Patent GB-1172921-A (GB)
Title: Process and Apparatus for treating Vegetables
Inventor: LOW JOHN ALEXANDER
IPC: A23N15/08
Filed: 1967-02-04
Abstract: 1,172,921. Preparing onions. MARELA Ltd. and ENG. & CHEMICAL SUPPLIES & SERVICES Ltd. 5 Feb. 1968 [4 Feb., 1967; 20 July, 1967; 1 Dec., 1967], Nos. 5504/67, 33523/67 and 54910/67. Heading A4C. [Also in Division B8] An apparatus for removing the outer skin or skins of onions by means of a blast of fluid comprises a feed hopper 1 feeding onions to a throughbore 2 divided into two separate peeling compartments 2a and 2b by a grid 8, said throughbore 2 being formed in a cylindrical rotor 3 which is housed within a body portion 4 and which, in one position of the rotor 3 extends between the feed hopper 1 and an onion exhaust duct 5 and in another position of the rotor 3, at right angles to the previous position, extends between diametrically opposite peeling fluid inlet and outlet ports 18 and 19 respectively An onion peeling apparatus may consist of several of the above described devices. The chambers are supported on a frame and are linked by a common drive shaft. Each has a hopper 101 from which onions are fed individually by means of a conveyer 108 to the feed shoot of the peeling chamber 4 from whence they fall, with the detached skins, by a conveyer belt 116. This conveyer may pass through a separating station wherein the detached skins are removed by a jet of air blowing transversely with respect to the conveyer 116. Each conveyer 108, shown in Fig. 6, comprises a series of open topped pockets each adapted to receive an onion and at the lower end of said conveyer, positioned near the bottom of the hopper 101, is fitted a pair of arms 120 extending radially outwardly of an oscillating shaft 122 in order to prevent bridging in the hopper. If more than one onion is entrained by a single pocket of the conveyer it will be removed in a lateral direction by means of sorting flaps 132 and 134 positioned between the agitators 120 and the top of the conveyer 108. In an alternative embodiment of the peeling chamber (Fig. 11) a cylindrical member 211 driven by a shaft 204 carries a plurality of paddle members 212 extending radially outwardly, the space between the adjacent paddle members 212 being provided with a moulded wall 213 so shaped that the space provides a recess for holding an onion to be peeled when placed within a casing member 202. An air line 214 supplies compressed air to a nozzle 215 in the wall of the cylindrical casing member 202. Onions are fed into said annular spaces by means of a feed shoot 216 and may be discharged from the apparatus by means of a discharge shoot 219. The onions may be individually loaded into the feed shoot by the conveyer means described above. Yet another embodiment (Fig. 13) comprises a main pipe 316 into the top 310 of which are fed onions which are allowed to fall through the pipe under gravity, the lower end of the pipe 312 being provided with a convergent nozzle 313. Peeling fluid is fed preferably tangentially into a peeling fluid chamber 314 from an inlet conduit 317 and emerges through a nozzle formed by the two coaxial ends 311 and 313 of the peeling fluid chamber 314 and main pipe 316 to impinge on the onion passing down the main tube. In order to reduce the effect of the reduction in velocity of the peeling fluid caused by contact with the ambient air around the apparatus a venturi tube 320 may be constructed below the onion outlet nozzle 312. In all embodiments the onions may be topped and tailed before or after removal of their skins and after peeling may be sorted from unpeeled onions, e.g. by use of a photo-electric cell, whereupon unpeeled onions may be returned to the hopper. The peeling fluid used may be hot or cold compressed air or water. Reference is made to producing the air blasts by the application of vacuum to the outlet side of the apparatus.