AU613183B2 - Apparatus for removing cracked egg-shell of boiled egg - Google Patents

Description

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1 COMMCINWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA PATfENTiS ACT 1952 COMPLETE SPCIATO 6A 31 NAME ADDRESS OF APPLICANT: Kewpie Kabushiki Kaisha (also known as Q.P. Corporation) 4-13, Shibuya 1-Chonie, Shibuya-Ku Tokyo-To Japan NAME(S) OF IVENTOR(S): Gen FUJIURA ADDRESS FOR SERVICE: DAVIES COLLISON Patent Attorneys 1 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, 3000.

0 aCOMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR THlE INVENTION ENTITLED: Apparatus for removing cracked egg-shell of boiled egg The following statem .nt is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performning it known to me/us:r P BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an apparatus for processing boiled eggs once cracked, and more particularly to an apparatus for automatically and continuously shelling boiled eggs once they have been cracked.

Many kinds of apparatus or devices for automatically shelling boiled eggs 0000 P000 00: are known. For example, there is known in Japan an apparatus for shelling o 0 0 °10 boiled eggs without damaging the shapes of the eggs, in which boiled eggs, whose 0.a0.

o shells having already been cracked by suitable means, are rolled on a pair of cracked egg-shell removing rollers and the shells are bitten into and stripped by the rollers during the transfer of the eggs on the paired rollers by a transfer roller 00000 disposed above the paired rollers.

0 0 In this egg shelling apparatus, the boiled eggs with their shells already on00 cracked, are dropped onto a portion between a pair of rollers, and the boiled eggs transferred from the central portion towards the bilateral end portions in the Slongitudinal direction by means of a transfer roller which is arranged along the on its circumferential surface a spiral made of rubber, for example, reversely spiralling around the 1A 0 5 0 0' 00 00C 1~ crce g-hl rmvn olr adtesel rebte noad tipdb

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roller from the central portion towards the end portions thereof. The boiled eggs are shelled during the transfer between the rollers by engagement with the wound strings.

However, in the egg shelling apparatus of the character described above, the boiled eggs received in the central portion between the paired rollers are respectively transfered towards the two ends thereof, so that it is difficult to uniformly shell the boiled eggs because of differences in sizes of the boiled eggs. In according to the construction of the apparatus 0090 described, because the boiled eggs are received in the 0000 0 00 00 middle of the length of the paired rollers, it is .000000 structurally difficult to locate a plurality of egg 0 shelling devices with respect to a single cracking 00 15 device. This adversely affects the productivity of the apparatus.

0000 0 00 00 0 SDUMNARY OF THE INVENTION 00 An object of this invention is to eliminate the 0 a 9 defects or drawbacks encountered in the prior art described above and to~ provide an apparatus for stripping 'and removing cracked shells of boiled eggs in an effective and continuous manner.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for stripping and removing +-tm cracked egg-shells of boiled eggs, eft&- that is capable of definitely transferring the eggs and stripping and removing the cracked egg-shells of the boiled eggs by bL the definite engagement of the cracked shells with a transferring means.

A further preferred object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for stripping and removing cracked shells of boiled eggs, that is capable of being adjusted in accordance with the individual sizes of the boiled eggs being so treated.

These an other objects can be achieved according to the present invention by providing an apparatus for stripping and removing cracked shells of boiled 00a qop D egg,s of the type in which boiled eggs with the shells cracked are received and .ooo rolled between first and second shell removing rollers and a transfer roller, th 00 0 Q 0 0eggs are transferred by the transfer roller, and the cracked shell of the boiled eggs 00 stripped and removed during the transfer thereof by the rotation of the transfer i roller, wherein said shell removing rollers are supported by supporting members :so that the second shell removing roller is positioned at a level slightly lower than 19t I that of the first shell removing roller, said first and second shell removing rollers are rotatable downwardly in opposite directions to each other, said transfer roller is positioned obliquely above said second shell removing roller and extends along the lengthwise direction thereof, said transfer roller being provided with a spiral protrusion on a circumferential surface thereof and being rotatable in the same direction as the rotating direction of the second shell removing roller, wherein, during the transfer of the cracked boiled eggs on and along said shell removing rollers, the cracked boiled eggs are transferred from one end of said shell removing rollers towards the other end thereof by engagement of the eggs with said spiral protrusion of the transfer roller.

