The invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for removing the cores of fruits and vegetables. In particular, a vegetable corer is disclosed that can be held in the hand and used to form a cavity in a variety of fruits and vegetables with a minimal amount of effort, thereby facilitating easy removal of the core.
Salad processors increasingly rely on pre-cored leafy vegetables delivered to their processing lines. Common in the U.S. packaged salad industries are field-cored iceberg and romaine lettuces. Similarly, cabbage is increasingly required to be pre-cored for delivery to processing plants. However, cabbage is more difficult to field-core due to the dense nature of the head and the difficulty associated with using common field coring tools, such as hand-held knives having a variety of modifications such as elongated and/or curved blades.
A variety of tools and apparatus are known for coring vegetables such as lettuces, cabbage, and cauliflower in the field, prior to processing. The softer, leafy vegetables exemplified by lettuces such as iceberg and romaine are commonly cored with a stainless steel coring tube. Such tubes are typically about two inches in diameter, but can vary depending upon the size of the core to be removed. Because lettuce typically has a soft inner core, the coring tube will easily penetrate the core when thrust into the area of the lettuce surrounding the core. With such a tool, the core remains in the tube for easy removal when the tube is withdrawn from the lettuce.
Cabbage, on the other hand, is a hard, dense vegetable, requiring a different approach to coring. In the use of hand tools, several hard thrusts are often required in order to remove the core, and often such hand tools only allow for the core to removed a small piece at a time. A person coring cabbage and other similar vegetables with such hand tools faces potential injury. Not only can muscle stress and nerve injury result from the repeated pushing required to core a vegetable with such a tool, but in the event that an immature cabbage having a soft interior is encountered, the tube can easily penetrate the entire cabbage and enter the person's other hand, which is holding the cabbage.
Alternative methods of coring such vegetables, and especially cabbage, have consequently been developed. One such method involves cutting the cabbage in half vertically from the top of the vegetable through the center with a knife. The interior core section can then be cut away from the usable portion of the cabbage with such common tools as a paring knife. However, this approach suffers from being both time-consuming and requiring a larger, sharp knife or a machete for the initial step of dividing the head in half, the use of which can lead to injuries.
Methods for efficient coring have also been incorporated directly into the processing plants themselves, where cabbage, lettuce, and other vegetables such as cauliflower are cored using horizontally mounted drill presses. In such a typical apparatus, an operator holds the cabbage head by hand and advances it against a rapidly rotating corer similar to a drill bit. The bit can be mounted horizontally or vertically, and carves out the core area of the head. A disadvantage of using such instruments is their cost, as well as the safety issues pertaining to clothing, or occasionally body parts, becoming caught in the drill press machinery.
Attempts have been made to adapt such drill-press type machinery as described above to field applications. However, such adaptations create an increased danger for persons operating the machinery in the field. Unlike the stable, permanently mounted drill presses in processing plants, field adaptations are often mounted to decks attached to trucks or trailers, which constantly move throughout the crop fields during the harvesting. Given that the terrain is often uneven due to precipitation, soil moisture, and/or previous machinery operations in the fields, the deck-mounted drill press is often on unstable terrain and can move in an unpredictable manner, resulting in an increased incidence of injury.
Disadvantages of earlier approaches to coring apparatus thus include cost, time consumption, and often the possibility of injury due to the use of sharp knives. Thus, there exists a need for a safer, cheaper, and more efficient tool for coring produce including vegetables such as lettuce, cabbage, and cauliflower, as well as fruits such as pineapple, in the field or in the processing plant.
An aspect of the present invention is a safe, efficient apparatus useful for coring produce in a safer, more efficient manner with minimal effort to the operator and a reduced risk of operator injury. The apparatus includes a pneumatic chisel having a chisel shaft driven by a pneumatic power source, and a coring tube attached to the distal end of the chisel shaft. The coring tube includes a hollow center such that the separated core can be quickly and easily removed from the apparatus.
