GB1087921A - A sorting machine - Google Patents

Abstract

1,087,921. Sorting food products. K. M. ALLEN. Sept. 11, 1964 [Sept. 11, 1963], No. 37208/64. Heading B2H. A machine for sorting potato crisps or potato chips according to size comprises a number of discs 52, 53 which are mounted on shafts 54-61 to be rotated therewith in the same direction, adjacent discs being spaced from each other at such a distance that chips or crisps of a certain size can drop between the adjacent discs whereas chips or crisps of a greater size not adapted to pass between adjacent discs are advanced past the rows of discs. The discs 52, 53 are polygonal in shape and are spaced apart by sleeves 64, 65, 75 which are secured against the discs by nuts 70 threaded onto the shafts. The latter are jornaled in nylon bearings 76, 80 having annular grooves 82 which receive the edges of the flanges of angle members 20, 24 so as to be slidable along the guideway formed by these flanges. The positions of the shafts 56-61 along the guideway may be adjusted by means of pairs of cams 86 which are concentric with the bearings 80 and engage spacer discs 78 associated with the bearings 76. The cams 86 are integral with pairs of actuating arms 90, 92, 94 pivotably connected to a pair of parallel links 106 by pins 100, 102, 104. Cables 110 are connected to the pins 104 and to a capstan shaft 36 which may be rotated in one direction or another by means of a handle 42. The shafts are drivingly interconnected by a system of elastic belts and pulleys and are driven by a motor 111 through a speed reducer 112. When sorting potato crisps 170, the latter are fed to a chute 28 and are conveyed toward the right, by the discs 52, 53 and the sleeves 64, 65. Small and broken particles drop between the discs and the lower end of the chute and between the spacer sleeves on the shafts 54, 55 on to the left-hand portion of a conveyor 14. As the remainder of the crisps are fed toward the right all those which are too wide to drop between the discs or too long to drop between the spacer sleeves are advanced by the discs and sleeves beyond the shaft 61 and drop on to the right-hand portion of the conveyor 14, whereas the smaller crisps drop between the discs and the sleeves on to the left-hand portion of the conveyor. When sorting potato chips, the shafts 56 to 61 are adjusted to space the peripheries of the spacer sleeves 64, 65 apart such distances that the short chips will pivot around one of the sleeves and drop between the sleeves whereas chips above the minimum length will always span portions of three adjacent sleeves and be discharged to the right-hand end of the machine. The discs 52, 53 serve to comb the chips to cause them to extend in the direction of travel.