3 910510,GJNDAT.043,33864.1et,3

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In use of the cracked egg-shell removing apparatus of the character described above, boiled eggs with cracked shells are continuously fed from one end of the shell removing rollers, and the cracked egg-shells of the boiled eggs are forced and pressed in a forwardly downward direction at a position between the shell removing rollers during the transfer from the one end of the feeding side to the other end of the shell removing rollers by the spiral protrusion formed on the circumferential surface of the transfer roller. According to this pressing force, the cracked egg-shells can be effectively pinched between the shell removing rollers, whereby the cracked egg-shell can be completely stripped and removed.

~In a preferred embodiment, the protrusion is made of a material having a large coefficient of friction, so that the transfer of the cracked eggs can be exactly performed and so that the application of the pressing force to the cracked eggs can also be effectively achieved.

I t I A plurality of the cracked egg-shell removing apparatus thus constructed arranged side by side can be operatively connected to the one cracking apparatus, whereby a large number of cracked boiled eggs can be continuously shelled.

A water sprinkling unit may be located so as to make it possible to effectively strip the cracked shells and remove the thin film and any small pieces of shell still stuck to the surface of the white of the eggs, as well as the stripped cracked shells.

A side plate and a guide bar are preferably provided in a movable manner so as to make it possible to adjust the support conditions of the cracked eggs on the shell removing rollers in accordance with the individual sizes of the respective k 4 910510,GJNDAT.043,33864.Iet,4 NI O: 4 cracked eggs to be shelled.

Preferred embodiments according to the present invention will be described in further detail hereunder with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 0 00 0 o In the accompanying drawings: 0 0 o oo oo 10 Figure 1 is a view showing an arrangement of one embodiment of an j o o apparatus for stripping and removing cracked egg-shells of boiled eggs according I 0 o0 0o to the present invention; Figure 2 is a perspective view of the apparatus shown in Figure 1 which is accommodated in an outer housing; t 910510,GJNDAT.04333864.leo, _E(L i_~i ;ijl ii~i ~1Y L-LI U ji- Fig. 3 is a side view of a transfer roller of the apparatus during the transfer of the egg with its shell cracked; Fig. 4 is a brief plan view showing the arrangement of an entire system of the cracked boiled egg-shell removing apparatus, including the apparatus of the present invention, for carrying out the whole workings associated with the shelling operation; and Fig. 5 is a side view showing one example of rotation transfering means for the respective rollers ooo 0 incorporated in the apparatus shown in Fig. 1.

o o ooo DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 0 o° o Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, a pair of rollers 2A o0 00 0 0 0 (first) and 2B (second) adapted to shell boiled eggs for 00 00 which the shell has already been cracked (called a "cracked egg" hereinafter) and made of materials having 0000oo 0 00 S°,o large friction coefficients, are arranged in a manner that parts of the circumferential surfaces of the rollers L000 00o0 2A and 2B contact each other to be downwardly rotatable in opposite directions, and the line connecting the 0 central axes 2C and 2D of the rollers is inclined by an tf angle a (about 50) with respect to the horizontal line 3B as shown in Fig. 1, in which one shell removing roller 2B is positioned on the level below the other shell removing roller 2A.

A transfer roller 4 is further located obliquely above the shell removing roller 2B with space so as not 0 0 00 0 0 0 0000 S00 0 0 0 0 0 00 00 00 0 a 4 0o 4 4 0 a I c- r~l~ ~u~Vs;si9~-? to extend over the other roller 2A. The transfer roller 4 rotates in the same direction as that of the roller 2B as shown by an arrow A in Fig. 1 The transfer roller 4 has a circumferential surface 4A (as shown in Fig. 3) on which a spiral protrusion 5 is formed from one end to the other end thereof. The space between the circumferential surface 4A of the transfer roller 4 and the paired shell removing rollers 2A and 2B is so designed that the cracked egg 6 can be just received in this space. In the described embodiment, the spiral protrusion 5 is formed integral with the transfer roller 4 thereon, but in an alternate embodiment, a spiral made of rubber, for example, having a large friction coefficient may be wound around the circumferential surface of the transfer roller 4 for increasing the frictional force to secure the transfer of the cracked eggs 6.

These rollers are supported by supporting members 7 and 7 at both ends of the shell removing apparatus 1 to be rotatable in the directions shown by arrows in Fig. 1 by suitable driving sources (not shown).

