TANDEM KNIFE STRIP PEELING HEAD

• US 3,583,457 A
• Filed: 06/30/1969
• Issued: 06/08/1971
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/1969
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Vadas Leslie
• Original Assignee: Vadas Leslie
• Inventors: VADAS LESLIE
• Application Number:
  US04/837,752
• Time in Patent Office: 708 Days
• US Class Current: 426/482
• CPC Class Codes: A23N 7/002 Peeling pinaeapples A23N7/005 and A23N7/01 take precedence

Abstract

A rotary head pineapple peeler has superposed tandem peeling knives which simultaneously make the skin and juice cuts with minimum disruptive force on the pineapple body. The knives incorporate peel guides which cooperate with superposed discharge openings in the peeling head body for separate delivery of the skin and juice cuts to a conveyor.

Claims

1. A peeling head for the skin and mill cut contour peeling of pineapples, said head having a base portion providing an opening through which the fruit can pass for peeling, means for holding the fruit against rotation during peeling, a driven rotor on said base portion having a pivot to one side of said opening, a knife arm on said pivot having a knife mounting leg extending across said opening, and spring means for urging said knife arm inwardly toward the fruit;

the improvement being said peeling head wherein superposed tandem knives are mounted at the end of said knife leg for simultaneously making the mill and juice cuts along substantially the same radius, said knives having diverging trailing extensions for separating the cuts.

2. The peeling head of claim 1, wherein the cutting edges of said knives are formed by intersecting wedge and arcuate surfaces with the mill cut knife wedge surface being the radially outer surface and with the juice cut knife wedge surface being the radially inner surface.

3. The peeling head of claim 1, wherein said knives are intersected at substantially 90* by a common peel slitting knife.

4. The peeling head of claim 3, wherein said tandem knives are mounted on said knife leg by a tangential pivot the axis of which intersects the junction of said common peel slitting knife with said mill cut knife.

5. The peeling head of claim 4, wherein gauges are mounted on said knife mounting leg on opposite sides of said tangential pivot axis, one of said gauges engaging the skin of the fruit adjacent the mill cut knife, the other engaging the peeled body of the fruit against the juice cut knife.

6. The peeling head of claim 3, wherein said knives have wedge-shaped cutting edges the wedge surfaces of which are on opposite sides for balancing out radial cutting forces.

7. A peeling head for skin and mill cut contour peeling pineapples, said head having a horizontal base portion providing an opening through which the fruit can pass for peeling, a peel confining barrel on said base portion having discharge means formed therein, means for holding the fruit against rotation during peeling, a driven rotor on said base portion having a pivot to one side of said opening, a knife arm on said pivot having a knife mounting leg extending across said opening, and spring means for urging said knife arm inwardly toward the fruit;

the improvement being said peeling head wherein superposed tandem knives are mounted at the end of said knife leg for simultaneously making the mill and juice cuts along substantially the same radius, said discharge means consisting of a single opening in said barrel for both the mill and the juice cuts, superposed external delivery chutes for said cuts leading from said opening, a vertically partitioned, split-level discharge throat assembly mounted on said rotor and diverging trailing extensions of said knives leading to said discharge throat assembly.

8. The method of peeling pineapples or the like comprising the steps of cutting away the skin as a narrow helical strip, and removing the eyes as a narrow, helical juice cut strip, said juice cut being made by cutting into the flesh of the fruit directly under and simultaneously with the skin cutting operation.

9. The method of claim 8, including the steps of simultaneously guiding the removed skin and juice cut strips in divergent paths as the strips leave the fruit.