Patent Application
20130302486
The invention relates to a holding mold part for drupes, particularly for holding raw olives for their treatment, such as pickling, pitting, and the like, as well as to a method that can be carried out with this holding mold part, and a device for this purpose, for optional pickling, pitting, filling, and unmolding of the olives. In this connection, other possible drupes are cherries, apricots, peaches, etc.
In this connection, a device for automatic filling of olives that have already been pitted, with a meat paste, is known from EP 0 490 843 A1, which device has a holding mold part for holding the already pitted olives and for their treatment, which part can be put together from a lower part and an upper part, between which multiple cavity sections for the olives, which complement one another, are proceed. In this connection, the cavity sections form pockets for holding the olives, of which pockets multiple ones are provided on the circumference of a wheel-shaped support, at equal distances from one another. To fill the individual olives, these are slit open and then the meat paste is injected into them. However, in the case of this device, the holding capacity with regard to the number of olives and thus their throughput is limited by the peripheral arrangement of the individual olives. Also, the diameter of the wheel-shaped support cannot be increased in just any desired manner to increase the throughput, because otherwise, this device becomes too cumbersome.
Furthermore, what is called a drum pitting method, for example, is known for pitting of raw olives, in which method olives that have already been sorted are cycled into a feed belt by way of a mass funnel, and this belt then conveys the olives to a rotational ejector drum, whereby the olives, which are thereby pitted, can also be optionally filled or stuffed during the same process. In the case of this method or of this device, the olive pits are removed using tappets that are confirmed by means of a mechanical cam control. It is true that such rotational ejector drums operate in cost-advantageous manner due to their relatively simple structure, but this is offset by a relatively high rejects rate of 8% to 12%.
In this connection, this high rejects rate results from the total of the tolerances that are added up, for example caused by the imprecise longitudinal axis positioning of the olives, the transport paths of the olives, and the pit ejection principle itself.
Also, what is called an individual pitting station is known, with which raw olives can be pitted practically manually, individually, according to the piercing principle. In this connection, the olives are laid by hand into a support mold, and pushed into a drop tube from there, by means of a tappet, from which tube the olives then drop, in each instance, into a mold strip having multiple cavities for holding them, which strip is then pushed manually, from olive to olive, underneath an ejector having a cutting blade for removing the olive pit, in each instance. Such an individual pitting station not only works relatively imprecisely with regard to a loss of fruit flesh, but is also unsuitable for industrial pitting of large amounts of olives.
An olive pitting apparatus is known from U.S. Pat. No. 2,360,103 A, by means of which olives are pitted automatically. For this purpose, the pitting apparatus has a turntable on which beaker-like cavities for holding a part of the olive are provided. The turntable positions the olives underneath a tappet device that pierces the pit out of the olive. During this piercing, the olive is pressed into the beaker-like cavity by the tappet. A rubber-like holding apparatus fixes the olive in place during the piercing process.
An olive pitting apparatus is also described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,282,396 A. The olives get into cavities, in such a manner that they are approximately held in position, comparable to egg cups. These cavities represent a lower part. An upper part is positioned above the cavities, in such a manner that the upper part, which is mounted on springs, aligns the olive within the cavity in such a manner that it can be pierced to remove the pit.
In contrast, the invention is based on the task of developing a holder, a method, and a device for the treatment of drupes, particularly of pre-sorted raw olives, by means of which these can be pitted and filled industrially, in completely automated manner, and so that this is possible at high quality and low loss of fruit flesh.
The solution for the task takes place, for one thing, in that at least the cavity sections in the upper part of the holding mold part have a flexible end to compensate for different natural lengths of the olives to be treated, and for another, by means of a method for treatment of drupes in accordance with claim 5, as well as a suitable device for this purpose, according to claim 9.
By means of a two-part structure, in which cavity sections that complement one another are situated in a lower part and an upper part, for holding the olives to be treated in a correct position, and by means of a flexible end of the cavity sections in the upper part of the holding mold part, in each instance, the circumstance was taken into account that the raw olives can have length tolerances of +/−5 mm, actually even of up to 10 mm, and therefore length equalization for the different olive lengths was created by means of the flexible end, in each instance, for example in the form of a silicone film. In this way, a holding mold part can be made available with which a greater number of olives, for example 10 to 100, can be positioned correctly for being processed together.
