JPH02142459A - Automated fruit peeler - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable steady and efficient operations of fruit peeling and coring by allowing rotary teeth to revolve, as it is allowed to move along the skin of the fruit. CONSTITUTION:A fruit 4 is held with cramps 1, 2, cored with the corer 12. Then, the rotary teeth 35 in the skin-peeling mechanism 33 is allowed to move along the skin of the fruit 4 by means of the worm and the worm wheel, as the teeth is allowed to revolve. Thus, fine control of the balance in cut depth of the cutting blades 29, 29 is made unnecessary at the ends, respectively.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention provides fruit vegetables that can automatically and reliably core and peel citrus fruits such as tangerines, oranges, and grapefruits, and fruit vegetables such as apples and pears. Regarding automatic peeling machine.

[Prior art and problems to be solved by the invention] Conventionally, a vegetable peeling machine has a pair of clamps that hold both ends of the vegetable and rotate the vegetable, and a clamp that peels the vegetable along the skin of the vegetable to be held and rotated. A peeling machine is known that has a cutter device configured to be movable while rotating cup-shaped rotary teeth (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 17515/1983).
Publication No. 9). This peeler has a pair of clamps that are rotatable together, and one of the clamps is connected to a drive device such as a motor. By driving the motor after pinching, the fruits and vegetables are rotated while being held in the clamps. Next, the outer skin of the fruit vegetables is peeled by rotating the cup-shaped rotary teeth and moving the rotary teeth along the outer skin of the fruit vegetables, and then the corer teeth, which are configured to be able to freely slide inside one of the clamps, are used to remove the outer skin of the fruit vegetables. The device is configured so that only the core of the fruit and vegetables can be obtained by removing the skin and core by cutting both ends of the fruit and vegetables using a pair of end-cutting teeth.

The above peeling machine uses the rotation of the vegetable to peel the skin and cut both ends of the vegetable, but only one of the clamps is driven, and the other clamp is simply rotated by the rotating vegetable. In the process of cutting both ends of fruits and vegetables, there is a problem in that if the end on the driven clamp side is cut too far, the rotation of the fruits and vegetables will stop, and the end on the driven rotating clamp side will not be cut enough. In order to sufficiently cut the end of the driven rotating clamp, the cutting of the end of the rotating driven clamp must be made shallow, and conversely, the cutting of the end of the driving clamp becomes insufficient. Moreover, in order to achieve a satisfactory cutting of both ends, it is necessary to perform fine adjustment of the cutting depth of the pair of end cutting teeth, which makes the work complicated.

[Means to solve the problem]

The present invention was developed in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional peeling machine, and it solves the drawbacks of the conventional peeling machine. It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic peeling machine for fruits and vegetables that can automatically perform all steps including these steps.

That is, the present invention provides a pair of clamps for holding and rotating both ends of fruits and vegetables, a drive mechanism for moving the clamps forward and backward, and a synchronous rotation mechanism structure for synchronizing and rotating the pair of clamps at the same time. and a coring mechanism configured to be able to move forward and backward through one of the clamps by a drive mechanism, and having coring teeth at the tip, and teeth formed with the cutting edge oriented parallel to the rotation axis at the peripheral edge. It has rotary teeth for peeling provided on the surface of the vegetable, and rotates the rotary tooth with the rotation axis of the rotary tooth oriented in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis direction of the fruit vegetable being rotated while being held by the clamp, and peels the fruit vegetable skin. A peeling mechanism configured to be rotatable along the rotating axis of the fruit vegetable, and an end cutting tooth configured to be rotatable on a plane perpendicular to the rotation axis of the rotating fruit vegetable. The gist is an automatic peeling machine.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

In FIGS. 1 to 3, reference numeral 1.2 denotes a clamp, and the clamp 1.2 has a holding claw 3 at its tip, and the holding claw 3 is inserted into the vegetable 4 to hold the fruit vegetable 4.

