JPH0799954A - Sarcocarp removing device and method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide fruit flesh removing device capable of extracting fruit juice not from peel but only from the flesh, suitable for processing citrus fruit or the like by providing a device for attaching fruit and a device for directing the plural injection streams of gases. CONSTITUTION: This device 10 for removing flesh from cut fruit for exposing one part of the flesh surrounded with exposed peels is provided with a device 12 for attaching the fruit, a device 14 arranged away from the attaching device 12 for directing the injection streams of one or more gases onto the exposed part of the flesh in order to separate that flesh from the remaining part of fruit, and a device for almost preventing the injection streams of one or more gases from hitting the exposed peel.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention is mainly applied to the treatment of citrus fruits,
In particular, it relates to an apparatus and method for removing pulp from fruit.

[0002]

The demand for the individual sandbags that make up citrus pulp is a growing market. This sandbag can be useful, among others, as an additive to juices or jams, and as a convenient product for providing sandbags without the need for the consumer to peel the fruit to eat the fruit.

In the case of pomelo grown in Israel, it has been found that about 35-40% of the annual yield is not suitable for marketing as fresh fruit. further,
Pomelo is a commercial product that doesn't have much water to extract and has a very firm skin,
It cannot be fed by animals.

[0004] Therefore, it is useful to be able to remove the sand scale which constitutes the pulp portion of the fruit, and it is possible to meet the growing demand.

An apparatus for extracting pulp from citrus fruits, especially mandarin and tangerine, is described in US Pat. No. 4,300,448 to Hayashi et al. This device uses a pair of rotating jets that create a flow of pressurized fluid that strikes the interior of the fruit. The device thus has only one axis of freedom of rotation, i.e. the jet rotates about a fixed axis.

The external shape of the cut surface of citrus fruits is generally irregular. The Hayashi et al. Device does not take this into account at all, and is not a device that ensures that the flow of pressurized fluid is applied only onto the interior of the fruit pulp.

A device that mechanically separates the seeds of pomegranate or a similar product and that includes a gas jet directed at the portion of the product to be separated to achieve the desired separation is disclosed in Sarig et al., US Pat. No. 4,530,278. No. This gas jet acts to scan the exposed inner portion of the pomegranate, causing the seeds in that portion to separate. However, this scan works without regard for the external shape of the fruit.

In the field of extracting fruit juice from fruits, especially citrus fruits, it is most common to carry out the extraction by crushing the fruit and then discharging the juice from the rest of the fruit.

Among the drawbacks of crushing fruits to obtain fruit juice is that when crushing the whole fruit the liquid is released not only from the pulp but also from the skin. This is a bitter taste, especially for citrus fruits. A further drawback is that it is generally not possible to extract all the juice by crushing the fruit.

The following patents are representative of the general field of pulp extraction, in particular the field of sand and / or fruit juice extraction.

Those patents are US Pat. No. 1,982,742,
3,518,093, 3,976,001, 4,078,481, 4,106,401, 4,
125,064, 4,157,062, 4,183,293, 4,228,732, 4,30
1,719, 4,309,942, 4,309,943, 4,345,517, 4,350,
087, 4,363,265, 4,376,409, 4,378,730, 4,393,76
0, 4,414,886, 4,421,021, 4,429,626, 4,440,074
Nos. 4,586,430, 4,614,153, 4,640,186, and 4,479,4
24, and Israel Patent Nos. 17,138, 20,296, 22,
409, 23,226, 23,237, 26,735, 27,544, 33,451
No., 44,719, 41,390, 42,715, 43,867, 45,151, 5
5,761, 55,852, 62,032, 64,762, 66,563 and 67,
It is issue 026.

[0012]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention seeks to provide an apparatus and method for removing pulp from citrus and other fruits that overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art.

