GB883270A - Improvements in apparatus for cleaning and polishing fruit and other edible produce - Google Patents

Abstract

883,270. Washing and cleaning fruit and the like. BELCHER, P. Feb. 20, 1959 [Nov. 22, 1957], No. 36416/57. Class 28 (2). In apparatus for cleaning and polishing fruit and other edible produce, the produce is brushed by a series of anti-clockwise rotating brushes 3 to 3H, having oppositely directed brush helixes, geared so that the rotational velocity of brushes 3, 3A, 3C, 3E and 3G is different from that of the remaining brushes 3B, 3D, 3F and 3H, and is polished by clockwise-rotating strips of cloths 9 to 9C whose leading edges are thicker than the trailing edges in the direction of rotation, Fig. 4 (not shown), whereby they tend to fan out; the inclinations of the frame 2, as determined by a scale 7, and frame 8 upon which the brushes and cloths, respectively, are mounted, are adjustable according to the produce treated and the throughput desired. The polishing effected may be improved by spreading powdered beeswax from a vibrator or by spraying glycerine or vegetable oil on to the produce. Washing is first performed, when necessary, by brushes 30, 30A, 30B, having oppositely directed brush helixes, in a bath 29 of cleaning liquid, of which the highest brush 30B is above the level of the liquid, or by continuously spraying washing liquid on to the produce; the produce is then dried by air from a fan 26 incorporating heating elements 27.