WO2004030475A2

WO2004030475A2 - Vegetable trimming apparatus and method

Info

Publication number: WO2004030475A2
Application number: PCT/GB2003/004300
Authority: WO
Inventors: Christopher Stephen Keenan; Graham Davenport; John Charles HOLLINGWORTH
Original assignee: R & K Drysdale Ltd
Current assignee: R & K Drysdale Ltd
Priority date: 2002-10-02
Filing date: 2003-10-02
Publication date: 2004-04-15
Anticipated expiration: 2005-04-02
Also published as: GB0222766D0; AU2003269235A1; WO2004030475A3

Abstract

De-butting apparatus for cutting the butts from vegetables, such as sprouts (32), comprises means (30) for receiving a succession of vegetables oriented such that their butts face in the same direction and presenting the succession of vegetables to a cutting station comprising a rotary cutter (34) adapted to sever the butts from the vegetables. Excess outside leaves loosened by the de-butting operation are removed by apparatus comprising means (17) for presenting a succession of de-butted vegetables to a de-leafing station where means, such as air knives (40), separate unwanted leaves from the outside of the vegetables, assisted by means (44), such as a conveyor with rotatable rollers, to present different faces of the vegetables to the leaf separating means.

Description

VEGETABLE TRIMMING APPARATUS AND METHOD Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to processing, i.e. trimming, vegetables such as sprouts, and in particular cutting off the butts and/or removing outside leaves. Background to the Invention

Although farming in general and vegetable processing in particular have become increasingly mechanised, certain operations remain labour intensive. Sprouts, for example, have hitherto been processed virtually entirely by hand. Sprouts grow on a stalk. When they are removed from the stalk, a length of stem or "butt" remains attached to the sprout. The removal of this stem, known as "de-butting", and the removal of excess outside leaves (de-leafing) from the sprout, have traditionally been carried out using only manual operations. By contrast, most other vegetables are either trimmed at the point of being lifted from the ground or are mechanically processed. There is therefore a need for at least partial automation of sprout de-butting and de- leafing, which the present invention aims to satisfy. Summary of the Invention

In a first aspect, the invention provides a method and apparatus for de-butting sprouts. In a second aspect, the invention provides a method and apparatus for removing outside leaves from a sprout. Further aspects of the invention comprise various combinations of the de-butting and/or outside leaf removal apparatus and methods.

According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided apparatus for de- butting sprouts, the apparatus comprising means for receiving a succession of vegetables oriented such that their butts face in the same direction, conveying means for presenting said succession of vegetables to a cutting station, the cutting station comprising a rotary cutter adapted to sever the butts from the said vegetables, characterised in that the conveying means comprise a first moving belt having spaced apertures for receiving individual vegetables such that the butts thereof extend downwardly through the apertures, and a second moving belt located below the first and moving therewith, positioned to engage and support the vegetable butts so as to present them to the cutters at an adjustable pre-determined height relative thereto. ln a second aspect, the invention comprises apparatus for presenting a succession of sprouts to a location at which outside leaves are to be removed; the presenting means comprising means for rotating the sprouts relative to a trimming device; the trimming device comprising at least one air knife so disposed relative to sprouts presented by the presenting means that excess outside leaves are removed; and means for conveying waste material from the location of the trimming device.

In a third aspect, the invention comprises sprout trimming apparatus comprising the de-butting apparatus as aforesaid upstream of an outside leaf removal apparatus also as aforesaid. The invention also comprises a method for de-butting sprouts, a method for removing outside leaves from sprouts, and a combination of both methods in a single trimming apparatus. Brief Description of the Drawings

The invention will now be described with reference to the following drawings, which illustrate exemplary embodiments of the invention, and in which: Figure 1 illustrates schematically a side elevation of a sprout processing line including a de-butting station and a de-leafing station;

Figure 2 is a schematic plan view of the processing line of Figure 1 ;