Thus, according to one embodiment of the invention,
A device for removing pulp from a fruit that has been cut to expose a portion of the pulp surrounded by exposed areas of the skin, the device for attaching the fruit and the device being spaced apart from the attachment device. , A device that directs a jet of one or more gases over the exposed portion of the pulp to separate the pulp from the rest of the fruit, and that the jet of one or more gases strikes an exposed area of the skin almost Including protection devices.

Further in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention,
The prevention device comprises a device for providing relative rotation between fruit and the device for directing the gas jet, the relative rotation correlating with the shape of the fruit.

Further in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention,
The correlating device includes a device associated with a device for engaging an outer surface of a fruit and directing the gas jet at a distance from one or more gas jets which is a predetermined distance related to the thickness of the skin.

According to a further embodiment of the present invention,
A method of removing pulp from a fruit that has been cut to expose a portion of the pulp surrounded by exposed areas of the skin, pressurizing with one or more gases to separate the pulp from the rest of the fruit. Directing the pressurized jet of the one or more gases over the exposed portion of the pulp, while substantially preventing the jet from striking exposed areas of the skin.

Further in accordance with the present invention, the method includes the step of causing relative rotation between the fruit and the pressurized injection of the one or more gases to apply pressure while substantially preventing contact with the pericarp. The step of directing the jet includes the step of correlating the relative rotation with the shape of the fruit.

[0018]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIG. 1, an apparatus for removing pulp from fruit constructed and operative in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown generally at 10. The device is particularly suitable for removing the pulp of citrus fruits such as pomelo and grapefruit, but can also be used for other types of citrus fruits such as oranges and lemons.
It can also be used for some non-citrus fruits such as pomegranate.

The device 10 comprises a device 12 for gripping a part of the fruit, preferably half of the fruit, and rotating it about its axis, the surface of which the pulp and skin are exposed being oriented in a substantially downward direction. It It also comprises a device 14 for selectively directing the pressurized gas jet towards the downwardly facing exposed surface of the fruit. As will be described in detail below, the direction of the pressurized gas jet to the fruit acts to cause pulp separation from the rest of the fruit.

As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, and as will be described in detail below, the gas injection may be at a relatively low pressure, and as such will be nominally "complete" from the pericarp, as detailed and defined below.
It can be removed in the form of sand. Alternatively,
The gas injection may be at a relatively high pressure, and thus the pulp removed from the fruit may be enriched with crushed sand cake to release their juice.

In general, the apparatus 10 also includes a feed conveyor 1
According to the embodiment shown in FIG.
6 is arranged to define a plurality of fruit carrying positions 18 configured to hold one half of a fruit. The supply conveyor 16 conveys the fruit to a position adjacent to the plurality of pulp removing positions 19. Device for gripping and rotating fruits 12
And a device 14 for directing a pressurized gas jet at the fruit is positioned at each pulp removal position.

At each pulp removal position 19, there is provided a door 20 which is rotatable about an axis 22 preferably by a motor such as the hydraulic motor shown schematically at 21.
In the first position, the door 20 is generally parallel to, but slightly lowered from, the adjacent portion of the conveyor 16 to provide a surface that carries half of the adjacent fruit with the exposed surface down. Allows engagement of the fruit by the fruit gripping and rotating device 12, which is described in detail below in conjunction with FIG.

In the second position, the door 20 is closed as indicated by the broken line.
Is oriented approximately at right angles to the position of its first fruit. As will be appreciated, the door 20 rotates from the first position to the second position only when the fruit is engaged by the device 12.

A mechanical pusher 24 is provided for individually pushing a portion of the fruit from the transport position 18 to the adjacent pulp removing position 19. The pusher 24 may be any suitable device, but in the illustrated embodiment is located above the supply conveyor 16 and includes a plurality of laterally extending stationary arms 28.
The frame 26 is provided. One arm 28
Are provided in association with each pulp removal position, but not all arms 28 are shown for simplicity. Each arm 28 has front and rear flaps 30, 3 down from it.
Has 1. Each front flap 30 has a hinge 3 between the position of the solid line shown and the position of the broken line shown by reference numeral 34.
Mounted to rotate around 2. The rear flap 31 is similarly attached.

