Abstract: A device for removing the husk from a clove of garlic incorporates female and male members. The female member has a body with a cylinder therein terminating in a resilient bottom with a compound surface relief. The male member has a handle and a rigid projection. The projection is sized and shaped to mate with the cylinder, to move longitudinally with respect to the cylinder, and to rotate about the longitudinal axis when positioned in the cylinder. The projection terminates in an end incorporating a resilient material having a compound surface relief. When a clove of garlic is placed in the device and the projection is inserted into the cylinder until the clove contacts the cylinder and the projection, rotation of the handle with respect to the female member removes the husk.

Abstract: A large scale processing method for separating banana pulp from its peel is shown. In this method bananas are separated into two parts (generally in a transverse direction), each part having a tip end and a cut end. A compression force is applied to those banana parts such that the force increases from the tip end to the cut end. A device which implements that process, comprising a cutting device, a means for feeding bananas into the cutting device, and two processing conveyor devices (to apply the compression force to the banana parts), is also shown.

Abstract: A device which separates banana pulp from its peel, suitable for large-scale processing, is disclosed. The device consists of upper and lower conveyor belts, a roller installed above the upper belt, and a pressure generating element (e.g., a roller or a plate) installed below the lower belt. The belts are installed so as to converge in the direction of their movement. The axes of the roller(s) is oriented between the longitudinal direction of the lower belt and its transverse direction.

Abstract: An avocado de-skinning apparatus having two generally vertically disposed rotating drums. The rotating drums rotate inward to pinch the skin of an avocado and force the off and through a gap defined between the rotating drums. A driver in the gap and in the upper section of the rotating drums aids in forcing the skin from the avocado and into the gap and through the rear side of the rotating drums. A skin scraper removes any skin adhering to the drums and a pulp scraper retrieves any pulp adhering to the drums for further processing.

Abstract: An avocado de-skinning apparatus having two generally vertically disposed rotating drums. The rotating drums rotate inward to pinch the skin of an avocado and force the off and through a gap defined between the rotating drums. A driver in the gap and in the upper section of the rotating drums aids in forcing the skin from the avocado and into the gap and through the rear side of the rotating drums. A skin scraper removes any skin adhering to the drums and a pulp scraper retrieves any pulp adhering to the drums for further processing.

Abstract: An apparatus for dehusking small fruits uses water and pinching rollers to tear off the husk.

Abstract: By providing fruit processing apparatus comprising rotatable movement control members and a U-shaped cutting blade cooperatively associated therewith, high speed, efficient and automatic removal of skins and seeds from a fruit segment is efficiently achieved. The rotatable movement control members receive the fruit segment with the cutting blade positioned along the junction between the skin and the edible fruit portion. Then, the fruit segment is arcuately pivoted, causing the blade to pass between the juncture surface, completely separating the skin from the fruit. If desired, a seed sack removal member is also employed for removing and separating the seeds from the edible fruit.

Abstract: An apparatus for removing skin from a convex surface of a section of fruit. The apparatus includes a curved peeling blade which presents a concave peeling surface to the convex surface of the section of fruit and a drive gear wheel in mesh with an idler gear wheel. Each wheel has a concentric outwardly extending fruit gripping portion which are profiled such that in combination they conform to the curved peeling blade. When the drive wheel is driven and the wheels are rotating, the fruit gripping portions grip a section of fruit and urge the section of fruit past the peeling blade so as to remove the skin from the fruit.

Abstract: There is disclosed a device for removal of rind from melons which has a cutting station with a flat, planar, cutting member having an upwardly facing cutting edge mounted on a flat planar pressure shoe, a rotary feeder having a body with an external surface of revolution with a plurality of teeth distributed about its external surface and rotationally mounted at the cutting station adjacent to and spaced apart from the cutting member by a distance sufficient to permit passage of separated rind; a drive to rotate the feeder; and a feed chute to introduce sectors of fruit to the cutting station for engagement with the rotary feeder.

Abstract: Apparatus for shelling seed corn in a manner which minimizes damage to the individual kernels includes a generally closed housing open at the top to receive ears of corn and having lower apertures for discharging the corn cobs to waste and recovering the kernels extracted from the cobs. Disposed within the housing are a pair of vertically aligned arrays of rollers, with the pair of roller arrays horizontally spaced from one another. Ears of corn are deposited through a slot in an upper portion of the housing and pass between the two arrays of vertically aligned rollers. The horizontal spacing between adjacent, horizontally aligned rollers in the first and second arrays of rollers decreases in proceeding from top to bottom, with the spacing between the two uppermost rollers being such as to easily allow an ear of corn to pass therebetween and the spacing between the bottom pair of rollers being essentially equal to the diameter of a corn cob.