Figure 3 represents a schematic side elevation of part of a de-butting apparatus in accordance with the invention; Figure 4 represents a plan view of the apparatus of Figure 3;

Figure 5 is an enlarged view of an air knife for use in the de-leafing apparatus; and

Figure 6 is a diagrammatic side elevation of part of the de-leafing apparatus. Detailed Description of the Illustrated Embodiments

Referring first to Figures 1 and 2, sprouts to be trimmed are delivered to a receiving location 1 which may typically be a gentle flow box tipper adapted to hold a plurality of boxes of sprouts and to tip them gently onto a conveyor 2. In this description the general flow of sprouts through the processing line is indicated by the arrows 3. Sprouts from the tipper are conveyed along conveyor 2 and deposited gently onto a reversible conveyor 4 which enables sprouts to be delivered to either or both of conveyors 5, 6. Suitable sensors (not shown) may be located where the reversible conveyor 4 interacts with conveyors 5, 6 in order to monitor the flow of sprouts through the processing line. The division of the flow onto two conveyors 5, 6 is simply to enhance through-flow and is not an essential requirement of the invention. More or less than two branches may be provided as required.

The conveyors 5, 6 lift the sprouts to a higher elevation so that they can be delivered via chutes 7, 8 to the de-butting stations illustrated diagrammatically in Figures 3 and 4. The sprouts are deposited onto conveyors 9, 10 where they are correctly oriented by human operators 24. The conveyors 9, 10 consist of four parallel belts, each provided with spaced holes to receive the sprouts. Each hole is preferably tapered so as to accommodate a sprout with its butt pointing downwards, thereby providing a seat for the sprouts in the holes in the slats. A more detailed description of the conveyor construction will be given with respect to Figures 3 and 4.

The sprouts enter the de-butting stations 1 1 , 12 where the butts are cut off and the waste deposited onto a transverse conveyor 27. Removal of the butt inevitably loosens some of the outer leaves around the sprout. Those which have been removed completely with the butt drop down through the slats onto the conveyor 27. However, some outer leaves will not be completely removed at the de-butting station. The sprouts are therefore transported via transverse conveyors 13, 14 and an inclined conveyor 15 onto a further conveyor 16, consisting for example of guide rails, and then onto a roller table conveyor 17 where they are carried to a de-leafing station 20 for removal of the final, unwanted outer leaves.

Waste material from the conveyor 16 and from the de-leafing station 20 are deposited onto transverse conveyors 18, 19 respectively and removed from the processing line. The de-leafing station 20 may consist of a sequence of air knives arranged to "cut" the surplus outside leaves from the sprouts. An air knife de-leafing station will be described in more detail with respect to Figures 5 and 6.

Finally, the clean sprouts are passed through an inspection area manned by personnel 21 before final cleansing and de-watering in stations 22, 23 provided with a drip tray 28. Any further waste that falls through the conveyor 17 in the region of the de-leafing station 20 drops onto a lower conveyor 29 which transports the waste back onto the waste removal transverse conveyor 19. Similarly, any sprouts rejected by the inspection personnel 21 may similarly be deposited onto the conveyor 29 via one or more hoppers or the like situated alongside the conveyor 17 and arranged so that the outlet is located over the conveyor 29.

Reference will now be made to Figures 3 and 4 for a more detailed explanation of a preferred embodiment of one of the de-butting stations - the other is essentially identical. The conveyor 9 consists of four parallel endless belts 30 that pass over a support surface of the de-butting station, each belt having a plurality of support holes 31 therethrough, spaced apart along the length thereof. The remainder of the belts may simply be free to hang below the support surface or may be held under slight tension. A second endless belt 36, of which only a section is shown in Figure 3, is mounted to run beneath (within) each of the first belts 30 at the same linear speed, with the upper section of the second belt 36 being mounted so as run at an adjustable pre-set distance below the first belt 30 so as to be able to support the sprouts by their butts and to determine their position as they are presented to the cutting discs, as hereinafter described. The first belts 30 thus serve only to guide the sprouts as they approach the discs. The sprouts 32 in their seated positions are carried on the belt to a roller 33 (the same as roller 25 in Figure 1) which has a flexible, hollow surface (similar to a pneumatic tyre inner tube) filled with a suitable fluid or gel, preferably glycerine. The roller thereby gently compresses the sprout within its seat without causing it any damage. The advantage of using glycerine is that glycerine is compatible with food processing, and thus any leakage will not be harmful.