Each flap may be allowed to rotate in the direction opposite to that shown by arrow 36 only up to the position shown by the solid line. Therefore, when the pusher 24 is in a substantially disengaged position (not shown) and is required to convey the fruit from the conveying position 18 to the adjacent pulp removing position 19 and at the same time removing empty pericarp therefrom, Device 38 acts to move pusher 24 along axis 40 in the direction indicated by arrow 42. Movement of the pusher 24 of this reference along the axis 40 causes each rear flap 31 to engage the fruit, thus transferring the fruit from the corresponding feed conveyor transport position 18 to the corresponding pulp removal position 1.
You can push up to 9. At the same time, front flap 3
0 acts to push the peels to the waste conveyor 47 by engaging the empty peels located on one door 20 with the pulp removed.

The device 38 then acts in the opposite direction along the axis 40, as indicated by arrow 44, to return the pusher 24 to the disengaged position. Should the fruit have already been moved into the transport position 18 adjacent the pulp removal position 19 before the pusher 24 is returned, a rear flap that engages the fruit as the pusher 24 continues to return. The 31 acts just above it, like sliding.

Device 38 may be any device that moves pusher 24 back and forth along axis 40. However, in the illustrated embodiment, the device 38 is a bidirectional hydraulic assembly.

An inclined trough 46 extends below the pulp removal position 19 and is arranged to receive the removed pulp that falls due to gravity.

When used mainly as a device for removing pulp in the form of complete sand, a water supply 48 provided at the upper end of the inclined trough allows the water in the trough to reach at least a predetermined minimum depth. Used to maintain. According to the structure shown, the water depth is greatest at the lower end 50 of the gutter.

Therefore, when the sand sludge that has fallen into the gutter is carried toward the lower end of the trough, all the seeds are present in the floating material of the running water above and are discharged to the seed accommodating member 52. However, the sand sludge that has settled to the bottom of the running water is discharged onto the sieving conveyor 54.

However, when used as a device for removing pulp, mostly in the form of loose juice, water is only supplied to the trough for cleaning purposes during the pulp removal operation.

While the operation of device 10 can be performed manually, maximum efficiency can be achieved by using electronically controlled processor 56 which is tuned to the various operations of device 10. An example of a suitable device is SOLCON IND
There is a VSD 1500-1 model manufactured by USTRIES LTD., (Tel Aviv Derek Petatchikva 37, Israel).

Referring now to FIG. 2, a portion of the fruit when transported over the door 20 (FIG. 1) in its first position before being engaged by the gripping and rotating device 12 (FIG. 3). Figure 58 is a schematic plan view generally indicated at 58 of an apparatus for centering the. When the device 12 acts to rotate a portion of the fruit about an axis as described below with respect to FIG. 3, the portion of the fruit is axial to the axis of rotation (FIG. 3) before being engaged by the device 12. It is desirable to be carried so as to be consistent with.

Thus, the centering device 58 comprises a plurality of arms 60 having rollers 62 at their free ends, each arm mounted for rotation about an axis 64 which extends through a fixed support 66. To be An end element 68 is fixedly mounted from the free end of each arm upward in the distal direction of the arm such that rotational movement of the end element about axis 64 causes a similar rotation about axis 64 of the arm. Act on. In the illustrated embodiment, one arm 6
0 is connected via its elements to the hydraulic assembly 70, which acts to provide a displacement force to the associated end element 68 approximately along the axis 72. Elongate members 74 are connected between arms 60 via corresponding end elements 68 to evenly transfer the movement of the hydraulic assembly to all arms.

The rotation of each illustrated arm 60 acts to gently move a portion of the fruit in a direction axially aligned with the axis of the gripping and rotating device 12 (FIG. 3). When not in operation, the hydraulic assembly 70 retracts and the arm 60
To the position indicated by the broken line.