Each clamp 1.2 is configured to be rotatable through the substrate 5 and slidable within the outer cylinder 6. The clamps 1 and 2 are each rotatably supported by a support ring 7, and each support ring 7 is fixed to a sliding plate 8. Each sliding plate 8 is configured to be movable forward and backward by a cylinder 9. A link rod 10 is connected to each sliding plate 8, and each link rod 10 is connected to the periphery of a link disk 11, and this link mechanism is configured so that the center of the fruit vegetable 4 is always at a constant position. There is.

A cylindrical core remover 12 having core remover teeth at its tip is slidably provided in the clamp 1 on the - side by means of a rodless cylinder 13. In the rodless cylinder 13, a screw 14 and a sliding body 15 configured to be able to slide on the outer periphery of the cylinder are connected by magnetic force, and the piston 1
When the slider 4 slides, the slider 15 also slides, and as the slider 15 slides, the coring machine 12 connected to the slider 15 advances and clamps. It is configured to protrude from the inside of l and 2 and remove the core of fruit vegetables 4. A core pusher 16 is provided on the inner surface of the core remover 12, and the core inside the core remover 12 is pushed out by the core pusher 16. The tail rod 16 is fixed to a fixing plate 18 with bolts 17 and the like. On the other hand, the corer 12 is provided with an elongated escape hole 19 to avoid the bolt 17 from being disturbed during sliding.

Reference numeral 20 denotes a synchronous rotation mechanism for simultaneously rotating the clamps 1 and 2 in synchronization, and the synchronous rotation mechanism 20 includes a rotation shaft 21 passing through each substrate 5. A synchronous rotation mechanism 20 consisting of a wheel 22
A belt 24 is stretched between each wheel 22 and a wheel 23 fixed to the outer cylinder 6 of each clamp L2, and a clamp rotation drive motor 25 is connected to a gear 26 on one wheel of the synchronous rotation mechanism 20. The driving force of this motor 25 is transmitted from the synchronous rotation mechanism 20 to each clamp 1.2, so that both clamps 1 and 2 rotate simultaneously and synchronously. In addition, each clamp 1.
2 has a protrusion 28 engaged in a groove 27 provided on the inner surface of the outer cylinder 6, which allows it to move forward and backward;
No matter what position clamp 1.2 slides, clamp 1 is always
．． 2 is configured to be rotatable by the rotation of the outer cylinder 6.

Reference numeral 29 denotes a pair of end cutting teeth provided for cutting both ends of the fruit vegetables 4. The tip of a shaft 30 supporting the end cutting teeth 29 is connected to a cylinder 32 by a crank 31. The linear motion is converted into rotational motion by the crank 31, and the cutting teeth 29 are configured to be able to rotate on a plane perpendicular to the rotation axis of the fruit vegetables 4. They are connected and move toward and away from each other as the sliding plate 8 moves, and are always located slightly inside the holding claw 3 of the clamp 1.2, so that the fruit vegetables 4 are always located slightly inside the holding claw 3. It is constructed so that both ends can be reliably cut.

The peeling mechanism 33 is provided with a cup-shaped rotating tooth 35 whose cutting edge is oriented parallel to the rotating shaft 34, and the rotating tooth 35 is attached to the head portion 36 with the cutting edge facing downward.
It is connected to a motor 38 via a rotatable structure. The head part 36 of the peeling mechanism 33 consists of a movable part 39 having rotation @35 and a fixed part 40, and the movable part 39
is configured to be able to move toward the fruit vegetables 4 and move away from the fruit vegetables 4 by means of a cylinder 41.

On the other hand, the head section 36 is connected to a worm wheel 43 via a support section 42, and a rotating shaft 44 of the worm wheel 43 is supported by a bearing 45 provided at the center of the fruit. The shaft of the worm 46 that meshes with the worm wheel 43 is connected to a motor (not shown), and when the driving force from the motor is transmitted from the worm 46 to the worm wheel 43, the worm wheel 43 rotates around the rotation shaft 44. The peeling mechanism 33
The rotary teeth 35 are configured to be able to rotate along the skin of the fruit vegetable 4.

