JP2620930B2 - Fruit seed extractor - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a seed extracting device for extracting seeds from fruits such as plums, peaches and gummi.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Withdrawing seeds without cutting, dividing or crushing the fruit can maintain the original shape of the fruit and increase its commercial value. JP-A-3-6757
No. 4 discloses this seed removing device. FIGS. 11 and 12 show this conventional seed removing device, in which cup-shaped holding plates 110 and 120 for holding the fruits 100 one by one from above and below, and a blade arranged on one side of the fruits 100. It has a body 130 and a tubular suction member 140 arranged on the side opposite to the blade body 130. Blade 1
30 moves horizontally and bites into the fruit. Blade part 150 is formed in the tip part of suction member 140, and cuts are formed in fruit 100 by the horizontal movement.

In such a seed removing device, the suction member 140 advances and enters the fruit 100, and the blade portion 150 reaches the seed 105. In this state, the blade body 130 enters the fruit 100, and the seed 105 In the direction of the suction member 140. The suction member 140 is a vacuum pump 1
60, and the seeds 1
05 is aspirated. In this suction state, the suction member 140 withdraws from the inside of the fruit 100, so that the seed 105 is extracted from the fruit 100.

[0004]

However, in the conventional seed removing device, holding plates 110 and 120 for sandwiching fruits are used.
Performs vertical movement, while the blade body 130 and the suction member 140 perform left and right movement, so that the operation direction is complicated, thereby complicating the structure of the entire apparatus,
The control of operation was complicated. In addition, holding plate 110,
In order to operate the blade 120, the blade body 130, and the suction member 140, many drive sources such as a fluid pressure cylinder, a motor, and a pump are required, and the apparatus becomes large, and wiring and piping are complicated and troublesome.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide a fruit seed removing apparatus which is simple in structure, can be miniaturized, and is easy to operate.

[0006]

According to the present invention, there is provided a seed removing apparatus comprising: a lower holding member and an upper holding member for sandwiching a fruit from above and below;
An extrusion cutter that extrudes seeds from the fruit by upward motion,
It has a ring-shaped cutting cutter that moves up and down to penetrate the upper holding member and forms a cut in the fruit by downward movement, a handle and a link mechanism connected to the handle, and the upper holding member and the cutting cutter An operating member that moves down and moves up the extrusion cutter.

[0007]

In the above construction, the upper holding member is moved downward by operating the link mechanism by operating the handle, and the fruit is sandwiched between the lower holding member and fixed. Following this,
The link mechanism moves the cutting cutter downward to form a cut in the fruit, and moves the pushing cutter upward to push the seed out of the fruit, thereby removing the seed.
In this configuration, since each of the above-described members only moves in the vertical direction, the structure is simplified and the size can be reduced. In addition, the operation is simple and the operability is improved because the movement is only in the vertical direction.

[0008] In the present invention, it is also possible to adopt a structure in which seeds are stored inside the cutting cutter, whereby the seeds can be reliably removed from the fruit.

[0009]

1 and 2 show the overall construction of an embodiment of the present invention. A lower plate 3 is fixedly mounted on poles 2 and 2 erected from a base 1, and an upper plate 4 is moved up and down. The lower holding member 5 and the upper holding member 6, both of which are formed of plastic, are attached to these plates 3 and 4 so as to face each other. The lower holding member 5 is set in a state where fruits such as plums and peaches are dropped, and a concave portion 7 for this is formed in a central portion. The upper holding member 5 is moved downward integrally with the lower movement of the upper plate 4 to sandwich the fruit with the lower holding member 5, and a concave portion 8 into which the upper part of the fruit enters is formed. Reference numeral 9 denotes a pressure control spring wound around the pawls 2 and 2 so as to be located between the lower plate 3 and the upper plate 4. The pressure control spring 9 adjusts the pressing force of the upper holding member 6 against the fruit accompanying the downward movement of the upper plate 4 so that the fruit does not collapse.

