GB924367A - - Google Patents

Abstract

924,367. Pear-peeling and coring machines. J. A. KEMP. (Atlas Pacific Engineering Co.). June 7, 1961, No. 20632/61. Class 28 (2). In a machine for processing pears, each pear is placed in turn in a cup 177, is centred and gripped by arms 179, and the cup then assumes a horizontal position (Fig. 1) and moves forward on a cup carriage 174 locked to a sliding, reciprocating carriage 172, to impale the pear coaxially on a sharpended, hollow stem-coring spindle 86 rotatably journalled within a cover sleeve 95 which itself is rotatably journalled in a bearing block 5 in the front panel 2 of the machine frame 1. When sufficiently impaled, the end of the pear pushes against a rocker arm 127 causing a rack on an arm 162 to engage a detent on a rocker arm 187 on the carriage 174 thereby releasing it from the driven carriage 172 and allowing it to retreat leaving the pear impaled on the spindle 86. The spindle carries coplanar; diametrically opposed fins 91 (Figs. 19, 20, 21) and the corer sleeve a single arcuate knife 103, and pins 104 (Fig. 19) or a rearwardly flaring ring 105 (Fig. 20), or, alternatively, a pair of offset knives 106, 107 (Fig. 21) and during impalement (and subsequent pushing-off) of the pear these attachments are aligned in a common plane by means of an indexing roller 43 which descends to engage a notch 22 in a collar 19 attached to a rotating quill 6 keyed to the sleeve 95. For its rotation the spindle 86 is connected (detachably) to a corer supporting sleeve (not shown) rotatably mounted within the quill 6 which, by means of a clutch mechanism C can be locked to the quill. The pear is then rotated and peeled by a pearcontour following knife assembly 304, a further knife of shape 252 (Fig. 19) or 254 (Fig. 20) advancing into the calyx end of the pear. These operations completed, jaws (not shown) close on the pear and hold it against rotation of the coring sleeve (the spindle 86 being disengaged and not rotating) while the knife attached thereto cuts around the seed-pod cell core. The pear is then pushed off the spindle by the upwardly extending arm 127 of an advancing push-off block 123, if desired through opposed coplanar sectioning knives 306, 310 which have closed together beforehand the upper forward edge of the lower knife engaging in a notch, Fig. 14 (not shown), in a small cylinder on the lower edge of the upper knife, a core-washing fluid spray issuing from the ends of a diametric bore connecting with an axial chamber in the cylinder. Stem core is pushed out of the hollow spindle and waste and processed pears or pear halves are segregated by a tiltable plate 331 located under the spindle. The various mechanisms are operated in sequence through a programming gear-box, cams, &c., secured to a constantly driven main shaft 47. Specification 924,366 is referred to.