Referring now to FIG. 3, device 58 (FIG. 2).
A schematic perspective view of a device 12 for gripping and rotating a portion of a fruit after it has been centered at is shown. The device 12 is
As shown, there is a central shaft 76 mounted in a fixed member 78, and rotational forces acting on a toothed wheel 80 mounted on the shaft 76 cause the shaft to rotate about an axis 82.

The device 12 also includes a plurality of crank gripper arms 84, each first hingedly attached to a securing member 88 mounted on the lower portion of the shaft 76.
A second typically having an end 86 and a plurality of nails (not shown) for engaging and gripping a portion of the fruit, generally designated 92.
It can have an end 90, which can be rotated with the shaft 76.

Each gripper arm 84 is also attached at a hinge position 94 to an assembly 96 which is typically driven by an axially aligned drive shaft 98 mounted for reciprocal movement within shaft 76. The gripper arm 84 is moved up and down. Shaft 98 is typically driven by a bidirectional hydraulic assembly 100. Although four grippers are shown, it will be appreciated that any other suitable number of arms may be used in alternative embodiments of the present invention.

Referring now to FIG. 4, a device 14 for directing a pressurized gas jet against a portion 92 of the fruit held and rotated by the device 12 thereby separating the pulp from the rest of the fruit. It is shown.

The apparatus 14 comprises a pair of generally similar assemblies 102, each including a pressurized air nozzle 104 mounted in communication with an air supply tube 106. The pressurized air may be supplied from any suitable source, shown generally at 107. As mentioned above, the pressure at which the air is supplied depends on the desired shape of the pulp to be removed,
Depends on the type of fruit from which pulp is removed.

The air pressure at which the device is used to remove most of the flesh from which the juice released is higher than that required when it is intended to remove complete sand. Needed. Furthermore, when removing pulp from relatively hard fruits such as pomelo, it is necessary to use higher air pressures than are needed for relatively soft fruits such as grapefruit, oranges and lemons. Therefore, maximum pressure is required to remove the pulp with the majority of juice released from relatively hard fruit, while minimal pressure is required to remove complete sand from relatively soft juice. Pressure is required.

The inventor has found that it is advantageous to act on air supplied at a pressure of about 6-7 atm to separate the complete sand from pomelo. However, to obtain complete sand from softer fruits such as grapefruit and orange, air should be supplied at a relatively low pressure of about 2.5-3 atmospheres. Higher working pressures are needed to remove the pulp from which most of the sand cake has burst.

As shown schematically in FIG. 6, the nozzle 10
The air jet discharged from 4 is a "tail" where each sandbag is associated with a membrane that normally separates the sandbag from the mesocarp of the fruit.
It is effective for cutting. When the sand tail is cut, it falls by gravity toward the gutter 46 (FIG. 1).
The pressure of the impinging air jets is quite high to cut the tail of the sandbag, but high enough not to rupture the sandbag, and thus usually results in the separation of complete sandbags.

Alternatively, the air pressure can be set not only to separate the tail of the sandbag from the mesocarp, but also to rupture the sandbag, so that the sandbag has so far been able to break it into it. This results in the release of the contained juice. It can be seen that this method of extracting fruit juice has several advantages as compared with the conventional fruit juice extraction method that involves squeezing fruit.

Among the advantages of the present invention is that it is possible to finally remove from the fruit almost all of the pulp that can be converted into juice. Furthermore, the liquid obtained is only that previously contained in the sand, not the oil or other elements contained in the pericarp.

Each tube 106 is eccentrically mounted on a first driven wheel, which is shown at 108 and 110, respectively, and a similar second driven wheel. First driven wheel 108
Is parallel to the axis 82, extends through the member 112, and is rotatably mounted on a supported first drive shaft 111. The third driven wheel 114 is the drive shaft 11.
Drive a fourth driven wheel 118 mounted on the second drive shaft 120, which is mounted on the first drive shaft 116, parallel to the first drive shaft, and also mounted on the second driven shaft 110, via the drive belt 116. Act as you do. Therefore, the rotation of the drive wheel causes a rotational movement of the nozzle 104 between the solid and dashed positions of FIG.

