a range of approximately 30 degrees in angular displacement so as to suit different shapes and sizes of asparagus.

For purpose of permitting asparagus to readily pass through the gap between parallel cylindrical rollers, in front of each of oddnumbered pair of parallel cylindrical rollers there is provided a horn-shaped or funnelshaped material-inlet guide plate 67 which is tapered outward by approximately 60 degrees. The material-inlet guide plate 67 is situated at an inlet opening in the front side of the enclosure 41 and a material-inlet guide plate 67b behind said guide plate 67 is secured to an upper portion of the inside surface of the enclosure 41; and to remove the remains flushed down by water, a tapered outlet is provided (not shown in the drawing) in the bottom portion of the enclosure 41.

Very important and also one of the outstanding features of the construction shown is the provision of parallel cylindrical rollers, the upper ends of the extension arms 47 of which are not fastened, that are capable of holding and advancing asparagus but also capable of oscillating without damaging the asparagus along the outside dimensions of a piece of asparagus as in the case in dealing with bent pieces of asparagus.

In this embodiment, the clearance between the front and the following set of parallel cylindrical rollers is 10 mm, and the cylindrical roller diameter, or the spacing between cylindrical rollers of a set, is 38 mm due to the fact that the tip end of asparagus, generally 38 mm in diameter, must not be peeled or otherwise damaged readily. The clearance between the clamp action knife tools and the even-numbered parallel cylindrical rollers is 20 mm, and the rotational speed of the cylindrical rollers is approximately 238 RPM.

A timer or other means such as relays capable of operating with time delay characteristics in connection with a micro-switch can be employed to control the air cylinder 63 in such a way that the clamp action knife tools start holding securely both sides of asparagus only when a certain length of the asparagus body has passed between the second parallel cylindrical rollers, that is to say, when the end tip of the asparagus has already passed through the knife tools, so as to avoid damage to itself.

It goes without saying that asparagus may be peeled without having to completely pass through the two sets of parallel cylindrical rollers. In other words, it is possible that a single set of knife tools can be placed behind each set of cylindrical rollers, depending on the designer's intention.

In this embodiment of the invention, the machine can peel 1 20 pieces of asparagus, twice as many as that by conventional methods (about 60 pieces per minute) which require operators to adjust and hold the end tip of asparagus before a mechanical peeling process is carried out. Furthermore, it can need only a single operator to simultaneously control two to four machines constructed in accordance with the invention, while two to four operators are needed to operate even one conventional machine. It is to be noted that the invention can save a great deal of labour cost, and can be of great value in this industry.

While the invention has been described in its preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the words which have been used are words of description rather than limitation and that changes within the purview of the following claims may be made without departing from the true scope and spirit of the invention in its broader aspects.

Claims (14)