A further aspect of the present invention is a easy, rapid and efficient method of separating the core from produce using an apparatus as described above, and further provides that the separated core can be easily and safely removed from the produce and discarded, such that the apparatus can continue to be used. The method comprises using a tool such as described briefly above, aligning the coring tube against the core of the piece of produce, applying a slight pressure with the tube against the core; activating the pneumatic driving apparatus, deactivating the pneumatic apparatus when the desired depth is attained, and dislodging and discarding the inner core from the outer body of the item of produce.
The following figures form part of the present specification and are included to further demonstrate certain aspects of the present invention. The invention may be better understood by reference to one or more of these figures in combination with the detailed description of specific embodiments presented herein.
The present invention relates to an apparatus, and associated methods of operation of such apparatus, for the removal of core material from produce, such as fruits and vegetables. The apparatus comprises a pneumatic chisel, a chisel shaft operatively inserted into the chisel, and a coring tube attached to the distal end of the chisel shaft. Some implementations of the apparatus include tabs cut into the walls of the coring tube, and serrated teeth on the cutting edge of the coring tube. Also described are variable pneumatic power sources, including air, electric, and hydraulic power sources.
The present disclosure also discloses a method of coring produce, the method comprising the steps of placing a cutting tube that is attached to a chisel shaft operatively inserted into a pneumatic chisel against the core of the food item, engaging the power on the pneumatic chisel, cutting through the core of the food item using an oscillatory motion, and removing the cut core from the food item.
Referring now to the figures, a vegetable corer 5 implementing the present invention is illustrated in
Pneumatic chisel 20 generally has a distal end 22 and a proximal end 24, and is preferably generally cylindrical in shape. However, chisel 20 can have any number of known geometrical shapes, including square, rectangular, cylindrical, and the like. Additionally, distal end 22 can be swaged or machined to a reduced diameter at its forward end. Chisel 20 preferably contains a central bore (not shown) within the housing of the chisel at the distal end 22, for receiving chisel shaft 50. Proximal end 24 houses a driving mechanism for the corer 5, one or more hand-operating levers 70 and a power button or switch 80. Further, proximal end 24 of chisel 20 is preferably fitted to the removable coupling 60 connecting the chisel 20 to a power source.
Coupling 60 is shown in
The chisel shaft 50 has a proximal end 52 and a distal end 54, as shown in
Distal end 54 is preferably secured to coring tube 10 in any number of acceptable attachment means known in the art, the attachment means including but not limited to welds, cements, adhesives, tapes, bolts, screws, rivets, and combinations thereof. Chisel shaft 50, upon operative insertion into pneumatic chisel 20, preferably slides within a central bore of chisel 20, wherein the bore (not shown) is coaxial with the chisel itself. Thus, proximal end 52 is affixed to a longitudinally and/or rotationally reciprocating shaft (not separately shown) coupled to the drive mechanism carried in the housing 24 and driven by the power source via coupling 60.
Similar to the pneumatic chisel 20, chisel shaft 50 can be made of any of a variety of materials, the only proviso being that they have the strength and rigidity to allow operation of produce corer 5 as described herein. Suitable materials include but are not limited to steel, stainless steel, anodized steel, steel-metal alloys, transition-metal steel alloys (e.g., chromium-molybdenum steel), aluminum, brass, and suitably hard and/or coated plastics.
Coring tube 10, as shown in
The distal end 30 of the coring tube 10 can have a taper 32 that is sharpened into a coring blade 34 (
In addition to being spaced apart from distal end 30, proximal end 40 can be cut at an angle, and need not be an angle that is perpendicular to the axis of the tube. The angle of proximal end can be from about 0° to about 90° relative to chisel shaft 50. In one embodiment, the angle of proximal end 40 is about 45° relative to the chisel, with the apex of the angle being generally toward the distal end 54 of chisel shaft 50. Similarly, distal end 30 of the coring tube can be substantially perpendicular to the central axis of corer 5 or at a nonperpendicular angle, similar to the angle of proximal end 40. Proximal end 40 is typically maintained to be an open end, such that a core of produce removed by operation of the coring apparatus 5 can exit the coring tube 10, or at least protrude from the proximal end during the coring operation. The nonperpendicular angle for proximal end 40 is selected to assist the exit of a vegetable core as it passes through the coring tube 10.