Underneath the roller is located a rotating blade assembly 34 (the same as that indicated generally at 26 in Figure 1) having five parallel horizontally-rotating cutting discs 35 located at a fixed distance underneath the conveyor, and with the second belts 36 each passing between a pair of the rotating disc supports 37. The cutting discs 35 are arranged so that^" there is only a small distance between the periphery of one disc and that of the adjacent disc. The closeness of the de-butting operation relative to the sprout is therefore adjusted by changing the vertical position of the second belt 36 beneath the first belt 30. The rotating blades slice the unwanted butt from the sprout as it passes between them and deposit the waste material onto the conveyor 27 for removal from the processing line. The rotating disc supports 37 are all driven through suitable gearing on a common drive shaft extending transversely of the conveyor and coupled to an electric motor 38 at one end thereof. If necessary, the speed of rotation of the discs 35 can be varied according to the speed of the conveyor 9. The belts 30 may contain a variety of different sized holes 31 to accommodate variations in the sizes of the sprouts. Alternatively, the holes in the belts may all have the same size. In this case the sprouts supplied to the manual operators will already have been through a size grading process (not shown).

The de-leafing station 20 in Figure 2 will now be described in more detail with reference to Figures 5 and 6. Preferably, this station is provided with a succession of air knives, which are known in the art. As shown in Figure 5, each air knife consists of a body 40 of generally T-shaped cross section, the narrow section part 41 having an even narrower slit 42. A source of high-pressure gas is connected to each of the knives to generate a curtain 43 of gas which is powerful enough to assist in the removal of excess outside leaves from the sprouts.

The slits 42 are arranged parallel to a succession of rollers 44 (Figure 6) forming part of a means for conveying the sprouts to the air knives. As can be seen in Figure 6, the conveyor 17 consists of an endless belt of spaced rollers 44, which are transported over a surface or guide rails so as to cause the rollers 44 to rotate as they pass through the de-leafing station. The sprouts delivered from the conveyor 16 are carried on top of the rollers 44 and are tumbled by the rotation of the rollers 44 so as to present different surfaces to the succession of air knives. The gaps between adjacent rollers 44 are sufficiently small to prevent the sprouts falling through but sufficiently large that waste material can drop through onto the conveyor 29 (Figure 1 ) for removal. The conveyor belt 17 comprising the rollers 44 is preferably driven by a sprocketed wheel (not shown) whilst the remainder of the belt passes over and around other, non-driven sprockets to ensure that the uppermost run of rollers 44 is engaged sufficiently with the upper surface or the rails so as to rotate the rollers 44. The rollers are preferably grooved or ribbed to aid the "tumbling" action imparted to the sprouts. Although the invention has been described in terms of an overall process, comprising a sequence of stations including the de-butting station and the de-leafing station, it is not essential for both stations necessarily to be provided in each and every processing line. For example, it may be sufficient for a de-butting station only to be provided. Alternatively, it may be sufficient only for the de-leafing station to be provided. It is nevertheless preferable that both stations should form part of an overall processing line so as to improve the extent of automation in sprout trimming.