1. - 1. An automatic asparagus peeling machine comprising parallel guide means having a plurality or multiplicity of parallel plates closely arranged in a row, conveying means, and an automatic peeling assembly having several sets of clamp action oscillating arm cylindrical rollers lined up in parallel in two files and knife tool means engagable or operatively associated with said cylindrical rollers, and an enclosure, wherein: said parallel guide means is such as to enable all of the oddnumbered parallel plates to simultaneously make an upward and downward movement and enable all of the even-numbered parallel plates to simultaneously make a downward and upward movement, whereby when all of said odd-numbered parallel plates are moving upwards said even-numbered parallel plates are moving downwards simultaneously, the upper end of each of said parallel plates having a circular curvature for advancing asparagus, said odd-numbered and even-numbered parallel plates making respectively upward and downward movement for advancing successively one at a time asparagus pieces fed from vibrating-type material feeding means to the last parallel plate, from which the asparagus falls down on a conveying belt or belts of said conveying means.
2. 2. An automatic asparagus peeling machine comprising (a) guide means having a plurality of upwardly and downwardly-movable parallel guide members arranged in a row for advancing pieces of asparagus from a first end of said row to a second end of said row in a direction transverse to the said parallel guide members and to the length of the pieces of asparagus, the arrangement being such that, in operation, alternate ones of said guide members move upwards as the other said guide members move downwards, and vice-versa; (b) automatic peeling means comprising (i) a plurality of displaceable drive rollers for yieldably clamping, and at the same time advancing, individual pieces of asparagus, and (ii) knife tool means for peeling the asparagus; and (c) conveying means for conveying pieces of asparagus from said second end of said row of parallel guide members to said automatic peeling means.
3. 3. An automatic asparagus peeling machine as claimed in Claim 1 or 2, wherein said conveying means is of a V-section formed by two mutually-inclined conveying belts and is situated directly below a side surface of the last parallel plate or parallel guide member of said row, to receive asparagus falling from said last parallel plate or guide member and send the asparagus end tip first into said automatic peeling assembly or means.
4. 4. An automatic asparagus peeling machine as claimed in Claim 1 or 2, wherein said rollers comprise several sets of clamp action oscillating arm cylindrical rollers disposed in parallel in two files and each having an extension arm operatively engaged with rotating transmission means whereby the clamp action oscillating arm cylindrical rollers of each set rotate, in operation, in opposite directions.
5. 5. An automatic asparagus peeling machine as claimed in Claim 4, wherein between the parallel cylindrical rollers of each set is a gap having a clearance smaller than the average diameter of asparagus.
6. 6. An automatic asparagus peeling machine as claimed in Claim 4, wherein each of said extension arms of said cylindrical rollers is enclosed in a protective tube, and associated with each set of rollers is a restoring spring with each end secured to a respective one of said protective tubes of said extension arms having cylindrical rollers formed in parallel in two files.
7. 7. An automatic asparagus peeling machine as claimed in Claim 6, wherein each set of parallel cylindrical rollers is a pair of rollers having therebetween a gap formed in such a manner that when the end tip of a piece of asparagus advances into said gap the asparagus is held there-between and keeps advancing by the rotating force of said cylindrical rollers and the friction force at the surfaces between said cylindrical rollers and the asparagus, said cylindrical rollers arranged in parallel in two files being pushed slightly outward when a larger portion of the asparagus body advances through said cylindrical rollers and said restoring spring secured to said protective tubes enabling said rollers to continue to hold and advance the asparagus.
8. 8. An automatic asparagus peeling machine as claimed in Claim 6, wherein a microswitch is situated on the protective tubes of the extension arms of a set of the cylindrical rollers, said micro-switch being depressed to take up an open position before said set of cylindrical rollers are pushed outward whereby to permit a repetitive movement of said cylindrical rollers responsive to the passage of asparagus for controlling an air compression system so as to control opening and closing operation of said knife tool means.
9. 9. An automatic asparagus peeling machine as claimed in Claim 1, wherein a guide inlet in the form of a tapered horn or funnel is situated directly before every pair of oddnumbered clamp action oscillating parallel cylindrical rollers and has its end of smaller cross-sectional area disposed directly adjacent said cylindrical rollers for guiding asparagus to advance into the gap between said parallel cylindrical rollers.
10. 1 0. An automatic asparagus peeling machine as claimed in Claim 1, wherein a pair of knife tools is situated directly behind every set of odd-numbered, or of even-numbered, parallel cylindrical rollers and each tool of said pair is secured to a forward end portion of a respective hollow extension arm, which arm is pivotally guided or mounted in concave or channelled guideways of a fastening plate, a transmission rod being provided on each of said extension arms and connected to the upper part of a piston rod of an air cylinder, whereby to permit said two extension arms to carry out a closing movement with the aid of upward movement of said piston rod and further permitting said knife tools to securely hold the delivered asparagus and to carry out a peeling operation.
11. 11. An automatic asparagus peeling machine as claimed in Claim 10, wherein said air cylinder (or equivalent means) is controlled by a micro-switch situated on protecting tubes of extension arms carrying a pair of the parallel cylindrical rollers, in such a manner that when said parallel cylindrical rollers are pushed slightly outward said air cylinder (or equivalent means) permits said knife tools to pull inward.
12. 12. An automatic asparagus peeling machine as claimed in Claim 10, wherein said extension arms of said knife tools have a plurality, for example four, restoring springs for pushing or moving said extension arms outward when said air cylinder discharges air and loses pressure.
13. 1 3. An automatic asparagus peeling machine as claimed in Claim 10, wherein there is provided a soft extendible water tube with one end connected to the upper part of a respective said hollow extension arm, said water tube communicating via said arm with several water nozzles formed in an inside surface of a respective one of said knife tools for supplying water to remove vegetable remains on said knife tools.
14. 14. An automatic asparagus peeling machine as claimed in Claim 10, said knife tools having the upper ends of said hollow extension arms pivotally guided or mounted in the guideways of a fastening plate for pivotal movement, and the arrangement being such as to permit a suitable angular movement responsive to different size and shape of asparagus.

    1 5. An automatic asparagus peeling machine, substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.