WO1997029652A1

WO1997029652A1 - Method and apparatus for peeling products

Info

Publication number: WO1997029652A1
Application number: PCT/NL1997/000064
Authority: WO
Inventors: Stefanus Michael Marie Backus
Original assignee: Backus Beheer B.V.
Priority date: 1996-02-14
Filing date: 1997-02-14
Publication date: 1997-08-21
Also published as: NL1002341C2

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for peeling products (12), in particular agricultural products (12), comprising the steps of: a) supplying a collection of products (12) having a peel, b) subjecting the supplied products (12) to a superficial peeling operation, c) checking the products (12) for possibly remaining peel remnants after the peeling operation is concluded, d) at least partly repeating the step b) or the steps b) and c) until the products (12) are substantially wholly free of peel remnants, and e) discharging the substantially fully peeled products. The invention also relates to an apparatus (1) for performing this method. Such an apparatus (1) comprises supply means (2), peeling means (3) connected in series to the supply means (2), checking means (4, 5) connected in series to the peeling means (3), selection means (6, 7) connected in series to and controllable by the checking means (4, 5) and having at least two outlets, feedback means (8) connecting at least one outlet of the selection means (6, 7) to the peeling means (3) and discharge means (9) connected in series to another outlet of the selection means (6, 7).

Description

Method and apparatus for peeling products

The invention relates to a method for peeling prod¬ ucts, in particular agricultural products such as tuberous and root crops including potatoes.

Heretofore the greatest possible efforts have always been made to remove the peel from products in a single peeling operation. After this peeling operation the products are then checked and, should it be found that a part of a product is still not peeled, this product is subjected to the peeling operation once again. Since the object of the peeling operation is to peel the products as fully as possible, renewed subjection to such an operation of a product of which only a small part is still unpeeled results in the creation of relatively large quantities of waste. The invention therefore has for its object to provide an improved peeling method wherein this drawback does not occur. This is achieved according to the invention by a method for peeling products, in particular agricultural products, comprising the steps of: a) supplying a collection of products having a peel, b) subjecting the supplied products to a superficial peeling operation, c) checking the products for possibly remaining peel remnants after the peeling operation is concluded, d) at least partly repeating the step b) or the steps b) and c) until the products are substantially wholly free of peel remnants, and e) discharging the substantially fully peeled prod¬ ucts. According to the invention therefore the attempt to achieve the desired result in one peeling operation is deliberately avoided. By subjecting the product in this manner to only a superficial peeling operation and then repeating this superficial peeling operation until the product is practically free of peel remnants, only the minimum necessary amount of peel is removed from the product. The amount of waste is thus relatively small.

Preferred embodiments of the method according to the invention form the subject-matter of the dependent claims 2-6.

The invention also relates to an apparatus for performing the above described method. Such an apparatus preferably comprises supply means, peeling means connected in series to the supply means, checking means connected in series to the peeling means, selection means connected in series to and controllable by the checking means and having at least two outlets, feedback means connecting at least one outlet of the selection means to the peeling means and discharge means connected in series to another outlet of the selection means. With such an apparatus products can be peeled mechanically in rapid manner without this resulting in unnecessarily large quantities of waste.

The invention is now elucidated on the basis of two embodiments, wherein reference is made to the annexed drawing, in which: fig. 1 shows a schematic perspective view of an apparatus for performing a first variant of the method according to the invention, and fig. 2 is a view corresponding with fig. 1 of an apparatus for performing a second variant of the method.

An apparatus 1 for peeling products 12 (fig. 1) comprises means 2 for supplying the products for peeling, here in the form of a feed chute, peeling means 3 con- nected in series to the supply means 2 and in the shown embodiment taking the form of two rotatable peeling drums 10 and 11, and checking means 4, 5 connected in series to the peeling means 3. These checking means 4, 5 can take the form of one or more electronic scanning devices. Connected in series to the checking means 4, 5 are selec¬ tion means 6, 7 which are controllable by the checking means. The selection means 6, 7 comprise a plurality of valves and two outlets for insufficiently peeled products which emerge into the feedback means 8 which are in turn connected to the peeling means 3. The selection means 6, 7 further comprise an outlet which is connected to means 9 for discharging the peeled products. The feedback means 8 comprise a first return belt which is designated sche¬ matically with 15 and which leads to the supply opening of the first peeling drum 10. A second return belt 16 of feedback means 8 leads to a feed chute 17 of the second peeling drum 11. Peeling drums 10 and 11 are both provided with a discharge chute 13, 18 respectively which emerges onto a conveyor 14 by which the products from peeling drums 10 and 11 are carried to the checking and selection means 4-7. The operation of the shown peeling apparatus 1 is as follows: the products for peeling are fed via chute 2 to the first peeling drum 10 and there subjected to a super¬ ficial peeling operation. The superficially peeled prod¬ ucts leave the drum 10 via discharge chute 13 and are guided by conveyor 14 to the first checking and selection station 4, 6, where it is determined by the electronic checking means 4 whether peel remnants are still left to any considerable extent on the products. Should this be the case, the products are selected out by the selection means 6 and carried back by the return belt 15 to peeling drum 10.