Abstract: Apparatus for shelling seed corn in a manner which minimizes damage to the individual kernels includes a generally closed housing open at the top to receive ears of corn and having lower apertures for discharging the corn cobs to waste and recovering the kernels extracted from the cobs. Disposed within the housing are a pair of vertically aligned arrays of rollers, with the pair of roller arrays horizontally spaced from one another. Ears of corn are deposited through a slot in an upper portion of the housing and pass between the two arrays of vertically aligned rollers. The horizontal spacing between adjacent, horizontally aligned rollers in the first and second arrays of rollers decreases in proceeding from top to bottom, with the spacing between the two uppermost rollers being such as to easily allow an ear of corn to pass therebetween and the spacing between the bottom pair of rollers being essentially equal to the diameter of a corn cob.

Abstract: A device for reducing peelable products such as potatoes in size to a predetermined shape, consisting of at least one pair of mutually adjacent rotatably driven reducing elements, the outer surface of which has at least one constriction such that two oppositely situated constrictions form a passage opening between the elements for the reduced product, wherein the surface of at least one element is provided with a reducing surface, wherein the constriction is formed such that, as seen in top view, the passage opening acquires a predetermined shape in order to obtain a product with an associated revolutional shape, for instance spherical, elliptical or any other composite form.

Abstract: Two counter rotating rollers are provided having elastomeric exterior coatings into which ribs and grooves are formed for intermeshing to blanch nuts at a pinch point therebetween. Grooves in the lower roller hold nuts as ribs on the upper roller pass across the nuts to break skins on the nuts. The elastomeric exterior coatings have surface hardness values which measure around 30 durometer. The squeeze at the pinch point between the two rollers can be repeatably adjusted for running different sizes of nuts.

Abstract: A fruit destemmer leaving an endless conveyor belt made up of a plurality of counter-rotating metal rollers rotatably supported at each end by endless chains. The fruit destemmer has an inclined bed with a driven shaft at each end. Each driven shaft has a wheel at one end and a sprocket at the other with the positioning of the wheel and sprocket being reversed on the other drive shaft. The continuous chains are driven by spaced sprockets mounted on a shaft positioned below the inclined bed. A rotatably mounted shaft, having a wheel mounted on each end, presses each continuous chain into close contact with the driving sprockets. Any foreign matter which enters between an endless chain and a sprocket causes the endless chain to slip on the associated wheel thereby maintaining chain alignment. The rollers used to form the endless fruit conveying belt are made of hard anodized aluminum which has a surface pattern to reduce fruit skinning.

Abstract: The method of partially husking corn includes the steps of completely severing the first end of the ear of corn. The second end is partially crossed cut. The husk from the partially cut end is then rotated transversely with respect to the longitudinal axis of the corn ear. Subsequently and substantially concurrently, the husk is removed from the ear of corn by transversely pulling the husk away from the ear and longitudinally moving the ear along its axis. The corn husking apparatus includes a conveyor having corn holding channels which retain the ears of corn. The corn husker has a corn end cutter which cuts the first end of the corn. A trimmer is disposed next to the conveyor downstream and opposite the end cutter. The trimmer partially cross cuts the second end of the corn. A guide is disposed immediately downstream of the trimmer. The guide has an inboard surface which guides and rotates the corn husk away transverse with respect to the movement of the conveyor.

Abstract: Apparatus for removing skins and stems from tomatoes and the like after they have been treated with lye or steam, including a bed of counter rotating rollers which pinch and remove the skins and stems, and one or more rotary elements above the bed which contact and roll the tomatoes so that the entire surface of each tomato is contacted uniformly with the rollers.

Abstract: An apparatus for removing appendages (10A) from articles or produce (10) comprising a first conveyor (12) carrying a plurality of pairs of counter-rotating rolls (16) and (17) for movement along an inclined section (14). The articles are introduced through a chute (15) to roll down the inclined section with the appendages being caught and pulled therefrom by the counter-rotating rolls. A second conveyor (60) carries plows (71) to contact and regulate the dwell time of the articles on the pinch rolls. The dwell time can be regulated by changing the speed of the first and second conveyors and the inclination of the first conveyor. A waste tray (48) catches the removed appendages and blades (49) carried on the bottom side of the first conveyor move the waste debris from the waste tray.

