GB821315A - Improved method and means for trimming vegetable bulbs, such as onions - Google Patents

Abstract

821,315. Onions, topping &c. and peeling. WADE, E. S. M. Jan. 2, 1957 [Oct. 3, 1955], No. 28125/55. Class 28 (2). Onions &c. are topped and tailed and have the outer skins removed by making a peripheral cut, then partially boiling and cooling the onion to loosen the outer skin which is rubbed off by a pair of axially-inclined rollers. In Fig. 1 the onions in a vibrating container 10 pass down a shoot 11 to a topping and tailing device 12 then in succession to a peripheral skin cutter 13, a boiling water vat 15, a cooling vat 16, a skin rubber-off 25 and a container 26 for the finished onions. Each onion is placed by hand over a hole 36 in the plates of endless-chain conveyers or a rotary table and moved under the hole 58, Fig. 6, in an arm which pivots down until the hole 58 passes over the stem and holds it during the cutting-off of the stem by a cam-operated sliding knife 59 and the root end cutting off by another fixed knife 67 over which the onion is conveyed. The onions pass by a shoot and endless-belt 69 to a skin cutter 84, Fig. 2. The onion, Fig. 8, conveyed in the V-groove of the flexible belt 69 is rolled against a tunnel top 82 whereby it rotates under and against a knife 84 to make a peripheral cut in the outer skins. The projection of the knife downwards is adjustable to determine the depth of the peripheral cut. The onions then pass to the heating and cooling troughs to soften the outer skins, from which they pass to a pair of grooved tapered rollers 103, 104, Fig. 10, which drag off the skins downwards. Reference has been directed by the Comptroller to Specification 744,306.