WO2003051142A2

WO2003051142A2 - Process and equipment for elimination of paprika core

Info

Publication number: WO2003051142A2
Application number: PCT/HU2002/000151
Authority: WO
Inventors: János OLÁH
Original assignee: Olah Janos
Priority date: 2001-12-19
Filing date: 2002-12-18
Publication date: 2003-06-26
Also published as: AU2002353245A8; WO2003051142A3; AU2002353245A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a procedure for paprika coring. At the first step of the procedure the paprika is sorted by means of sorting cylinders designed in adjustable distance and then the sorted paprika is placed into the paprika holding cups (21) of the paprika coring equipment. Machines are equipped with tools (37, 38, 39) operating in synchronized manner and independently of each other; furthermore it has driving (7) and controlling (10) elements too. The equipment is supplied by at least one spiral drill or core-cutter (37) and occasionally by a core-rotator tool (38) and a slicing tool with cross-knife (39). The equipment is equally suitable for coring of paprika used for stuffing, apple-paprika, and tomato-paprika too.

Description

PROCESS AND EQUIPMENT FOR ELIMINATION OF PAPRIKA CORE

Field of the invention

The invention relates to the process and equipment for paprika coring. The procedure can be carried out by the combination of a thickness and diameter screener and a paprika coring equipment of the present invention.

Background of the invention

Coring operation means the separation of the body part of paprika from its centre, i.e. from the core. The manual coring is a labour and time-consuming activity and for these reasons the facilitation and acceleration of the work is an essential question; several trials have already been made to solve it.

The mechanization of the operation is a difficult task mainly for the reason of the variability of shape and size within and among the types of the processed paprika. An alternative of mechanization is to cultivate the paprika in uniform size and shape in highly controlled paprika cultivation systems. An other alternative is to process the paprika after a preliminary sorting, which provide the possibility to pour the paprika in uniform size and shape into the processing equipment.

It is known from the literature that generally the paprika coring equipment is able to handle the paprika being in uniform shape and size. The common character of the equipments used in the practice is that a pipe knife is used for removing the core as it is described in cases of e.g. on an Italian equipment in Hungarian Patent No. 168 412 or on an other equipment in Hungarian Patents Nos. 160 676 and 166 562. Generally this type of equipment is applicable for coring the paprika used only for stuffing. However in major cases, even in cases of paprika used for stuffing, the pipe knife is not able to remove the core without leaving some residue mainly because even within the same type not only the size of paprika varies but the shape too, the axis of paprika is not linear, consequently it is not proved that in each cases the pipe knife trims the core itself. It happens very often that the pipe knife does not remove the core but forwards it in front of him, consequently the core remains inside the paprika used for stuffing or it is mixed with the sliced paprika.

According to the current practice there is not any universal equipment for coring the paprika in different shapes, as a consequence of the above the packing-plants regularly solve the problem by purchasing cored and sliced paprika from the producers. However it has several drawbacks since in case of manual coring

- the hygienic conditions are not acceptable in all cases;

- procedures can not be controlled;

- producer is not interested in providing the work at high quality;

- until the sliced paprika reaches the processing plant from the producer, the product is handled and transported several times, the run-time is too long, and the quality of sliced paprika deteriorates very fast;

- fulfilment of the exporting quality is impeachable very often.

Practically the paprika coring equipment operates perfectly in case of processing of sorted product. The product to be processed is sorted mainly according to the size and then according to its processibility and quality.

Since the shape of different fruits and vegetables having a shape of cylindrical, conic, oval, spherical varies in a large extent, and their size also varies very much, the known sorting machines are able to fulfil special tasks but can not be used them for other purposes. For example there are tomato sorting equipment (Hungarian Patent No. 168 368), almond sorting equipment (Hungarian Patent No. 153 268), cucumber sorting equipment (Hungarian Patents No. 157 473 and 164 535), fruit sorting equipment (Hungarian Patent No. 150 674), etc. The construction of the known sorting equipment can be axially increscent edge-type, stringed with consecutively increasing distances, lamellar with different spacing and sorting solution based upon the distances between successive cylinders. However none of them are able to sort the whole of the above- mentioned forms. The known machines are often too slow, fracture the product and the modification is expensive too. Computerised machines equipped with different sensors have already been constructed, however those are very expensive ones.