Abstract: A poultry skinning machine for removing the skin from poultry parts utilizes rollers having inter-engaging helical teeth that laterally transport the poultry parts while removing the skin from the product. The rollers act in cooperation with a cover means having a shearing section disposed in a substantially bearing relationship along at least a portion of the rollers adjacent their ends. The shearing section facilitates separating the product from detaching skin whereby roller clogging is avoided by directing skin through a receiving gap formed between end bearing means. The skinned product is at the same time conveyed atop the closely fitting shear section.

Abstract: A fruit peeling machine comprising improved fruit peeling rollers in which at least one of each pair of rollers is provided with axially extending ribs projecting radially outwardly from the roller sufficiently to cause the fruit carried thereupon contact substantially only the outer portions of such ribs without substantial contact between the fruit and the portions of the rollers intermediate adjacent said axially extending ribs.

Abstract: An apparatus is provided for buff blanching peanuts. The machine is adapted to remove the dark outer skin of shelled peanuts and, at the same time, produce a textured finish on the surface of the nuts to enhance the adhesion of an applied coating such as chocolate or the like. The buff blancher includes a pair of driven parallel rollers having abrasive surfaces and mounted in closely spaced parallel relation with one roller being offset above a lower roller. The rollers are mounted in a housing into one end of which peanuts are delivered for movement along and against the two rollers and discharged at the other end of the housing. The housing may be raised at the feed end in order to provide an incline for the flow of nuts and may be tilted about its longitudinal axis to control the degree of buffing action between the peanuts and the rollers.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a skinning machine for the head and limbs of slaughtered ungulate animals. Such a machine is constituted by a frame on which are mounted: on the one hand, two horizontally parallel rollers pivoting in bearings associated with said frame. Said rollers are preferably grooves and one at least of them is a drive roller. They are sufficiently separated peripherally to introduce a previously cut flap of skin and are driven in opposite directions of rotation. They thereby exert a peripheral friction on said skin, in order to bare the processed animal part. The machine comprises on the other hand, an articulated work table ensuring the support and holding of the animal part being processed.

Abstract: In a skinning machine, intended primarily for deskinning poultry pieces, a cylindrical feed screw in a cylindrical passage forms an annular feed passage between them. The passage increases in flow capacity from a hopper at its entrance, where the pieces are received, to a skin removal station, and then decreases in flow capacity to its end. Skin removal means includes pairs of rollers mounted around the passage at the skin removal station to constitute part of the passage wall, each roller having a radially protruding rib that extends into the neighborhood of the surface of the other roller so as to grip the skin between them and strip it from the pieces. The rollers have a peripheral speed greater than the feed screw and part of the separated skin is passed between them out of a respective first exit.

Abstract: A dry peeler for fleshy fruit is formed as a rotating cage having an annular helical conveyor with axially extending, circumferentially spaced neoprene peeling cords 3/8 inch in diameter stretched between adjacent convolutions of the helical conveyor. A neoprene stabilizing cable is tied to the mid portions of the peeling cords, which cable can surround all cords or can be threaded to pass inside and outside of selected peeling cords for increasing the aggressiveness of the peeling action.

Abstract: A flesh and skin separating device for fruit and vegetable products utilizing a rotating pneumatic tire bearing against the circumference of a perforated drum and driving the flesh of such products, previously doctored upon the drum surface, through the perforations of the drum while the skins thereof remain upon the exterior surface of the drum. Means is provided for adjusting the distance between the parallel axes of the drum and tire. Means is also provided for adjusting the pneumatic pressure of the tire while it is rotating.

Abstract: In apparatus for removing roots from bulbs or the like corms, the bulbs are thrown upwards towards pairs of cooperating rollers, which catch the roots of the bulbs in the nips between the rollers and draw off the roots from the bulbs.

Abstract: A poultry processing machine adapted to remove skin from certain parts of poultry, such as necks, thighs and breasts by arranging the same for passage along a substantially uniformly diminishing channel defined by the upper portions of a pair of rollers having spiral configurations thereon, guiding and feeding the pieces of poultry longitudinally along said channel, and the spiral configuration on the rolls engaging the skin on said pieces in a manner to pull the same therefrom in substantially intact condition from the pieces, and separately discharging the removed skins and pieces of poultry adjacent the exit end of the machine.