An extrusion cutter 10 is disposed below the lower holding member 5. The extrusion cutter 10 stands upright from a bracket plate 11 provided below the lower plate 3 so as to be movable up and down, and a tip end thereof faces the concave portion 7 of the lower holding member 5. The extrusion cutter 10 is formed in a cross shape, moves upward integrally with the bracket plate 11, and penetrates the lower holding member 5 to enter the fruit. Therefore, a through slit 12 having the same shape as the extrusion cutter 10 is formed on the bottom surface of the concave portion 7 of the lower holding member 5 as shown in FIG. The bracket plate 11 on which the extrusion cutter 10 stands up is guided by guide rods 13 standing upright from the base 1 and moves up and down. Reference numeral 14 denotes a return spring which is wound around the guide rods 13 and presses the bracket plate 11 downward.

On the other hand, a through hole 15 communicates with the upper portion of the concave portion 8 of the upper holding member 6, and a cutting cutter 16 is disposed above the through hole 15 so as to face the cutting hole. The cutting cutter 16 is formed in a cylindrical shape as a whole, and a ring-shaped cutting blade 17 is formed at the tip thereof. The cutting cutter 16 can be moved up and down.
To penetrate the fruit to form a notch for seed removal.

The lower movement of the upper holding member 6, the cutting cutter 16 and the upper movement of the pushing cutter 10 are performed by the operation member 2.
It is performed by operation to 0. The operation member 20 is the base 1
It has a column 21 standing upright and a handle 22 pivotally supported at one end to the column 21. Since the push-down rod 23 moves downward in conjunction with the push-down of the handle 22, the cutting cutter 16 connected to the lower end moves downward. Secondary handle 22 formed at the upper end of the device
a is a column 22b fixed on the bracket block 30
Is mounted so as to be rotatable about a fulcrum 22c. The auxiliary handle 22a functions to make a cut in the upper part of the fruit A as described later.

The handle 22 further includes a link mechanism 24
Is attached. The link mechanism 24 is a handle 22
L-shaped first link 25 pivotally connected to the first link 2
5, and a third link 27 connected to the second link 26, and an intermediate portion of the third link 27 is pivotally supported by a bracket 28 on the base 1. The tip of the third link 27 is the bracket plate 1
One is pivoted. Further, the second link 26 is integrally formed with a contact portion 29 with which the first link 25 that rotates when the handle 22 is pressed down contacts. Reference numeral 30 denotes a bracket block to which the upper plate 4 is connected via the connecting rods 31, 31, which transmits the depression of the handle 22 of the operation member 20 to the upper plate 4, whereby the upper plate 4 moves downward.

The operating member 20 moves the upper plate 4 downward by lowering the handle 22 to lower the upper holding member 6, and then the pressing rod 23 lowers the cutting cutter 16. Then, the first link 2
The second link 26 is moved downward by the contact of 5 with the contact portion 29, whereby the third link 27 rotates about the bracket 28 and moves the pushing cutter 10 upward through the bracket plate 11. Then, seeds are extruded from the fruits by these stepwise operations.

FIG. 4 shows the bottom surface of the upper holding member 6, and a through hole 15 through which a cutting cutter 16 passes is opened at the center. An escape groove 8a is formed in a communication state at six equally spaced positions inside the through hole 15. Generally, fruits such as plums are elliptical, and seeds are located along the ellipse. The relief groove 8a is for positioning the elliptical fruit so as to be stable in the long axis direction. That is, as shown in the figure, by aligning both ends of the elliptical fruit A in the long axis direction with a pair of opposed relief grooves 8a,
Seed B is located in the same direction. By extracting the seed in this state, the pulp adhering to the seed is minimized, and the yield is improved. In this embodiment, this escape groove 8 is used.
a are arranged at six equal positions, so that even if the fruit is shifted and set, any of the relief grooves 8a can correspond as shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 shows the extrusion cutter 10 which moves up and down so as to penetrate the lower holding member 5. The blade 10a of this extrusion cutter 10 is arranged in a cross shape, and each blade 10a pushes up seeds in the fruit. This blade portion 10a
Is limited to an acute angle of 90 ° or less with respect to the vertical line, whereby the cut into the pulp can be performed smoothly. FIG. 6 shows the position of the seed B with respect to the blade portion 10a. The elliptical seed B has a major axis and a minor axis whose blade portion 10
It is preferable that the intersections are set so as not to coincide with a. This is because the seed B is easily broken when it matches the blade portion 10a. In addition, as the extrusion cutter 10,
The same effect can be obtained even if the blades are arranged in a Y-shape.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. The fruit is placed on the concave portion 7 of the lower holding member 5 so that the tip of the fruit is located upward, and the handle 22 is pushed down. Thereby, the upper plate 4 first moves downward, and the upper holding member 6 and the lower holding member 5 sandwich and fix the fruit A as shown in FIG. Next, the auxiliary handle 22a is lightly pushed down. Then, the push-down body 22d pivotally supported by the auxiliary handle 22a contacts the upper end 23a of the push-down rod 23, and the push-down rod 23 and the cutting cutter 16 move downward. This downward movement causes the cutting blade 17 to cut into the upper part of the fruit A.
Thereafter, when the auxiliary handle 22a is released, the push-down rod 23 and the cutting cutter 16 move upward by the repulsive force of the spring 23b, and the cutting blade 17 is separated from the fruit A. Then handle 22
As shown in FIG. 8, the cutting cutter 16 penetrates through the through hole 15 of the upper holding member 6 and the fruit A
And the blade body 17 reaches the vicinity of the seed B.