Associated with each assembly 102 is a device 12 for correlating the rotational movement of the nozzle 104 with the contour of the portion of the fruit in the plane defined by the exposed surface of the portion of the fruit.
There are two. The device 122 comprises an arm 124 mounted on a transmission member 126. The first end 130 of the arm 124 is provided with a roller 132, the roller 132 having an axis 82.
Is arranged to run along the outer surface of the fruit portion 92 in a plane substantially perpendicular to.

The second end 134 of the arm 124 is retained by an adjustment screw assembly 136 mounted on the transmission member 126. The transmission member 126 defines a portion 138 through which the first and second drive shafts 111, 120 penetrate so that lateral movement of the member 126, which may be caused by surface irregularities on the outer surface of the fruit, is reduced by air movement. Tube 106,
Therefore, it works to move the nozzles 140 at the same intervals. It also includes a device 140 that carries the roller 132 into contact with the outer surface of the fruit, which acts to ensure that contact is maintained. Device 140 is typically a two-way pneumatic assembly.

The adjustment screw assembly 136 serves to maintain the distance between the axis 132 of the roller 142 and the nozzle 104 at a predetermined minimum distance. This minimum distance can be varied by changing the screw 137 in the assembly 136 and is estimated to be approximately uniform within a given fruit and within a given size of a given fruit type. It is set to correspond to the thickness of the peel of the fruit.

Referring now to FIG. 7, the rotation of the fruit portion 92 caused by the gripping and rotating device 12 along with the rotational movement of each air nozzle 104 scans in the form of a series of loops indicated at 144. You can see that it causes exercise.
According to this embodiment, a portion of each fruit is rotated more than half a turn, so each nozzle will scan half of the exposed portion of the fruit. However, in other embodiments, a more desired number of nozzles may be provided and the fruit may be made the desired number of turns.

Referring now to FIGS. 8 and 9A, there is shown an assembly 150 for gripping a portion of fruit and directing a pressurized gas jet at the fruit in accordance with an alternative embodiment of the present invention. .

According to this embodiment, the assembly 150 includes a plurality of arms 152 having first and second ends labeled 154 and 156, respectively. Four arms 152 are provided in this embodiment. Each arm 152 has its first
A two-way hydraulic motor 160, shown schematically at end 154.
And associated transmission assembly for pivotal movement about axis 158. The transmission assembly comprises a plurality of driven wheels 162 interconnected via a drive belt 164. Each arm 152 is rotated about its associated axis 158 via a mounting element 166 attached to an associated drive wheel 162.

Further, referring to FIG. 9B, each arm 1
An adjustable pressurized gas nozzle 168 associated with the second end 156 of 52 and a fruit engagement roller 170 are mounted. According to the present invention, each roller 170 includes an end member 173.
Mounted rotatably about an axis 174 on the arm 152 via a support member 172 (FIG. 9B) mounted thereon.

Each nozzle 168 has a rigid gas supply pipe 176.
Attached to the second end 156 of the arm 152 via. A tube 176 extends through the end member 173 and is movable along its longitudinal axis 171 as shown by the double-headed arrow 177, which positions the nozzle 168 at a selected distance from the roller 170. it can. Screws 175 are typically provided to secure the tube 176.

As shown, the vertical distance of the nozzle 168 from the associated arm 152 and hence its associated fruit engaging roller 170 is the end 178 of the roller 170 (FIG. 9).
The distance between B) and the gas nozzle 168 is determined to be related to the thickness of the pericarp 179 of the fruit whose pulp is to be removed. For example, a spring mechanism (not shown) associated with attachment element 166 (FIGS. 8 and 9A) may hold each arm 152 in contact with the outer surface of the fruit.

Therefore, it can be seen that the fruit engagement roller acts according to the outer shape of the fruit and can reliably direct the pressurized gas injection to the pulp rather than the skin. In contrast to the embodiment of FIG. 4, the gas nozzle of this embodiment is not rotatable. Typically, but not necessarily, the pressurized gas supplied via nozzle 168 is air.