To peel fruit vegetables 4 using the peeler of the present invention,
First, the fruit vegetables 4 are held by the clamps 1 and 2, but the clamps 1 and 2 are slid by the cylinder 9, and the rod 47 of the cylinder 9 is always extended by a certain length, so the tip of the rod 47 of the cylinder 9 is slid. If a mechanism is adopted in which the sliding plate 8 is completely fixed to the moving plate 8 and allowed to slide, when the maximum length of the rod 47 of the cylinder 9 is extended, the diameter is smaller than the distance between the pair of clamps 1.2. If the vegetables are large, there is a risk of squeezing them too tightly and crushing them. In order to solve such problems, the present invention employs the following mechanism. That is, the control Fi 49 has a locking rod 48 on the lower surface side coaxially with the axis of the link disk 11 that rotates as the sliding plate 8 moves forward and backward.
The control disk 49 is pivotally connected to the shaft 50 of the control disk 49.
A brake plate 52 having a loose fitting hole 51 into which the locking rod 48 of the control disk 49 is loosely inserted is attached by inserting the locking rod 48 of the control disc 49 into the loosely fitting hole 51. 53 to be braked. On the other hand, the end 47a of the piston shaft of the cylinder 9 for sliding the sliding plate 8 is left free with respect to the sliding plate, and the piston shaft 47 or the coil spring 54 is passed through, and the coil spring 54 has one end The piston shaft 47 is supported at its middle portion, and the other end is supported by the sliding plate 8.

Furthermore, one end of the sliding plate 8 is connected to a spring 55 (this spring 55 is attached so that when the sliding plate 8 moves in the direction of holding the fruit vegetables 4, an elastic force acts in the direction of pulling back the sliding plate 8). ), and an adjustment bar 56 whose other end is fixed to the sliding plate 8 is provided. In addition, a center open type cylinder is used as the cylinder 9 for moving the sliding plate 8 forward and backward,
At the end of the extension of the rod 47 of the cylinder 9, the brake 53 applies braking to the brake plate 52 to stop the rotation of the brake plate 52, and the internal pressure of the cylinder 9 is released and controlled so that it becomes equal to atmospheric pressure. . With such a configuration, when the cylinder 9 is actuated and the sliding plates 8 slide in the direction toward each other, the link disk 11 is rotated by the link rod IO, and this link disk 11 is rotated by the link rod IO. When the control disk 49, which is coaxially connected to the link disk 11, rotates, the brake plate 52 is pushed by the locking rod 48 of the control disk 49, and the control disk 4
9 (Fig. 4(a)).

When the clamps 1 and 2 come into contact with the vegetable 4 and the holding claw 3 at the tip of the clamp 112 bites into the skin of the vegetable 4, the clamp 1
．． 2 and the sliding plate 8 no longer slide, and if the operation of the cylinder 9 has not yet finished at that point, the rod 47 protrudes from the sliding plate 8 and moves forward, and the sliding plate 8 moves past the rod 47. The rod 47 of the cylinder 9 is not pushed directly by the spring elastic force of the coil spring 54 (see FIG. 5(a)). When the extension of the brake plate 52 is completed, the brake plate 52 is moved by the brake 53.
is braked and stopped (Fig. 4 (c)).

Next, when the internal pressure of the cylinder 9 is released and becomes equal to atmospheric pressure (at this point, the rod 47 is in a free state).
, the rod 47 is pushed back by the coil spring 54 (FIG. 5(b)), and the pressing of the fruit vegetable 4 by the spring elastic force of the coil spring 54 is released. In this way, spring 5 of fruit vegetables 4
Although the pressing force exerted by the clamp 1.2 is released, the clamp 1.2 is strongly bitten into the vegetable 4 when pressed by the spring 54. For this purpose, the sliding plate 8 is pulled back slightly and the clamp l,
It is preferable to reduce the biting of fruit and vegetables 4 into fruit and vegetables 4. This pulling back of the sliding plate 8 is carried out by the action of the adjustment rod 56 which receives a force in the direction of pulling back the sliding plate 8 by the springs 55. When the sliding plate 8 is pulled back by the action of the adjustment rod 56, the control disk 49, which is pivoted coaxially with the link disk 11, rotates in the opposite direction, and the locking rod 48 of the control disk 49 engages the brake plate 52. When it comes into contact with the other end of the loose fitting hole O, the brake plate 52
is held by the brake 53, the control disc 49 stops without rotating any further in the reverse direction, the rotation of the link disc 11 also stops, and the pulling back of the sliding plate 8 is stopped, which causes the clamp 12 to stop. Slightly pulled back, clamp 1.2
The pressing force of the fruit vegetables 4 due to this is eased. In this way, the clamps 1 and 2 prevent the vegetable 4 from being pressed too much and crush it, and by pulling back the clamp 1.2 slightly, the end cutting teeth 29 can cut both ends of the vegetable. Load is less likely to be applied to the end cutting teeth 29, and both ends of the fruit vegetable 4 can be cut smoothly.

