GB196417A - Improvements in and relating to machinery for cleaning and peeling potatoes and the like - Google Patents

Abstract

196,417. Cropper, F. Feb. 6,1922. Peeling potatoes &c.-A machine for cleaning and peeling potatoes and the like consists of a rotary abrasive drum 1, having within it an abrasive conveyer such as 10, rotating at a different speed and adapted to move the potatoes towards outlets 6. The drum is supplied automatically at intervals with fresh potatoes from a feed shoot, and means may be provided for varying the relative speeds of the conveyer and drum. Preferably the drum and conveyer are perforated e.g. made of "stabbed" sheet metal and the drum is mounted in a trough 4 kept partly full of water. As shown in Figs. 1 and 4, the feeding means comprises a rotary cage 29, open at the top to receive potatoes from a shoot, and having bottom apertures which register in turn with an aperture in a partition 27 across the feed mouth 25. The charge of potatoes thus supplied, is caught by two flaps 32 and retained until the opening 5 in the drum registers with the feed mouth, whereupon the flaps momentarily open. Normally a sliding door 12 is held in closed position over the opening 5 in the drum by springs 13, but on the opening 5 approaching the mouth 25 the door is held back by a catch 44 until the charge is received, whereupon a cam on the drum trunnion releases the catch and the door 12 closes. The feed cage 29 is driven by chain gearing from the drum trunnion, and the flaps 32 are actuated by rack- and-pinion gear operated by a cam on the drum trunnion. In a modification, Figs. 9 and 12, the feed cage 29 is replaced by a cylinder 58 having a radial gap or pocket 59 registering alternately with a feed shoot outlet and with a diametrically opposite inlet to the feed mouth 25. The " trailing " wall of the gap is formed sloping, as shown at 60, so as readily to return surplus potatoes to the feed shoot. The door 12 is replaced by a fixed band 64 encircling the drum, except opposite the mouth 25, and the flaps 32 are opened once to every four revolutions of the drum through the intervention of a counterwheel gear of the " Geneva-stop " type. The variable-speed gearing for the conveyer comprises a variable friction gear combined with a sun-andplanet train.