The method suitable for this, for simultaneous, common treatment of multiple olives, in which the holding mold part according to the invention can be used, which part passes through multiple work stations of a treatment device in this connection, is characterized in that in this method, the following work steps are carried out, one after the other:
At the beginning of the method according to the invention, the raw olives are individually laid, in known manner, for example by way of a mass funnel, onto a conveyor belt configured with drivers, and then pushed, standing in pre-centered manner, by portions, transverse to the belt, by means of transverse punches, by way of guide channels, into the cavity sections, in each instance, of the lower part of the holding mold part.
Alternatively, it can also be provided that the raw olives to be processed are fed onto a multi-track vibrating segment from a barrel, for example. The mass carpet of olives is conveyed forward automatically by way of the vibration grooves. In this connection, the olives are isolated and aligned in the longitudinal direction, and run, by way of tracks, onto the subsequent second track that lies underneath. Subsequently, the olives are now conveyed further, in preferably V-shaped grooves, and isolated up to an olive single-cycle apparatus. The isolated olives then run further, by way of a drop tube, to a stop element that regulates the olive backup accordingly. Then, one olive, in each instance, is passed through to a second stopper. As soon as the mold cavity under the second stop element is in position, the isolated olive is allowed into the mold cavity. The process is repeated until the cavity is filled. Filling can also take place in multiple rows.
Afterward, the mold part filled with raw olives in this manner gets to the pitting station, where the olives, which are only pre-centered at first, are aligned vertically in their standing position, before being pitted; specifically, for this purpose, a tool unit disposed above the olives is lowered, which tools have rotating sleeves configured in funnel shape and spring-mounted on their end sections, in accordance with the number of olives, which sleeves are pushed over the pre-centered olives. In this connection, the possible length differences of the raw olives are compensated by way of the spring path of the rotating sleeves. Afterward, the rotating sleeves turn, and automatically set the longitudinal axes of the raw olives upright and position them for the actual pitting process, which can thereby take place with as low a loss as possible, with regard to the olive substance.
During pitting itself, a vertical punch in the form of three spring-mounted needles penetrates into each raw olive from above, and, opposite to these, an also spring-mounted, rotating cutting sleeve penetrates into each olive from below, specifically in such a manner that first, the three needles penetrate all the way to the pit, and thereby hold it, and then the cutting sleeve moves upward until the olive pit is surrounded or cut out by it.
Subsequently, the olive pit is then ejected downward through the cutting sleeve, controlled by the three needles. After that, the vertical punches and the cutting sleeves move apart again into their respective starting position, and the pitting process has therefore been concluded. The clean filling opening that has thereby been formed in the lower region of the olives, which have now been pitted, offers an optimally controllable cavity volume for the later filling process, whereby it is advantageous that at the top of the olive, only three small punctures caused by the needles are visible, which do not, however, impair the later filling process. Finally, the olive pits obtained are collected in barrels, as a valuable material, and sold to olive-oil producers.
Optionally, it is also possible that at least one cutting sleeve is configured so as not to rotate.
If—depending on the cutting result—it is necessary to remove residues of pitted olives from the rotating sleeve or to avoid that a pitted olive remains hanging on when the sleeve is removed, it is proposed to provide the rotating sleeve with a spring-mounted ejector, so that the olive is ejected, in each instance.
Alternatively to this, it is provided to use a punch for ejection of the pit in place of the needles. Preferably, this can be a punch having a star-shaped or Philips-type die.
After pitting, the lower part of the holding mold part, filled with the pitted olives, is pushed into an application station where it is fixed in place with the corresponding cavity sections, by means of setting on the upper part, and, in this connection, at the same time the upper part and lower part are held together by means of integrated magnets.
Because, in this connection, the cavity sections of the upper part are delimited, toward the outside, by means of a thin, stretchable film, in such a manner that after the mold support has been closed, natural length differences between the pitted olives can be compensated by means of the stretchable film, these olives are thereby gently pressed against the lower part of the mold support, with their pitted opening that serves as a filling opening, and thereby positioned for this purpose.