In the peeling machine of the present invention, the rotary tooth 3 of the peeling mechanism 33
If 5 is made into a cup shape as described above and rotated with the tooth tips facing downward, the peeled skin will be pushed away from the surface of the vegetable by the cup-shaped rotating teeth 35 and will be reversed and fall downward. This is preferable because it facilitates post-processing, but if the tip 35a of the rotary tooth 35 is formed into a wave shape as shown in FIG. 6, the cutting edge will come into contact with the skin of the fruit and vegetable at an acute angle, resulting in a sharp cutting angle. It is preferable that the skin of the fruit vegetables 4 can be peeled very well.

In the peeling machine of the present invention, the vegetables 4 can be fed manually and held by the clamps 1 and 2, but in order to reliably peel, core, and cut both ends, it is necessary to feed the vegetables 4 by hand.
Clamp both ends on the center line including the hem part l, 2
In order to achieve this purpose, it is preferable to employ a fruit and vegetable feeding mechanism 57 as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. This supply mechanism 57 is provided with two loaders 58, and is configured so that the loaders 58 can alternately supply the fruits and vegetables 4 to predetermined positions. Each loader 58 has two inwardly curved retainers 59.
Each retainer 59 is fixed to a moving block 61 configured to be able to slide along a rail 60, and each moving block 61 has a rotary cylinder 62.
Link rods 65 are connected around a disk 64 which is pivotally supported by a shaft 63, and are configured to be able to slide toward or away from each other as driven by a rotary cylinder 62. Further, each of the loaders 58 is configured to be able to move up and down by a cylinder 66, and each loader 58 is also configured to be able to slide laterally by a cylinder 67 at the same time. The loader 58 is
When the fruit vegetable 4 is held by the retainer 59, the cylinder 6
6 and carries the fruit vegetable 4 to a predetermined position (a position where the center line including the stem of the fruit vegetable 4 and the line connecting each clamp 1 and 2 substantially overlap), and the fruit vegetable 4 is held by the clamp. The retainer 59 is expanded and then raised, but since the retainer 59 in this loader 58 is concavely curved inward, when the retainer 59 holds the fruit vegetables 4, the center of the fruit vegetable 4 is always at a constant position. Therefore, the loader
By setting the lowering position of 58 in advance, the clamps 1 and 2 can always hold both ends on the center line passing through the bottom of the vegetable. Moreover, if the fruits and vegetables 4 are alternately fed by the two loaders 58, the fruits and vegetables can be fed efficiently and work efficiency can be improved.

In the above example, the retainer 59 of the loader 58 is formed by bending a rod-like body into a concavely curved shape, but a cup-shaped retainer may also be used. Further, the number of loaders 58 is not limited to two, and only one loader 58 may be provided.