Subsequently, by continuing to push down the handle 22, the first link 25 is connected to the second link 26.
, And the third link 27 rotates. By this rotation, the bracket plate 11 moves upward, and as shown in FIG. 8, the pushing cutter 10 passes through the through slit 12 of the lower holding member 5 and enters the fruit A. Since the extrusion cutter 10 pushes up the seed B in the fruit A, the seed B is extruded from the fruit A. After that, by releasing the depression on the handle 22,
The pushing cutter 10 and the cutting cutter 16 retract from the fruit A, and the upper holding member 6 moves upward. As a result, as shown in FIG. 9, the seed B remains in a state of being lifted from the fruit A. By removing this by hand, the extraction of the seed B is completed.

In this embodiment, the upper holding member 6,
Since both the extruding cutter 10 and the cutting cutter 16 only move up and down to remove seeds,
Operation is simplified. For this reason, the transmission system of the acting force is simplified, the structure is simplified, and the size can be reduced. In addition, since seeds are removed based on the operation on the handle 22, external drive means such as a motor and a fluid pressure cylinder are not required, and the drive system can be simplified.

In the present invention, the cutting cutter 16 may be provided with a seed storage function. This can be easily achieved by making the cutting cutter 16 have the same diameter as the seed B. FIG. 10 shows this cutting cutter 16, in which seed B is pushed out of fruit A by the extrusion cutter 10.
Is pushed into the cutting cutter 16 and removed.
Reference numeral 16a denotes a discharge hole opened in the upper side surface of the cutting cutter 16, and the seeds stored in the cutter 16 and gradually pushed up fall to the outside.

[0021]

According to the seed removing apparatus of the present invention, since all the members move up and down to remove the seeds, the transmission system can be simplified, the structure can be simplified, and even if the apparatus is small and easy to operate. Becomes

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall side view of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an overall front view of one embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a lower holding member.

FIG. 4 is a bottom view of the upper holding member.

FIG. 5 is a front sectional view of an extrusion cutter.

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing the relationship between an extrusion cutter and seeds.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing the operation.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view showing the operation.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view showing the operation.

FIG. 10 is a sectional view showing the operation of another embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a sectional view of a conventional apparatus.

FIG. 12 is a sectional view showing the operation of the conventional device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 5 Lower holding member 6 Upper holding member 10 Extrusion cutter 16 Cutting cutter 20 Operating member

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A lower holding member and an upper holding member for sandwiching fruit from above and below, an extruding cutter that moves up and down so as to penetrate the lower holding member, and extrudes seeds from the fruit by the upward movement; It has a ring-shaped cutting cutter that moves up and down to form a cut in the fruit by moving downward, a handle and a link mechanism connected to the handle,
A fruit seed removing device comprising: an operating member that moves the upper holding member and the cutting cutter downward and moves the extrusion cutter upward. 2. The fruit seed removing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the cutting cutter is capable of storing seeds pushed out of the fruit by the pushing cutter.