JPS61238378A - Fruit sorting method and apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial Field of Application) The present invention relates to a fruit sorting method and a sorting device suitable for sorting fruits, particularly strawberries.

(Prior Art) In order to separate damaged fruits such as fruits, especially strawberries, by size, ordinary multi-stage sieves do not allow damage when they fall into the F sieve and while sliding through each sieve. Therefore, a fruit sorting device shown in FIG. 6 is usually used. This device has endless stretched strings S/, S/ made of thin coil springs arranged on the left and right sides of the base frame.
A large number of horizontal rods 6'...
・They are all installed in parallel at regular intervals to form a bar sieve type moving sieve, and are rotated by engaging with each horizontal rod 6'... on the feeding side portion of the endless telescopic strip 5'. Several star-shaped wheels 7'...? The spur gears 8'... serve as shafts so that they rotate at a constant speed, and the star-shaped wheels 7', which are provided coaxially with the spur teeth is7, are connected to the spur gears 8'. By making the rod so that its mounting angle can be changed as appropriate, and by changing the rod, the distance between the horizontal rods 6' can be partially increased to form multiple types of sieve surfaces, that is, endless elastic strips. 5', the distance between each horizontal rod in section a, which is between the first star-shaped wheel, and the distance between each horizontal rod in section b, which is between the first star-shaped wheel and the second star-shaped wheel. The spacing and the spacing between each horizontal rod in section C, which is between the second star wheel and the third star wheel, are set to increase sequentially toward the rear, and each a, b , c can have sieve surfaces with different sieving meshes, and the fruit fed onto the horizontal rod via the supply conveyor can be passed directly under the a, b, and C sections and endless elastic strips S/, S/ From the discharge end of the belt conveyor 9'..., they can be taken out according to size.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the above-mentioned sorting device, the fruits that are fed in pieces from the supply conveyor collide with the horizontal rods by point contact and are easily damaged locally, and the horizontal rods 6'...・Is a star-shaped wheel 7'...
Since the coil springs of the endless elastic strips s/ and s+ are forcibly held in a stretched state through There is a disadvantage that the star gear 7' is coaxial with the spur gear 8'.
The mechanism 10' for changing the mounting angle is usually done by rotating the bolt 11' as shown in Fig. 7, and this rotation is done by adjusting the mounting shaft in advance so that the bolt 11' is in the upper position. This requires a lot of effort as it requires stopping the operation. Further, a considerable number of gear trains 8' were required, and the structure was complicated.

(Means for solving the problem) By the way, generally speaking, in order to carry out several sievings through each moving sieve in which the sieves are gradually sieved, the fruit is continuously sieved in an appropriate amount according to the capacity of the first sieve. Needless to say, it is necessary to feed the fruit in a constant quantity to the sieve, but in reality, the fruits dropped from the feeding device are concentrated on the surface near the base of the first sieve, so in this area, fruits of all sizes are separated. In many cases, fruits that are too large to pass through the sieve holes overlap and become stuck on the edge of the sieve hole due to the load from above.In this case, as mentioned above, in a bar sieve, etc. The material is locally compressed, which causes severe damage to fruits such as strawberries, and has the disadvantage that even small-diameter fruits that are supposed to pass through are pinched between the upper and lower fruits and remain as they move.

To do this, the fruit, which is about to be pushed into the sieve due to the load from above, is supported by one inclined plane that slopes forward, and this inclined plane gradually changes to a steeper slope. In this way, deformation of the fruit can be prevented as much as possible and the required sieved product can be obtained.

This invention was developed focusing on the above points,
As shown in FIG. 5, a plurality of hanging plates 6 are suspended by pivoting their upper ends, and the lower edges of the plates are supported by guide rods 9a to hold them in an inclined state so that the sieve surface can be adjusted. In this case, the fruits that are fed from above and fallen from above the hanging plate are gently received on the sloped surface, and the hanging plate 6...The mutual spacing expands and contracts depending on the slope of the hanging plate. From this state, by immediately changing the degree of inclination of the hanging plates to each other via the guide rod, the fruit located between the hanging plates slides on the slope as it is and is discharged downward.

