GB402487A - Improvements in machines for cleaning and separating vegetables - Google Patents

Abstract

402,487. Cleaning vegetables. OLNEY, G. J., Westemville, New York, U.S.A. June 11, 1932, No. 16611. [Class 28 (ii).] Apparatus for cleaning vegetables, especially peas, comprises a trough 53 in which the good vegetables, which sink, are separated by flotation from light foreign bodies and bad vegetables, a rotary conical screen 14 which drains the water from the vegetables and discharges them over a shoot, a paddle wheel 13, revoluble with the screen, which elevates the water to a position from whence it flows under feed hoppers 38, 39 and withdraws vegetable therefrom, and downwardly inclined shoots 40, having transverse cleats 75 for trapping heavy impurities, for leading the water and vegetables to the starting end of the trough 53. The trough 53 has sloping bottom walls and vertical baffles 46 which are apertured to accommodate a worm 49 driven by gearing 50, 51 from the main shaft 10 on which the screen 14 and paddle wheel 13 are mounted. The light impurities are removed from the water by the worm and delivered thereby to a transverse discharge shoot 59. The good vegetables are swept up the restricted part 52 of the trough 53 into the screen 14 and the water is received in a trough 24 which closely embraces the paddle wheel 13 so that the water being raised by the paddles does not leak back to the trough 24, but is projected in waves into the space beneath the hoppers 38, 39. The hoppers 38, 39 are made in box-like form and positioned over the upper end of the support 32 for the shoots 40, so that an aperture 64 in the wall 30 is adjacent to the discharge point of the paddle 13. The box-like structure is divided into the two hoppers by inverted V-shaped walls 60, 62, having an apex 19, and the vertical walls and partitions of the structure are spaced from the floor of the support 32, the space between the wall 61 and the floor being less than in the case of the other walls. Between the walls 60, 62 is arranged a control shutter 69 pivoted at 70 and adjusted by a wing-nut 73, this shutter apportioning the water between the hoppers 38, 39. The rate of withdrawal of vegetables from each hopper is regulable by a slidably adjustable plate 66 controlling the outlets 34 to the troughs 40. The troughs 40 are independently removable for cleaning, without stopping the machine, the affected outlet 34 being temporarily closed by a shutter 77 slidable in guides 78, Fig. 1. The cleats 75 of the troughs 40 are forwardly overhung. Pins 86 are engageable with slots in one end of the troughs to ensure correct re-positioning of the troughs. The rounded ends of the support 32 are provided with curved partition walls 79-81 having projecting baffles slightly spaced from the floor, which baffles prevent piling up of the vegetables at the bend.