The processing line described has the advantage of being comparatively compact, occupying no more than 20 metres in length and a little over 2 metres in height and a width in the region of 5 metres. It is envisaged that three operators may be located on each side of each conveyor 9, 10 at the de-butting station and perhaps two on each side of the conveyor 17 at the de-leafing station. However, any number of inspectors or manual operators may be employed as desired. The overall processing line will of course be provided with the normal safeguards and control measures normally associated with production and/or processing lines, such as sensors, safety guards and the like.

It can therefore be seen that the invention in one aspect provides a semi- automated sprout de-butting apparatus and, in another aspect, a sprout de-leafing apparatus. However, it is contemplated that the same principles, especially as regards de- butting, could be employed for other vegetables or fruit.

Claims

1. Apparatus for cutting the butts from vegetables such as sprouts, the apparatus comprising: means for receiving a succession of vegetables oriented such that their butts face in the same direction, conveying means for presenting said succession of vegetables to a cutting station, the cutting station comprising a rotary cutter adapted to sever the butts from the said vegetables, characterised in that the conveying means comprise a first moving belt having spaced apertures for receiving individual vegetables such that the butts thereof extend downwardly through the apertures, and a second moving belt located below the first and moving therewith, positioned to engage and support the vegetable butts so as to present them to the cutters at an adjustable predetermined height relative thereto.

2. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 , further comprising a roller adapted to apply downward pressure on the vegetable in its aperture in the first belt, whereby to restrain the vegetable during the cutting operation.

3. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 2, wherein said roller has a resilient surface so as to minimise damage to the vegetables when applying said pressure.

4. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 3, wherein said resilient surface is provided by a hollow annular tube attached to the hub, the tube being filled with a compressible fluid.

5. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 4, wherein said compressible fluid is glycerine.

6. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the rotary cutter comprises a cutting disc rotatable in a horizontal plane.

7. Apparatus for removing excess outside leaves from leafed vegetables, such as sprouts, the apparatus comprising: means for presenting a succession of said vegetables to a de-leafing station, said de-leafing station comprising at least one means to separate unwanted leaves from the outside of the vegetables, and means to present different faces of the vegetables to the leaf separating means.

8. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 7, wherein the leaf separating means comprises at least one air knife comprising a narrow curtain of pressurised gas, such as air.

9. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 8, wherein there are a plurality of said air knives disposed successively in the same direction as said vegetables are presented.

10. Apparatus as claimed in any of Claims 7 to 9, wherein said presenting means comprises a conveyor composed of a plurality of rollers disposed generally transversely to the conveyor, said rollers being adapted to rotate as the conveyor advances towards and through the de-leafing station, whereby to carry said vegetables between adjacent pairs of rollers and to cause different faces of the vegetables to be presented to the leaf separating means.

1 1. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 10, wherein said rollers are adapted to engage rails or a running surface, whereby to cause them to rotate.

12. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 10 or 1 1 , wherein said rollers are ribbed or grooved on their outer surfaces.

13. Apparatus for processing vegetables, such as sprouts, comprising, in sequence, a de-butting station, as claimed in any of Claims 1 to 6, an intermediate station for removing leaves loosened by the de-butting operation, and a de-leafing station as claimed in any of Claims 7 to 12.

14. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 13, further comprising a cleansing station downstream of the de-leafing station.

1 5. A method for cutting the butts from vegetables, such as sprouts, comprising: orienting a succession of vegetables such that their butts face in the same direction; presenting said succession of vegetables to a cutting station; and severing the butts from said vegetables by means of a rotary cutter at said cutting station.

16. A method for removing excess outside leaves from leafed vegetables, such as sprouts, the method comprising: presenting a succession of said vegetables to a de-leafing station comprising means to separate unwanted leaves from the outside of the vegetables; and varying the orientation of said vegetables to present different faces of the vegetables to the leaf separating means.

17. A method for processing vegetables, such as sprouts, comprising, in sequence: the stalk removal method as claimed in Claim 1 5; removing excess outside leaves loosened by the de-butting operation at an intermediate station; and the de-leafing method as claimed in Claims 16.