In order to now be able to fill the pitted olives, a turning station follows, where the closed holding mold part is turned by 180°, so that the filling opening points upward. In this position, the holding mold part moves into a filling station, where a lance of a metering apparatus is immersed into the filling openings, in each instance, and these are filled according to what is called the one-shot method. What is called the two-layer method is also possible for this purpose. In this way, it is possible to obtain tasty new types of premium products (for example with liquid or creamy paste-like fillings). Alternatively, pressure metering systems or screw metering systems can also be integrated into the production line, specifically for filling more viscous filling viscosities, such as cheese paste fillings, for example.
If necessary, a device for applying a closing agent, such as a pectin droplet, can also be provided in the region of the filling station, whereby then, the filled olives still pass through a cooling tunnel, where the closure droplet is cooled, so that the filled olives are cleanly sealed.
The finished holding mold part is then transported to a further turning station, where it is turned once again by 180°, in other words turned over, so that in the subsequent removal station, the upper part of the holding mold part is removed again and can be passed back to the application station.
The filled olives are then automatically removed from the mold in a final unmolding station, and then transported further to a customer-specific final packaging line.
Further details and advantages of the present invention will be described and explained in greater detail below, using the drawings.
These show:
a a side view of the holding mold part according to
b a top view of the holding mold part according to
a a perspective representation of a device for automatic pitting and filling of olives,
b a detail from the device according to
c a schematic representation of the sequence of a process of laying a raw olive into the lower part of the holding mold part of the device according to
d a schematic representation of the sequence of a centering process with subsequent pitting process in the pitting station of the device according to
e an enlarged sectional representation of a metering device for filling pitted olives according to the filling station in the device according to
f an enlarged detail of the holding mold part according to
The holding mold part shown in perspective in FIG. 1—referred to with 1—consists of a box-shaped lower part 2 and a box-shaped upper part 3, which are releasably held together by means of ten integrated magnets 4 (
For this purpose, the film insert 9 consists of a flexible silicone material, whereby a rubber is also possible for this purpose. The upper part 3 is configured in bowl shape on its top, as a sort of expansion space 12, whereas the underside of the lower part 2 can be configured either also bowl-shaped, as in
The film insert 9 has a thickness of 0.25 mm in the regions of the flexible ends 8, and is otherwise provided with reinforcement inserts 14 between the cavity sections 7.
In the present exemplary embodiment, the two-part holding mold part 1 has a strip-shaped form with a row of the aforementioned ten cavities 6; 7, whereby such a mold part can simply also have multiple such rows for a higher throughput of the raw olives 5 to be treated, as will be shown later. Finally, the two-part holding mold part 1 consists of a plastic of the Makrolon® brand. For fixation of the holding mold part 1 during a work process, this part possesses multiple countersunk bores 15 that are affixed on the longitudinal side of its lower part 2. Furthermore, the holding mold part 1 possesses gripping disks 16 and 17 on its two face sides, in the shape of circle segments, which project on half the side and are disposed offset from one another in height, with which it is more easily possible to remove the upper part 3 from the lower part 2 again, counter to the holding force of the magnets 4.
The device for automatic pitting and filling of raw olives 5—indicated with 18—shown in
In detail, the device possesses the following work stations, disposed one behind the other:
As a first station, the device 18 possesses a feed and laying-in station 20, which has a mass funnel 21 that is filled with raw olives 5, pre-sorted with regard to their diameter, according to an arrow 22.
From this funnel, the pre-sorted raw olives 5 are passed on to a conveyor belt 24 provided with drivers 23 that follow one another, which belt has a transverse punch 25 with ten individual punches 26 standing opposite it, whereby the individual punches 26 are disposed at a distance, in each instance, corresponding to the interstices between the drivers 23 of the conveyor belt 24.
Furthermore, the feed and laying-in station 20, as shown in
The holding mold part 19, filled with the raw olives 5, then gets into a pitting station 29, which, as shown in the detail in
Below each vertical punch 30, a cutting sleeve 33 that is also spring-mounted and also has a rotational drive is provided, which sleeve is used with an upward movement in the opposite direction to the vertical punch 30.