(Structure and Embodiments of the Invention) An embodiment of the device according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG.
A pair of left and right boots IJ-1, 2, and 3 with shafts installed across the
A series of endless strips 5.5 are suspended from each of the endless strips 5, 4, and a large number of hanging plates 6 are attached to these endless strips at regular intervals so as to be tiltable with the upper ends of both sides pivoted to the endless strips. ing. In this case, in the embodiment of FIG. 2, the endless strip 5.5 is formed by a series of chains, and the hanging plate 6... has a shaft 7.7 provided at its upper end, which is connected to the shaft 7.7 of each of these chains 5.5. It is inserted through the articulation hole and suspended. These hanging plates 6...
The edge 8.8 is formed by bending both sides of the flat plate.The plate surface between the edge 8.8 is coated with Teflon, for example, to improve smoothness, and the inner surface of the edge 8.8 is The Teflon-treated F layer is formed on a flexible surface by pasting a material such as wonton foam.

Next, the feeding side of the endless strip 5.5, that is, the boo IJ-1,
Below the part corresponding to between 3 and 3, a guide rod 9a- is placed forward (the first
The front and rear ends are attached to long holes in the base frame (not shown) with thumbscrews 10 and 10 in a tilted state with the tips slightly descending toward K (right side in the figure) and can be removed and the installation height can be adjusted. It is freely constructed. Also, below the feed side of the endless strip 5.5 is a wide belt conveyor 11 covered with urethane foam for taking out from the bottom of the sieve, and on the end of the endless strip 5.50 is a belt conveyor 11 for taking out from the bottom of the sieve, which is also made of urethane foam. A belt conveyor 12 is provided. 13 is an endless strip 5.
5 is a drive mechanism, and 14 is a supply conveyor. In addition, 15
is a hanging plate holder provided on the return side of the endless strip 5゜5,
This is to prevent the hanging plate 6 from swinging, and is not necessarily necessary.

(Function) With this configuration, while driving the endless strip 5.5,
When the fruit is supplied by the supply conveyor 14, the fruit is transferred to the hanging plates 6 and 6, which are held in an inclined state through the guide rods 9a provided at a slight inclination as described above.
The sieving is carried out by ..., and the fruits that have been sorted from small to large are successively sorted from the left to the right in the figure on the belt conveyor 11 for taking out from under the sieve.

Note that instead of tilting the guide rod 9a, the feed side of the endless strip 5.5 may be tilted, and the sliding contact of the guide rod 9a with the hanging plate 6 is limited to the lower end of the hanging plate 6. First, the hanging plate 6... is provided with a rotating arm that projects upward.

It may also be brought into sliding contact with the roller. The guide rods 9a to . . . are not limited to straight rod shapes, but may have partially different degrees of inclination as shown in Fig. 3, or saw-shaped as shown in Fig. 4 B), and the hanging plates 6...・The structure may be such that it is suddenly subjected to impact when it passes through each step. The structure shown in FIG. 4 prevents the fruit from sticking to the hanging plate 6, and is advantageous for, for example, fruit with a lot of water on the outside. Further, as shown in Fig. 4 (b), the plate 9b has a step-like shape and is simply fixed (7 or 1° (effect)). All the suspensions are stopped on the sloped surface of the hanging plate 6, and the expansion is performed immediately.Since the hanging plate 6 is discharged downward with a pause, damage to the fruit is greatly prevented. It has many advantages, such as easier maintenance than conventional devices.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a side view of the device according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the essential parts, Figs. Figure 5 is an explanatory side view showing the action of this invention, Figure $J6 is a side view of a conventional device,
FIG. 7 is a partially enlarged view of FIG. 6. 5... Endless strip, 6... Drooping plate, 9a, 9b...
Guide rod 10...11 screw, 11.12...belt conveyor. 14... Supply conveyor agent Patent attorney (8107) Kiyotaka Sasaki (and 3 others)

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) When a large amount of fruits are continuously fed in a fixed amount above the base end of a moving sieve and sorted by size, the moving sieves are arranged in advance in an inclined state at predetermined intervals, and the inclination angle is adjusted according to the transition. is formed by a large number of gradually increasing hanging plates, and fruits of a size that should pass between the hanging plates are taken out sequentially downward by sliding on the slope of the hanging plates. Method. (2) On the left and right endless strips stretched in parallel to the base frame, a large number of hanging plates arranged in parallel at regular intervals by connecting these endless strips are attached to be tiltable by pivoting the upper portions of both ends to the endless strips. At the same time, the base frame on the feeding side of this endless strip is provided with a guide rod that slides on the hanging plates and holds the hanging plates aligned and inclined in a substantially constant direction, and is non-parallel to the endless strip and has a mounting height. A fruit sorting device in which a movable sieve is formed with adjustable sieves and sieve openings that can be expanded and contracted by these hanging plates.