Press for citrus fruits

Abstract

A press for citrus fruits has a press head, which executes a press stroke and includes two accommodating dies, each for one fruit half. The dies are arranged on either side of a blade and are pivoted in opposite directions via parallel shafts between an upper accommodating position and a lower pressing position. Rams are assigned to the press head and interact with the dies in the lower pressing position A discharging device for discharging the skins of the pressed fruit halves. Includes a comb whose fingers engage in grooves of the rams. The grooves are oriented in the direction of the parallel shafts. The comb is displaceable between a lower starting position, with fingers lowered in the grooves, and a discharging position, with fingers raised above the rams and sloping down toward the shafts to a discharging opening.

Claims

1. A press for citrus fruits, the press comprising: a blade, a press head executing a press stroke and comprising two accommodating dies and parallel shafts, each accommodating die for one fruit half, the two accommodating dies being arranged on either side of the blade and being pivoted in opposite directions via the parallel shafts between an upper accommodating position and a lower pressing position, rams assigned to the press head, interacting with the accommodating dies in the lower pressing position, and comprising grooves oriented in a direction of the parallel shafts of the press head, and a discharging device for discharging skin of pressed fruit halves, the discharging device comprising a discharging comb whose fingers engage in the grooves of the rams, the discharging comb being displaceable between a lower starting position and a discharging position, in the lower starting position the fingers being lowered in the grooves of the rams, and in the discharging position the fingers being raised above the rams and sloping down in the direction of the parallel shafts to a discharging opening, wherein on a side of the rams facing away from the discharging opening, the discharging comb is pivotably linked to the press head about an articulated shaft, the articulated shaft being perpendicular to the parallel shafts of the press head.

2. A fruit press according to claim 1, wherein a sliding limit stop for the discharging comb is assigned to the rams on a side facing the discharging opening.

3. A fruit press according to claim 1, wherein in a region of the articulated shaft the press head comprises a rotating stop, the rotating stop determining a pivoting angle of the discharging comb for the discharging position.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The subject matter of the invention is shown by way of example in the drawings, wherein:

(2) FIG. 1 shows a fruit press for citrus fruit in accordance with the invention in a sectional view perpendicularly to the shafts of the accommodating dies in the upper accommodating position of the accommodating dies;

(3) FIG. 2 shows a sectional view along the line II-II of FIG. 1;

(4) FIG. 3 shows a view of the fruit press corresponding to FIG. 1 with the accommodating dies in the lower pressing position, and

(5) FIG. 4 shows a sectional view along the line IV-IV of FIG. 3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

(6) The illustrated press for citrus fruit comprises a frame 2 which is enclosed by a housing 1 and forms a guide 3 extending along the height for a press head 4. Said press head 4 is driven along the guide 3 by means of a press drive 5, which is formed in accordance with the embodiment by a crank 6 and a pushrod 7 linked to the crank 6, which is not mandatory however. An electric motor 8 with connected bevel gear 9 is used for driving the press drive 5.

(7) Two accommodating dies 10 are mounted in the press head 4 on parallel shafts 11 which carry a drive pinion 12. Said drive pinions 12 mesh with toothed racks 13 which are laterally fixed to the frame 2, so that during a displacement of the press head 4 along the guide 3 the drive pinions 12 rolling on the toothed racks 13 pivot the accommodating dies 10 during the press stroke from the upper accommodating position shown in FIG. 1 to the lower pressing position according to FIG. 3, and back to the accommodating position during the no-load stroke from the lower pressing position.

(8) A blade 14 is fixed to the frame 2 between the two accommodating dies 10, which fixing occurs by means of a blade holder 15 engaging beyond press head 4. In order to ensure that the citrus fruits supplied via a feed channel 16 to the accommodating dies 10 are unable to slide out of the accommodating dies 10 as a result of gravity after the cutting during the retracting movement in opposite directions, sliding guides 17 for the fruit halves are associated with the accommodating dies 10 on the press head 13. Said sliding guides 17 form a guide for the blade 14 between themselves.

(9) Rams 18 are provided in the frame 2 beneath the accommodating dies 10, which rams cooperate with the accommodating dies 10 in the lower pressing position, as is shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. The support of the rams 18 is provided via a carrier 19, which is fixed in the embodiment to the guide 3, If the accommodating dies 10 which are loaded with the fruit halves are lowered during the press stroke of the press head 4 onto the rams 18, the fruit halves are pressed out between the rams 18 and the dies 10. The pressed juice is collected on a carrier 19 forming a discharge within a juice space and can be removed via a stopcock 20.

(10) In order to lift the pressed skins of the citrus fruit from the rams 18 and to discharge them to a collecting container 21 provided beneath the carrier 19, a discharging device is provided which is formed by a discharging comb 22 with parallel fingers 23. The rams 18 are provided with grooves 24 aligned in the direction of the shafts 11 of the accommodating dies 10 for the purpose of accommodating the fingers 23 of the discharging comb 22, which is linked to the press head 4 about an articulated shaft 25 which is perpendicular to the shafts 11 of the accommodating dies 10, namely beneath the sliding guides 17. Since the articulation of the discharging comb 22 is provided on the front side of the sliding guides 17 facing the user, the discharging comb 22 (in the lifted discharging position shown in FIG. 2) slopes downwardly to the rear towards a discharging opening 26 opening into the collecting container 21. This downwardly sloping discharging position to the rear is constructionally fixed by a rotating stop for the discharging comb 22. Said rotating stop can be formed in a simple manner by a limit stop end 27 of at least one finger 23 protruding beyond the articulated shaft 25, which finger cooperates with a counter limit stop on the sliding guide 17. In the lowered pressing position of the press head 4, the discharging comb 22 rests on a sliding limit stop 28 formed by the carrier 19, which limit stopduring the lowering of the press head 4produces an upward pivoting of the discharging comb 22 about its articulated shaft 25 and thus saves overall height. In the lowered pressing position, the fingers 23 of the discharging comb 22 are sunk in the grooves 24 of the rams 18, so that the pressing of the fruit halves is not obstructed by the discharging device. If the press head 4 is lifted by the press drive 5 in a no-load stroke after the pressing, the discharging comb 22 is pivoted to the pivoting position of the discharging position which is limited by the limit stop, which pivoting occurs by entraining the skin halves remaining on the rams 18, and is lifted above the rams 18, so that the half skins slide along the downwardly sloping fingers 23 via a wall 29 limiting the juice space above the carrier 19 and drop into the collecting container 21.