GB720265A - Improvements relating to hop-separating apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

720,265. Hop separating apparatus. HARVESTEX HOP-PICKERS, Ltd. Oct. 15, 1951. [July 14, 1950] No. 17637/50. Class 58. [Also in Group II] Hop-separating apparatus comprises a rotatable foraminous drum on the outside of which hops accompanied by leaves are delivered at a point spaced above the drum and in a generally tangential substantially horizontal direction and to the inside of which suction is applied under whose differential action, with respect to hops and hop leaves, the leaves fall upon and are entrained by the drum, whereas the hops are not so entrained but tend to continue in the direction of such delivery and fall to one side of the drum, to a discharging point for hops, the drum being rotated so that its surface adjacent to the delivery point is moving oppositely to the direction of delivery and that it carries the leaves to a discharging point for leaves on the other side of the drum. As shown hops and leaves delivered by a conveyer 1 fall on to the rotatable drum 5 provided with a cylindrical surface composed of fine wire mesh extending between a disc 6 which closes its one end and a flat ring 37 (not shown) which surrounds its other open end to which end suction is applied, the hops continuing in the direction of delivery (arrow A) onto one half of an endless conveyer 22 whereas the leaves held by suction against the mesh rotate therewith until they come opposite the edge 19 of a mask 8 of approximately half-cylindrical shape arranged in the lower half of the drum when the suction becomes ineffective and they fall away and onto the other half of the conveyer 22, the detachment being ensured by blowing small jets 211 of compressed air through orifices in a tube 20 arranged along the edge 19 out through the passing drum walls. Alternatively a rotating roller brush may be provided. Specification 673;833 is referred to.