Apparatus for drying fruit

• US 4,205,460 A
• Filed: 07/24/1978
• Issued: 06/03/1980
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/1978
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Martin & Martin General Builders Incorporated
• Original Assignee: William J. Taylor
• Inventors: Taylor, William J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bashore, S. Leon
• Assistant Examiner(s): Alvo, Steve
• Application Number:
  US05/927,631
• Time in Patent Office: 680 Days
• Field of Search: 426/443, 426/465, 34/201, 34/209, 34/210, 34/211, 34/212, 34/215, 34/218, 34/219, 34/224, 34/225, 34/231, 34/232, 34/233, 34/197
• US Class Current: 34/225
• CPC Class Codes: F26B 21/04 partly outside the drying enclosure F26B21/006 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F26B 9/066 the products to be dried being disposed on one or more containers, which may have at least partly gas-previous walls, e.g. trays or shelves in a stack F26B9/003 takes precedence; in combination with duct systems F26B21/00

Abstract

An apparatus for circulating high temperature air at approximately 20,000 cubic feet per minute through an enclosed room in which fruit are stacked in sweat boxes on pallets. A fan draws the heated air from a heat source into a plurality of inlet ports at the bottom of the housing. A damper position at each of the inlet ports deflects the hot air entering the drying room upwardly between the stacks of containers in the drying room and the corresponding side wall of the housing towards said top, the hot air passing between the top of the stacks of containers in the room and the top of the housing, and down between the stacks of containers in the room and the opposite side wall of the housing. A recirculating port in the first-named side wall through which the fan draws the air from the opposite side wall between the individual containers in the stacks and across the fruit within the containers and back to the inlet of said source.

Claims

1. Apparatus for use in drying fruit comprising:

a housing having side walls, a bottom and a top, and forming an elongated drying room;

doors at at least one end of the housing which may be opened to permit stacks of containers of the fruit to be placed in the drying room, and which may be closed to cause the drying room to be enclosed; and

means in the drying room to support the stacks with the containers in each stack being spaced vertically with respect to one another, and with the stacks being spaced from the side walls and from the top of the housing, said housing defining a series of exhaust ports extending along at least one of the sides thereof adjacent to said top, and said housing further defining a series of inlet ports extending along one of the side walls thereof adjacent to said bottom;

a heat source;

a fan for drawing hot air from the heat source;

a plurality of ducts each directly coupling the fan to said inlet ports so as to introduce hot air to the interior of the drying room to heat the interior of the drying room above a predetermined temperature threshold at a substantially uniform temperature throughout the room;

a damper positioned at each of the inlet ports to deflect the hot air entering the drying room from the inlet ports upwardly between the stacks of containers in the drying room and the corresponding side wall of the housing towards said top, said hot air passing between the top of the stacks of containers in the room and the top of the housing, and down between the stacks of containers in the room and the opposite side wall of the housing;

means defining a recirculating port in said first-named side wall; and

a duct coupling the recirculating port to an inlet of said heat source, wherein said fan draws the air from said opposite side wall between the individual containers in the stacks and across the fruit within the containers and back to the inlet of said source.