After that, an application station 34 follows (
Then a filling station 38 follows, in which high-quality pumpable fillings 40 containing the finest ingredients (cheese, paste, etc.) are filled into the olives 35, using what is called the one-shot method, by means of filling lances, using a usual metering apparatus 39 (
In addition, in the region of the filling station 38, an apparatus can be provided for closing the filling opening 37, which apparatus closes the filling opening 37 by means of a closing agent 41, such as a pectin droplet. Also, a cooling segment, for example in the form of a cooling tunnel, is then possible.
Furthermore, a holding mold part transport segment 42 follows, all the way to a further turning station 43, in which the holding mold part 19 containing the filled olives is turned by 180° once again, in order to be able to remove its upper part 3, which is then done by means of a subsequent removal station 44. In this connection, subsequently its return to the application station 34 takes place—as indicated by the arrow 45. Finally, an unmolding station 46 for the filled olives and a return of the empty lower parts 2 to the feed and laying-in station 20 takes place—as indicated by the arrow 47.
Proceeding from the device 18 for treating raw olives 5, such as pickling, pitting, as well as pitted olives 35, such as filling and unmolding, as shown in
This is done in such a manner that the raw olives 5 are passed to the conveyor belt 24, by way of the mass funnel 21, and then laid from the belt, in portions, in other words always by ten, in the present exemplary embodiment, into the cavity sections 6 of the first row of the lower part 2 of the holding mold part 19, in each instance, by means of the transverse punch 25, standing pre-centered in accordance with the sequence shown schematically in
The filled holding mold part 19 is then transported further to the pitting station 29, whereby at the same time, an empty holding mold part 19 moves into the feed and laying-in station 20, in order to be filled with raw olives 5. In the pitting station 29, the raw olives 5 are then first aligned to stand perpendicular, by means of the funnel-shaped discharges 32 of the rotating sleeves 31 that move down, specifically in that every discharge 32 is pushed over the upper part of the raw olive 5, in each instance, with a simultaneous rotational movement. This sequence corresponds to the schematic representation 2 and 3 of the detail according to
This pitting process as described is reproduced in the schematic representations 4 to 6, according to the detail in
After that, in the following application station 34, the pitted olives referred to as 35 are fixed in place, in that the upper part 3 of the holding mold part 19 is set onto its lower part 2, in centered manner. In this connection, the two parts are pulled against one another by means of the magnets 4 and thereby held together. At the same time, the natural length differences between the pitted olives 35 are compensated by the stretchable film of the cavity sections 7 of the upper part 3 (
The holding mold part 19 treated in this way then gets to the turning station 43, by way of the transport segment 42, at which station it is turned by 180° once again. In the subsequent removal station 44, the upper part 3 is removed, and then passed back to the application station 34, as shown by the arrow 45.
The opened lower part 2 of the holding mold part 19 with the finished olives is finally transported to the unmolding station 46, where these are unmolded and then passed to a suitable packaging station—indicated at 49—whereby at the same time, return of the empty lower part 2 of the holding mold part 19—as shown by the arrow 47—to the feed and laying-in station 20 takes place.
With the present invention, optimal positioning of the longitudinal axis of the olives during pitting is therefore guaranteed, so that it is possible, using the proposed, reliable pit ejection principle, that rejects amount to max. only 2% to 3% for a defined input material, which means a rejects reduction of approximately 10% as compared with conventional methods.
Furthermore, an industrial production possibility was created, which allows the producer to industrially produce high-quality filled olives with the most varied filling viscosities, starting from the calibrated raw olive all the way to use possibilities of the most modern filling metering systems. By means of the use of the holding mold parts 1 and 19 as described, in particular, optimal positioning of the olives by means of their flexible clamping in these is achieved, and, at the same time, olives in a greater lot size can be treated in multiple work stations, all the way to the end product.
In this way, last but not least, intermediate storage of pitted olives in salt water barrels in the producer countries can be eliminated; this necessarily leads to quality losses, such as increased water absorption and taking on foreign flavors caused by the salt brine.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 2010 038 025.3 | Oct 2010 | DE | national |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | PCT/IB2011/054066 | Sep 2011 | US |
| Child | 13855758 | US |