Summary of the invention

The task of the invention is on the one hand to develop a reliable sorting equipment, on the other hand by discarding the drawbacks of the above listed paprika coring equipment to develop such an equipment for coring of different types of paprika (paprika used for stuffing, apple-paprika and tomato-paprika) with which the coring can be carried out without fracturing the valuable body of paprika simultaneously maintaining the cleanness of core too.

The first task was solved by such sorting equipment, which is able to sort the product according to its diameter and thickness. Consequently this equipment is able to sort not only the paprika but generally applicable for the sorting of vegetables and fruits too.

After only size adjustment the sorting equipment of the mvention is able to sort the product according to its diameter and thickness having cylindrical, conic, oval and spherical shapes without fracturing it.

The sorting cylinders of the equipment include cylinders with the same thickness and gradually increasing diameter and are mounted in a mirror symmetric manner on a rectangular shaft having constant rotation speed. Arbitrary number of series of pairs of cylinders in mirror symmetry can be mounted on the shaft. The distance between cylinders can be adjusted according to the product to be sorted. The collecting chambers are connected to the sorting cylinders. The transportation of the sorted product is solved by means of a discharging conveyor.

First of all the product has to be converted into sorting status. Based on the centre of gravity and longitudinal axis utilisation it is solved by means of positioning and transportation cylinders. Each series of pairs of cylinders mounted in a mirror symmetric manner are supplied by two positioning and transportation cylinders rotating opposite direction with the same rotational speed. Between the positioning and transportation cylinders, at the height of the shaft and towards the advance direction an endless forwarding conveyor is mounted in.

A rubber profile with characteristic shape can be attached to the circumference of cylinders. The appropriate distance between the series of pairs of cylinders is maintained by a knapping-plate mounted on the shaft. Because of sorting the collecting chambers created between the sorting cylinders pull off the product by means of downward leading arc directed towards the advancing direction and forward it onto the discharging conveyor.

The sorted paprika is then rinsed and dried. The sorted paprika in uniform size is transported into the hopper of the coring equipment.

A feature of the paprika coring equipment of the invention is that it is supplied by specially shaped tools and paprika holding cups. Due to them the equipment is able to core the different types and sizes of paprika without fracturing the body of paprika and in every cases separates the core from the paprika too. The tools of the equipment in the order of operations are: core-cutter, core-rotator or binding tool, slicing tool with cross- knife. The core-cutter is driven by a high-speed engine. The core-cutter includes a cutting unit being movable in bevelled direction or a core drilling spiral. The cutting unit being movable in bevelled direction is preferably a special shaped wire-knife. The cutting unit and the core drilling spiral are the parts of a replaceable block which is attached to the shaft driven by the high-speed engine. Preferably a three-forked spike or a claw-like rotating element are attached into the core-rotator or binding tool the purpose of which is to fix the core or in request to rotate it in order to separate the core from the torus.

The paprika holding cups are plate-shaped and mounted by special spoon-shaped holding elements the end of which are bended outward, consequently the paprika seated into the cup can not shift and fracture during operations. The spoon-shaped holding element is bended outward at its end to hold the paprika more safely and sparely. Holding elements have critical roll in case of coring the paprika used for stuffing. Paprika coring equipment can be designed equipped both with a circular table or conveyor. Capacity of the machine equipped with a conveyor is higher and suitable for coring of all of the three types of paprika (paprika used for stuffing, apple-paprika, tomato-paprika), while the solution with circular table is suitable mainly for coring spherical and cylindrical paprika.

The equipment is operated by e.g. a constant-speed motor driving a camshaft with which the circular table or conveyor moves stationary in intermittent-operation. The driving motor with camshaft provides the motion of table or conveyor as well as the tools too the motion of which is in adverse cycle of the former ones at a suitable rate perpendicularly to the table or conveyor. Paprika holding cups are attached in radial adjustment to the circular table and parallel to the conveyor. Tools are located independently of each other above the paprika holding cups attached in radial adjustment or parallel to a properly assembled bridge. Driving of tools with appropriate speed are carried out by independently operated engines.