In order to peel the fruit vegetable 4 using the apparatus of the present invention, the fruit vegetable 4 is first held between the retainers 59 of the loader 58 so that the center line passing through the stem of the fruit vegetable 4 is sandwiched from both sides. The work of holding the fruits and vegetables by the holder 59 may be done manually or may be done using another feeding device. Next, the loader 58 is lowered to hold both ends of the fruit vegetable 4 on the center line passing through the roasted portion from both sides with clamps. The fruit vegetables held by the clamps 1 and 2 are rotated by the rotation of the clamps 1 and 2, and then the corer 12 is operated to remove the core.
By stopping at a position outside the end cutting teeth 29 on the opposite side of the corer 12 and without removing the outer skin on the opposite side, core removal can be performed reliably and the end cutter teeth 29 can be stopped on the opposite side. This is preferable because the core and the end can be easily removed together when cutting the section, and the core removal work can be performed efficiently. Next, the rotary teeth 35 of the peeling mechanism 33
When the head part 36 of the rotary tooth 35 is rotated along the skin of the fruit vegetable without rotating, the head part 36 of the rotary teeth 35 is almost completely peeled off (at this time, the skin of the fruit vegetable is held by the clamp 12). The epidermis of the area still remains unpeeled.

), by further rotating the end cutting teeth 29 and cutting both ends, both ends held by the clamps 1 and 2 are cut, but as described above, the core is not integrated with the ends. In order to remove the fruit, it is preferable that the cutting by the cutting teeth 0 does not reach the center of the fruit 4.

In this way, the outer skin of the fruit vegetable 4 is peeled and the core is removed to obtain only the fruit.

In the above example, a case has been described in which core removal is performed before peeling, but core removal may be performed at the same time as peeling, or may be configured to be performed at the time when peeling is completed.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the automatic fruit and vegetable peeling machine of the present invention is configured so that the rotary teeth are rotated and rotated along the outer skin of the fruit and vegetables. Core removal can be performed reliably and efficiently. In addition, in the peeling machine of the present invention, since the pair of clamps that hold the fruit vegetables from both sides are rotated simultaneously and synchronously, fine adjustment of the balance of the cutting depth of the pair of end cutting teeth in the both end cutting process is performed. You only need to adjust each end cutting tooth so that it can reliably cut each end, without the need for complicated work such as cutting. Even if the edges are cut, there is no risk that the rotation of the vegetables will stop before one end is cut enough, resulting in poor cutting of the ends, and both ends of the vegetables can be securely cut. It can be cut into.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a plan view of the automatic fruit and vegetable peeling machine of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view taken along the line ■-■ in FIG. A vertical cross-sectional view taken along the line III-III in FIG. 1, FIGS. 4 and 5 show the operating state of the mechanism for relieving the pressing force on fruits and vegetables by the clamp, and FIGS.
(C) is a back view showing the operating state of the control disc and brake plate provided on the lower side of the link disc, Figures 5 (a) to α]
) is a longitudinal sectional view showing the relationship between the sliding plate and the cylinder, No. 6
The figures are perspective views showing different embodiments of the rotary teeth, FIG. 7 is a front view of the fruit and vegetables supply mechanism, and FIG. 8 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view taken along the line ■-■ in FIG. 7. ■, 2... Clamp 4... Fruits and vegetables 9... Cylinder] 2... Coring machine 13... Rodless cylinder 20... 1υ1 rotation mechanism 25... Motor for driving clamp rotation 29 ...End cutting tooth 33...
・Peeling mechanism 35... Rotating teeth 43... Worm wheel 44... Rotating shaft 45... Bearing 46.
... Worm 35a No. 4 No. 4-"

Claims (1)

[Claims] A pair of clamps for holding and rotating both ends of fruits and vegetables, a drive mechanism for moving the clamps forward and backward, a synchronous rotation drive mechanism for synchronizing and rotating the pair of clamps at the same time, and a drive mechanism for rotating one side of the vegetable. A core removal mechanism configured to be able to move forward and backward through the inside of the clamp, and having core removal teeth at the tip, and a peeling mechanism with teeth formed on the periphery with the cutting edge oriented in a direction parallel to the rotation axis. It has rotating teeth, and is capable of rotating along the skin of the fruit vegetable while rotating the rotating teeth with the rotating axis of the rotating tooth oriented in a direction perpendicular to the rotating axis direction of the fruit vegetable being held by the clamp and rotating. 1. An automatic peeling machine for fruits and vegetables, characterized in that it is equipped with a peeling mechanism configured as shown in FIG.