Coring tube 10 can be removably or permanently secured to chisel shaft 50 by any number of conventional attachment means, including but not limited to welds, cements, bolts, screws and/or rivets, or any other suitable attachment means. Securing coring tube 10 with a removable attachment is advantageous if coring apparatus 5 is to be used in a produce field during harvesting of a vegetable having an especially hard core, such as cabbage. In such an instance, after continual use of coring apparatus 5, the coring edge of the coring tube could become dulled and cause the apparatus to not operate as effectively. Removable attachment of coring tube 10 allows for the rapid field replacement of the coring tube with a minimal amount of lost time and productivity.
Coring tube 10 can be made from any suitable material sufficiently strong as to allow successful operation of the coring apparatus 1 as described in the present disclosure. Suitable materials for coring tube 10 include but are not limited to steel, stainless steel, anodized steel, steel-metal alloys, titanium, vanadium, chromium-molybdenum steel alloys, and suitably hard or coated plastics.
An optional feature of the present disclosure is shown in
Another aspect of coring tube 10 is shown in
In a pneumatically driven embodiment, chisel 20 is powered by an air distributing mechanism that reciprocates the operatively inserted shaft 50 in response to a supply of compressed fluid or air. Any of the number of pneumatic chisels known in the art are envisioned to be adaptable for use with the present invention. The chisel 20 can thus be powered by any of a variety of known power sources 90, which can be adapted to provide a driving force to chisel 20. As shown in
As illustrated in both
Multiple buttons and/or levers may be provided for multiple modes of operation. For instance, a dual-function lever may engage a first button for longitudinal reciprocation and a second button for rotational reciprocation. In embodiments incorporating rotational reciprocation, the rotational axis of shaft 50 is substantially aligned with the axis of the cover 10.
As described previously, the motion of pneumatic chisel 20 during typical operation can be longitudinally forward and backward in rapid, short strokes, such as along line (L) in
In another embodiment, as discussed above, a rotational motion R as shown in
Another embodiment, illustrated in
An alternative use for the apparatus of the present disclosure is in the harvesting of fibrous woody crops such as brussels sprouts. In this embodiment, the chisel shaft 50 may have a flat knife 150 such as shown in
In operation, the knife 150 is positioned such that cutting edge 160 is against the stalk of the plant where the cut is to be made, and the power source 90 is engaged. Using this embodiment in a method similar to that described generally above, the stalk of the plant (e.g., brussels sprout) is quickly and easily severed from the root system, without undue exertion by or danger to the operator.
It is envisioned that the apparatus of the present disclosure can be used on any type of produce having a core or similar portion which it is desirable to remove.
In a typical method of operation of the coring tool 5 of the present disclosure, the coring blade at distal end 30 of the coring tube 10 is aligned against the core of vegetable 110, as shown in
All of the methods, processes and/or apparatus disclosed and claimed herein can be made and executed without undue experimentation in light of the present disclosure. While the methods of this invention have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, it will be apparent to those of skill in the art that variations may be applied to the methods, apparatus and/or processes and in the steps or in the sequence of steps of the methods described herein without departing from the concept and scope of the invention. All such similar substitutes and modifications apparent to those skilled in the art are deemed to be within the scope and concept of the invention. Further, it should be appreciated that the present invention provides many applicable inventive concepts which can be embodied in a wide variety of contexts.
The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/488,468 filed Jul 18, 2003, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60488468 | Jul 2003 | US |