Detailed description of the invention

The sorting and paprika coring machines of the invention are described in details based on the drawings below:

Figure 1 : Flow diagram on the connection of major units of sorting equipment

Figure 2: Cross-section of the construction shape of sorting cylinder

Figure 3: Top view of the paprika coring machine equipped with a circular table

Figure 4: Cross-sectional view taken on the line II-II of the paprika coring machine equipped with a circular table

Figure 5: Cross-sectional view of the core-cutter under operation

Figure 6: Cross-sectional view of the core-rotator or binding tool

Figure 7: Cross-sectional view of the core-bit

Figure 8: Top view of the paprika holding cups with holding elements

Figure 1 presents the connection of major units of sorting equipment, where a framework provides the positioning, operation and the proper attachment of the operating and driving elements. From hopper 101, by means of a conical plate mounted to the feeding plate 102 and attached to the shaft in a suitable angular position being able for shifting in vertical direction, the product is forwarded to the positioning and transportation cylinders 103. Positioning and transportation cylinders 103 include cylinders attached to the shaft in a suitable angular position turning in opposite directions by identical rate. For supporting of the progression spirals being in the same width and position are attached into the direction of rotation to the cylinders 103.

Between the positioning and transportation cylinders 103, at the height of the shaft towards the advance direction an endless forwarding conveyor 107 is mounted in. Because of its inertness and according to its mass centre and longitudinal axis the product sets into the advance direction. Above the conveyors swinging plates, which are attached at a suitable height to the sorting cylinders 104, hampers the rolling of product. Sorting cylinders 104 are connected to the collecting chambers 105 from which the sorted product is transferred onto the discharging conveyor 106.

Figure 2 presents the section view of sorting cylinders 104. The sorting cylinders 104 include cylinders having the same thickness and gradually increasing diameter mounted onto a constant rotation speed rectangular shaft 111 and kept together with the highest diameter cylinder by three spring-bolts 115 being in symmetric positions used for setting in accordance with spacer 116. As a setting the distance between the pairs of cylinders and the right position of them is fixed by the knapping-plate 112 mounted to the shaft 111.

A rubber profile 114 is attached to the circumference of cylinders, which is used for the suitable shifting and sorting of product and where the fine-tuning can be done by the spacer 116 placed behind the rubber profile 114.

Between the sorting cylinders a rotating plate is mounted on the downward leading arc being directed towards the advancing and rotating direction, which pulls off the product and depending on the size forwards it into the collecting chambers 105 from which the product is forwarded by the discharging conveyor 106. The sorted paprika in uniform size is transported into the feeding hopper 5 of the paprika coring equipment from which the feeding controlling operator places the paprika into the paprika holding cups positioning the core of paprika in upward direction.

The top view of the paprika coring machine equipped with a circular table can be seen on Figure 3 and the section view of it on Figure 4.

The framework 15 of the equipment, preferably equipped with three legs, is constructed according to the folio wings: a sleeved centric socket 16 is attached to the central point on which there is the socket 22 being attached to the circular table 6 for providing the axial rotation. The rotation by the constant speed driving unit 7 attached to the framework 15 is carried out according to the folio wings: the ratchet distributor 13 with equal divisions is operated by a rod at the bearing centre of rotation being mounted to the end of camshaft 8, which is attached to the socket 22 and consequently the circular table 6 is able to rotate a definite unit during a full turn of camshaft 8. Coring tools of the equipment is operated also by the camshaft 8 attached to the framework 15 through the bearing box 9 and driven by the driving unit 7 according to the folio wings: the fashioned cam 10 attached properly to the camshaft 8 operates the U bridle 17 in adverse cycle relative to the table motion and in vertical direction and is able to move by overcoming the force of break-springs 18.

The two arms of U bridle 17, which follow the motion of tools being above the circular table 6, are in connection with and attached to the bridge 19 thorough the socket being out of the table and to the central socket 16. Stability and operation is supported by the spring-bolt 30.

The bearing housing 12 is attached to the first element of bridge 19 in accordance with the distance between the paprika holding cups 21. By means of an endless belt-drive the band-wheels 24 being at the upper ends of shafts 28 with bearing are rotated to the same direction by the electric motor 11. The core-cutters 37 are attached to the lower ends of shafts 28 as is presented on Figure 5. The operation of tools of the invention is carried out at the standing position of the periodic motion of table 6. When the U bridle 17 moves downward with bridge 19 the paprika attaching unit moving on the outer of bearing housing 12 fastens the paprika by means of the spring force 14 into the paprika holding cups 21. Then in the paprika attaching house 25 (Figure 5) the displaceable bearing 51 knife-house 52 moves downward with spring block 53 and the knife-house 52 rubs off the paprika stalk; the bearing 51 clogs at an adequate distance on the paprika attaching house and the knife rotating shaft 54 mounted on the shaft 28 intrudes the wire-knife 50 into the paprika, which trims the core. The bridge 19 then starts to move upward and the procedures in the core-cutters 37 written before run in the reverse order. In the second step the cored paprika passes below the core-rotator tool 38 (Figure 6) where similarly to the previous step the paprika attaching house 25 impacts the paprika into the paprika holding cups 21 and the spikes 62 of core rotating shim 63 stick into the core. The driving unit 33 (Figure 4) then rotates the shafts of core-rotator tools 38 for some time. Consequently the network between the core and body part breaks away. The bridge 19 then starts to move upward and the core-rotator tool 38 operates the procedure in the reverse order written before. In the third step the paprika being without the core passes to below the slicing tool with cross-knife 39 (Figure 7); it cuts the paprika into four parts and at the end of operation the paprika falls to pieces. The brush discharger 58 forwards the sliced paprika onto the oscillating grid 40, where the useless seeds with pieces of cores drop through it and the body part drops onto a conveyor; then the quality control and packaging are done.