Assembly 150 also includes a device 180 for gripping and rotating a portion of the fruit as it is placed in the associated pulping position. Device 180 is similar to device 12 shown above in conjunction with FIG. 3 and will not be described further herein. Components of device 180 are labeled with the reference numbers used in FIG. 4 to indicate similar components.

Therefore, in operation, the pulp removing position 19
Prior to locating a portion of the fruit on the door 20 (FIG. 1) of FIG. 1 the gripping device 180 is in a generally raised position and the arm 152 is approximately as shown by the dashed line 182 in FIG. 9A. It is in the retracted position.

As described above, before the door 20 is lowered, the arm 84 of the gripping device 180 is lowered to engage a portion of the fruit located above the door 20 (FIG. 1). In one embodiment, the pressure used to grip the fruit is generally determined by the peel and fruit firmness.

When the fruits are engaged as shown in FIG. 8,
The motor 160 operates to rotate the arm 152 from the generally contracted position shown in dashed lines to the fruit engagement position, thus allowing the roller 170 to engage the outer surface of the fruit. A portion of the fruit is rotated about the axis 82 by the gripping device and when the arm 152 keeps contact with the outer surface of the fruit despite the surface irregularities of the fruit, the pressurized air jet also holds towards the pulp. And thus prevent it from hitting the skin.

As mentioned above, as the tail of each sandbag is cut by the impinging air jets, the pulp is separated from the skin and thus air pressure causes the pulp to become predominantly or completely broken sand. Removed from fruit as sandbags.

The inventor has found that using a pulp removal device constructed according to the embodiment of FIGS. 8A-9 to remove grapefruit pulp yields results including the following table.

Operating air pressure (atmospheric pressure): 3 4 5 6 6.5 Total production rate: 38 51 56 56 57 58.5 Sand production rate: 65 62 68 68 64 67 Complete sand production: 18 18 21 15 15 15% of fruit juice Production rate: 35 38 32 36 36 43 Where, total production rate = (weight of juice and sand) / (weight of fruit) x 100 Production rate of sand = = (weight of all sand) /
(Production weight) × 100 Percentage of perfect sand = (Weight of perfect sand) /
(Fruit weight) × 100 Fruit juice production ratio = (Weight of squeezed juice) / (Production weight) × 100 The table above compares the effectiveness of conventional juice extraction methods that include squeezing fruits. Clearly improved. The conventional method of squeezing fruits is about 40-50% of the total fruit weight.
Only the weight of can obtain the amount of juice. Operating the apparatus of the present invention in the range of air pressures of 5-6.5 atmospheres, as opposed to conventional methods, results in a total yield percentage of 56-58.5% as defined in conjunction with the above example. The actual fruit juice obtained directly has a total production rate of between 32 and 43%, but 96% or more of the total production can be finally converted into fruit juice. Thus, the amount of fruit juice obtainable by using the device of the invention is increased by 7.5-40% compared to that obtainable by conventional methods.

As mentioned above, the device of the present invention may be used as an example to remove pulp in the form of conventional whole sand. The term "complete" shall mean a certain minimum percentage of undamaged sand,
It may be determined by testing sand dust samples according to accepted quality test standards.

A typical sand quality sample quality test is a color test. This is a random 5 gram sample of sand cake taken from the liquid drained for 2 minutes is soaked in 0.1% methylene blue aqueous solution for 1 minute. The sandbags are then washed with water, placed in a white container and classified into three color categories: fully colored sandbags, 50% colored sandbags and only the protruding parts colored sandbags.

0 points for completely colored sand, 5
You get 3 points for 0% colored sand and 5 points for only the protruding parts. The result is obtained by dividing the total number of points obtained by the maximum number of points possible for the sample and then multiplying by 100. Therefore, the result 100 means a complete sample and the result 0 means a completely damaged sample. Throughout this application, when the sandbag is described as "complete," it means the sandbag that results in a sample of 80 or more by the test method described above.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to what has been shown above. Rather, the scope of the invention is defined only by the claims.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of an apparatus for removing pulp from fruits constructed and operative in accordance with the present invention.

