Patent GB-1195342-A (GB)
Title: Contour Peeler
Inventor: BACK WILLIAM DE
IPC: A23N4/20
Filed: 1968-02-20
Abstract: 1,195,342. Peeling pineapples. CASTLE & COOKE Inc. 20 Feb. 1968, No. 8187/68. Heading A4C. [Also in Division B8] Pineapples are peeled by passing them through two successive rotating peeling heads, the knives of which are designed to follow the contours of the pineapple, the first head removing the shell and the second a layer of fruit containing remaining traces of eyes. Pineapples 53 (Fig. 2) are moved by conveyer bars 30 to a shoot 32 feeding them butt end first into rotary distributer 33 and hence into a pocket 36 of centering and gripping head 34 forming part of an endless chain of such heads connected by links 37. The pineapple is carried past knife 40 which removes the butt end, is raised against plate 62 by piston 61, the gripping means relaxing to allow this, and has the crown end removed by knife 41. It is then carried to rotary turret 42 carrying peeling head rotors 43. Coring tube 75 (Fig. 5) is forced through the pineapple by admitting compressed air below piston 76 in cylinder 69, the upper end of which is at this stage level with the top of plate 63. Gear 66 is then rotated to raise cylinder 69 forcing impaling blades 74 into the base of the pineapple to prevent rotation during peeling, the centering and holding fingers 138, 140 are relaxed and the pineapple is carried upwards by cylinder 69 through vertical slitting blades 87, resiliently biased towards the centre, and through peeling head rotor 43 carrying peeling heads 88, 89 removing first and second spiral cuts respectively. Continued upward movement of the cylinder 69 strips the pineapple off the coring tube and on to spindle 49 mounted on conveyer 48 which carries it over plate 52 provided with a notch 93 to receive the upper end of cylinder 69 and serves to support the pineapple as cylinder 69 is lowered. Conveyer 48 then moves the pineapple off plate 52 when it is discharged by gravity. The clamping and centering heads 34 each comprises a central plate 134 having downwardly and upwardly extending arms 138, 140 pivoted on arms (136) extending above and below said plate respectively, arms 138 being urged inwardly towards the centre by springs on the pivots. Cam rings 143, 148 are mounted for rotation on plate 134, and are actuated by operating rings and arms 145, 151 resiliently connected thereto by springs 147, (152) respectively. Cam followers 146, 150 co-operate with cam surfaces 144, (149) on their respective cam rings to move the arms 138, 148 into engagement with the pineapple. A further cam plate carrying cam surfaces 155 engaging cam followers 154 serves to positively open fingers 140 prior to dropping of a pineapple into the head. The peeling heads 88, 89 are identical and each comprises a pivot 108 mounted on rotor plate 105 and carrying a lever arm 114 on one limb of which is mounted an arm 109 and on the other limb an adjustable counterweight 115, a spring 110 urging the knife assembly against the pineapple. A pivot 118 mounted on arm 109 carries a second arm 119 offset therefrom and itself carrying a blade holder 122 pivotally mounted at 121. A shoe 120 which engages the freshly cut surface of the pineapple and an adjustable cut depth gauge plate 124 together guide the knife along the contour of the pineapple producing a spiral cut. The knife blade comprises a vertical triangular portion 123 having a curvature R and a horizontal portion 128 sharpened from the apex 127 of the triangle to the pivot 121. A guide plate 129 leads the parings to discharge.