The equipment with a circular table of the invention is suitable for coring the small tomato-paprika and apple-paprika too. The above mentioned core-cutter pad 37 can be replaced by the core-bit 60 equipped with the spiral drill 61. Operation of core-bit mounted to the end of shaft 28 is similar to the core-cutter 37. At fist the paprika attaching house 25 clamps the paprika in the paprika holding cups 21 by means of the spring force 53 and then the spiral drill 61 cuts and discharges the core. The paprika is ready in request for slicing. In this case the core-rotator tools are not necessary.

An other embodiment of the invention is the machine equipped with a conveyor, which is suitable for coring cylindrical and conical paprika, i.e. paprika used for stuffing. The operation of the equipment with conveyor is technically similar to the machine equipped with a circular table. The camshaft actuates an endless chain conveyor the characteristic feature of which is that the endless chains stressed on the parallel chain wheels are connected by the cups holding plates being parallel and equal distance; the paprika holding cups are attached to the holes arranged at equal distance on its median axis.

The tools are arranged and attached at the bridge being parallel above the cups and operated also by a U bridle.

According to the process of the invention the paprika sorted by the above-described sorting equipment is placed into the paprika holding cups 21 of the paprika sorting equipment. Depending on the purpose of the paprika consumption the core-cutter 37 is supplied by the relevant bit. The bit including the wire-knife 50 is equally suitable for coring of apple-paprika, paprika used for stuffing and tomato-paprika too. In case of apple-paprika the core-bit 60 is preferably applicable too. When the application of wire- knife 50 is completed the network being between the body and the core is pulled off by the core-rotator tool 38. If it is requested the paprika is then sliced. The slicing can be done by the slicing tool with cross-knife 39 or by a half expanding slicing tool. The brush discharger 58 forwards the sliced paprika onto the oscillating grid 40 where the useless seeds with pieces of cores drop through it and the body part drops onto a conveyor.

The equipment of the invention for sorting according to the diameter and thickness can be operated in a simple manner and after size adjustment it is able for sorting not only paprika but products in large variety of shapes too.

The paprika coring equipment of the invention is suitable for coring of paprika used for stuffing, apple-paprika and tomato-paprika too. The equipment operates in a very tolerant manner and with high yield; it does not fracture the body part of paprika and separates completely the core from the processing parts. List of referred symbols

hopper 44 cross-knife hole rinser with water stream 50 wire-knife air blower 51 bearing conveyor 52 knife-house feeding hopper 53 spring circular table 54 knife rotating/holding shaft driving unit 58 brush discharger camshaft 60 core-bit bearing box of camshaft 61 spiral drill cam 62 spike high-speed engine 63 core rotating shim bearing housing 66 bore-hole ratchet distributor 70 holding plate spring 71 supporting element holder framework 72 roller centric socket 73 break-spring

U bridle 75 axis of rotation break-spring 77 holding element bridge 101 hopper socket out of the table 102 feeding plate paprika holding cup 103 positioning and transportation cylinders socket 104 sorting cylinders band-wheels 105 collecting chambers paprika attaching house 106 discharging conveyor shaft 107 forwarding conveyor spring-bolt 111 rectangular shaft driving unit 112 knapping-plate core-cutter core-rotator or binding tool 114 rubber profile slicing tool with cross-knife 115 spring-bolt oscillating grid 116 spacer

Claims

1. Thickness and diameter screener equipment used manly for paprika sorting, having sorting cylinders and collecting chambers, wherein the sorting cylinders are adjustable cylinders (104) favourably with the same thickness and gradually increasing diameter and are mounted in a mirror symmetric manner on a shaft (111) with constant rotation speed and each series of pairs of cylinders mounted in a mirror symmetric manner is supplied by two positioning and transportation cylinders (103) rotating opposite direction with the same rotational speed and between of them towards the advance direction an endless forwarding conveyor (107) is mounted in.