2 is a schematic plan view of a device configured according to this embodiment for centering a portion of a fruit with respect to an axis of rotation defined by a gripping and rotating device that forms part of the device of FIG. is there.

3 is a schematic perspective view of a device for gripping and rotating a portion of the fruit centered by the device of FIG.

4 is a schematic perspective view of an apparatus for directing a pressurized jet of gas onto a portion of a fruit held and rotated by the apparatus of FIG. A device for maintaining the direction of gas injection to the exposed pulp of the fruit by correlating with.

5 is a view taken in the direction of arrow V in FIG.

6 is a partial cutaway view taken along the line VI-VI of FIG.

FIG. 7: Rotation of a part of fruit by the device shown in FIG.
FIG. 4 caused by the reciprocating motion of the gas nozzle shown in FIG.
FIG. 6 is a diagram of a scanning pattern of gas injection of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a gripping and gas injection assembly constructed and operative in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

9A is a view similar to FIG. 8, and FIG. 9B is a view similar to FIG.
FIG. 3B is a detailed view of a portion of the assembly taken in the direction IXB-IXB of A.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Pulp removal device 12, 180 Grasping and rotating device 14 Device for directing pressurized gas injection 58 Centering device 136 Adjusting screw assembly 150 Device for directing gripping and pressurized gas injection

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] February 28, 1994

[Procedure amendment 4]

[Document name to be corrected] Drawing

[Correction target item name] All drawings

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

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Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A device for removing flesh from fruit that has been cut to expose a portion of the flesh surrounded by exposed rind, the flesh being exposed to separate the flesh from the rest of the fruit. Means for directing a pressurized jet of at least one gas over the exposed portion; means for causing relative rotation about a rotation axis between the fruit and the means for directing the pressurized jet; A means for substantially preventing the pressurized jet from hitting the exposed pericarp, the means for engaging the outer surface of the fruit, the pressurized jet of said at least one gas being related to the thickness of the pericarp from said engaging means. A flesh removing device comprising: a means for positioning at a predetermined distance. 2. The pulp removing device according to claim 1,
The pulp removing device according to claim 1, wherein the engaging means acts so as to center the fruit around the rotation axis. 3. The pulp removing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the engaging means includes a plurality of rollers that simultaneously engage the fruit. 4. The pulp removing device according to claim 3,
The means for directing the pressurized injection of the gas includes a plurality of nozzles, each of which is attached to a predetermined radial inner side of the corresponding plurality of rollers with respect to the rotation axis, at a predetermined distance. . 5. The pulp removing device according to claim 4,
The pulp removing device further comprises means for allowing an operator to adjust the predetermined distance in accordance with the thickness of the skin that is expected to prevent the spray from hitting the skin. 6. A method of removing flesh from a fruit that has been cut to expose a portion of the flesh surrounded by the rind, the addition of at least one gas to separate the flesh from the rest of the fruit. Directing a pressurized jet of the at least one gas over the exposed portion of the pulp while substantially preventing the pressurized jet from hitting the skin; and relative rotation between the fruit and the at least one pressurized jet. The step of directing the pressure injection includes the step of engaging the outer surface of the fruit and preventing the injection from hitting the fruit at a position shorter than a predetermined distance from the outer surface of the fruit. A method for removing pulp, characterized by: 7. The pulp removal method according to claim 6,
Furthermore, the pulp removal method characterized by comprising the step of adjusting the predetermined distance in accordance with the thickness of the skin that is expected so that the spray does not hit the skin. 8. The pulp removal method according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the total production percentage of the weight of fruit juice and sand / weight of fruit × 100 exceeds 50%. 9. A product produced by the method according to claim 6 or 7. 10. A juice product containing almost no components obtained from the skin.