If during checking it is found that the products show peel remnants to a lesser extent or no peel remnants at all, they are then allowed through to the second checking and selection station 5, 7, where the appearance of the products is checked once again, but now on the basis of a more stringent selection criterion. Those products which still have too many peel remnants are selected out by selection means 7 and guided by return belt 16 to the feed chute 17 of the second peeling drum 11 where they are subjected to a less intensive and therefore exceptionally superficial peeling operation. The thus peeled products are carried back again via discharge chute 18 to the conveyor 14 and carried therefrom back to the first checking and selection station 4, 6. On the other hand, products which are found in the second checking and selection unit 5, 7 to be sufficiently free of peel remnants are allowed through to the discharge means 9 and thereby discharged to a subsequent treatment or packaging station.

The products for peeling are thus subjected one or more times to a peeling operation of different intensity, whereby eventually each product is fully peeled. Because in each peeling step the product is only peeled superfi¬ cially, the feedback of insufficiently peeled products moreover does not result in excessively large amounts of waste.

In an alternative embodiment of the peeling apparatus 1 according to the invention (fig. 2) , the first peeling drum 10 forms a preliminary peeling stage which is only passed through once. In this embodiment the second peeling drum 11 takes a divided form and comprises two drums 11A and 11B which are mutually connected by means of a conveyor chute 19. Depending on the quantity of peel remnants left on the products these are now fed back to the first part 11A of the second peeling drum or the second part 11B thereof. Products fed to peeling drum part 11A therefore pass through both drum parts 11A and 11B and are therefore peeled more intensively than products which are fed only to the second drum part 11B.

The above described method and apparatus make it possible to remove the peel from products relatively quickly and economically, i.e. with only a small amount of waste.

Claims

1. Method for peeling products, in particular agri¬ cultural products, comprising the steps of: a) supplying a collection of products having a peel, b) subjecting the supplied products to a superficial peeling operation, c) checking the products for possibly remaining peel remnants after the peeling operation is concluded, d) at least partly repeating the step b) or the steps b) and c) until the products are substantially wholly free of peel remnants, and e) discharging the substantially fully peeled prod¬ ucts.

2. Method as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that step b) or steps b) and c) are repeated at least once.

3. Method as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that the peeling operation is performed in a number of successive steps and after checking of the products on the basis of the quantity of remaining peel remnants it is determined from which step the peeling operation must be repeated.

4. Method as claimed in claim 3, characterized in that the peeling operation comprises a preliminary peeling step and at least one after-peeling step and only the after-peeling step is repeated if necessary.

5. Method as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that the intensity of the peeling operation is adjustable and after checking of the products on the basis of the quantity of remaining peel remnants it is determined with which intensity the peeling operation must be repeated.

6. Method as claimed in any of the foregoing claims, characterized in that the peeling operation is performed mechanically and checking of the products takes place by electronic means .

7. Apparatus for performing the method as claimed in claim 1, characterized by supply means, peeling means connected in series to the supply means, checking means connected in series to the peeling means, selection means connected in series to and controllable by the checking means and having at least two outlets, feedback means connecting at least one outlet of the selection means to the peeling means and discharge means connected in series to another outlet of the selection means.

8. Apparatus as claimed in claim 7, characterized in that the peeling means comprise a plurality of stages connected in series and the feedback means are connected to at least the stage located furthest downstream.

9. Apparatus as claimed in claim 8, characterized in that the feedback means comprise a plurality of return belts which are connected to different outlets of the selection means and which each lead to a separate stage of the peeling means.

10. Apparatus as claimed in claim 7, characterized in that the peeling operation of the peeling means is adjustable and the peeling means are connected in con¬ trollable manner to the checking means.

11. Apparatus as claimed in any of the claims 7-10, characterized in that the checking means comprise an electronic scanning device and the selection means take the form of one or more valves.