2. The equipment of claim 1, wherein the pairs of cylinders mounted in a mirror symmetric manner can be mounted on the shaft (111) in arbitrary number.

3. The equipment of claim 1 or 2, wherein the cylinders (104) are connected by spring- bolts (115) and the distance between the cylinders and size adjustment is provided by a spacer (116).

4. The equipment of any of claims 1-3, wherein behind the rubber profile (114) a tangent spacer (116) is mounted in.

5. The equipment of any of claims 1-4, wherein on the circumference of sorting cylinders (104) a rubber profile (114) attached in a suitable manner is mounted the shape of which is a rectangular triangle positioned to its apex and this angle is formed according to the fastening while the other angle is curved and the upper side is ribbed accordingly.

6. The equipment of any of claims 1-5, wherein a spiral with the same thickness and position are attached to the positioning and transportation cylinders (103).

7. The equipment of any of claims 1-6, wherein between the sorting. cylinders (104) collecting chambers (105) are placed on each downward leading arc directed towards the advancing and rotating direction and a discharging conveyor (105) is connected at the outlet side to the collecting chambers.

8. Paprika coring machine equipped with synchronously and independently operating tools (37, 38, 39), paprika holding cups (21), driving unit (7) and controlling element (10), wherein it has at least one core-cutter (37) supplied with a cutting element in angled motion or a spiral drill driven by a high-speed engine (11) and occasionally a core-rotator or binding tool (38) and known cross-knife and/or a half expanding slicing tool (39).

9. The equipment of claims 8, wherein the core-cutter (37) includes a paprika attaching house (25) and a changeable assembled tool being on an engine driven shaft (28) mounted within the house (25) and displaceable blocked (51) inside by a spring force (53).

10. The equipment of claims 9, wherein the changeable assembled tool of core-cutter (37) includes a wire-knife (50) attached into a knife holder (54) and a knife-house (52) supplied with a bore-hole and edges; the position of wire-knife (50) is provided by the bore-hole of the knife-house (52), which is displaceable on the knife holder (54) being attached to the shaft (28).

11. The equipment of claims 9, wherein the changeable assembled tool of core-cutter (37) is a core-bit (60) supplied with a spiral drill (61).

12. The equipment of claims 8, wherein the core rotating shim (63) supplied with spikes (62) or claw-like rotating element is attached to the core-rotator or binding tool (38).

13. The equipment of claims 8, wherein the paprika holding cups (21) positioned in radial direction on the periodical moving circular table (6) or in parallel direction on an endless conveyor upon which an U bridle (17) mounted into vertically sleeved sockets (16, 20) and operated periodically and vertically in reverse direction passes the position of which is provided by break-springs (18) and the control; tools (37, 38, 39) and the engines (11, 33) used for operating the tools are attached to the U bridle (17) connecting bridge (19); stability of motion is provided by the spring-bolt (30).

14. The equipment of any of claims 8-13, wherein the core-cutter tools (37) are attached by bearing housings to the first element of the bridge (19) the shafts (28) of which are driven with band- wheels (24) by the engine (11) and the core-rotator or binding tools (38) are attached to the consecutive element of the bridge (19) the shafts of which are occasionally operated periodically by endless driving the driving unit (30) and as a consecutive element the cross-knife or a half expanding slicing tool (39) preferably in vibrating design is mounted on the bridge (19).

15. The equipment of any of claims 8-14 wherein the paprika holding cups (21) are plate- shaped and equipped with reducing fitting, bore-hole (66), cross-knife hole (44) and occasionally on grounds of expedience with spoon-shaped holding elements (77) bended outward at their ends having rollers (77) at their coaxial break-spring (73) force arm ends which can be attached to a supporting element holder (71).

16. The equipment of any of claims 8-15 wherein it is supplied with an oscillating grid (40) and occasionally by a brush discharger (58).

17. Process for paprika coring, wherein the paprika sorted by the equipment of claim 8 is placed into the paprika holding cups (21), the core is removed by the core-cutter (37) and occasionally by the core-rotator tool (38) and in case of need the paprika is sliced by a known method and forwarded to an oscillating grid (40-).