In one preferred example, the diameter of each shell removing roller 2A and 2B is less than 15 mm, the diameter of the transfer roller 4 is less than 40 mm at the circumferential portion 4A, and the height of the protrusion 5 is about 5 mm. The distance L between the line 3A connecting the axes 2C and 2D of the rollers 2A and 2B and the axis 4B -f the transfer roller 4 is about L -Y ru jrU lrl rl -1 vi to 75 mm, and the distance M between the tangential line at the contact portion of the rollers 2A and 2B with respect to the line 3A and the perpendicular line passing the axis 4B of the transfer roller 4 is about 45 mm. The rollers 2A and 2B are rotated at about 300 r.p.m. and the transfer roller 2 is rotated at 150 r.p.m.

The shelling apparatus 1 is disposed in an outer housing from the viewpoint of efficiency of recovery of the shell stripped from the cracked egg 6. As shown in Fig. 2, the outer housing 8 is provided with an upper opening and end walls 8A and 8A, which constitute the '4 C supporting members already described for supporting both ends of the shelliug rollers 2A and 2B and the transfer roller 4. In the outer housing 8, the respective rollers 15 15 2A, 2B and 4 are positioned in an inclined manner such that the one end of the respective rollers on the cracked egg feed side are positioned slightly higher than the other end thereof on the take-out side.

As described hereinbefore, the transfer roller 4 is located above the shell removing rollers 2A, 2B on the side of the roller 2B which is arranged at a position I slightly lower than the location of the other roller 2A.

A side plate 9 is located on the side opposing to the transfer roller 4, i.e. on the side of the roller 2A, in parallel with the respective rollers in the housing 8. A guide bar 10 is also located in the housing 8 between the transfer roller 4 and the shelling roller 2B and in parallel with the rollers 2B, 4.

The side plate 9 is supported at the upper end thereof by a stay 11 spanning between and supported by the end walls 8A and 8A of the outer housing 8 and falling downwards at a sharp inclination in the direction of the rollers 2A and 2B. The lower end portion of the side plate 9 is bent back from a portion 9A so as to slant away from the rollers 2A and 2B as clearly shown in Fig,, 1. The bent portion 9A of the side plate 9 is 000 positioned at a portion close to the outer surface of the 000oooo Soa cracked shell of the vertically central portion of the 00oooo 0 00 Oo boiled egg 6 received between shelling rollers 2A and 2B.

00 00 S0 The side plate 9 is further supported by a supporting rod 00 00 o 15 12 disposed in contact with the rear surface of the side plate 9 and extending in the longitudinal direction along 000ooo °00 the rear surface thereof. The supporting rod 12 is 0 01 0 located to be movable by suitable means in the direction CdI D indicated by -he arrow in Fig. 1 to adjust the inclination of the side plate 9 against the floor level so that the distance between the bent portion 9A and the shell of the boiled egg 6 received between the shelling rollers 2A and 2B is adjusted.

The guide bar 10 located between the transfer roller 4 and the shelling roller 2B extends along the respective rollers in the longitudinal direction thereof. Both the ends of the guide rod 10 are supported by supporting i plates 13 and 13 at the front ends thereof which are supported by the pnd walls 8A and 8A by inserting bolts 14 and 14 into slits 13A and 13A formed in the supporting plates 13 and 13. The bolts 1.4 and 1.4 are loosely inserted into the slits 13A and 13A so that the supporting plates 13 and 13 are slightly moved obliquely to minutely adjust the position of the lower portion of the cracked egg 6 between the shelling rollers 2A, 2B and the transfer roller 4.

A water sprinkling unit 15 is arranged at a portion o00oo above the upper end of the side plate 9 and slightly near 0000 o °o the side of the transfer roller 4. The water sprinkling o00o o o unit 15 is equipped with a water sprinkling pipe 16 S0 parallel to the respective rollers and the water 00 00 o 0 15 sprinkling pipe 16 is provided with a plurality of water jet nozzles 17 at the lower portion thereof with oooo 0oo0 predetermined pitches in the axial direction as shown in S0 0 Fig. 2 to sprinkle the water towards the cracked eggs 6 'r received between the shelling rollers 2A and 2B and the transfer roller 4.

The cracked eggs 6 received between the shelling rollers 2A and 2B and the transfer roller 4 are transfered in the state shown in Fig. 3 and the cracked shell of the egg is stripped during the transfer thereof from one end towards the other end of the transfer roller 4 by the cooperation of the protruded spiral portion 5 of the transfer roller 4.

-Li i ~I -I 1 r-I~ i F -~LI -I During the transfer between the shell removing, rollers 2A and 2B and the transfer roller 4 the stripped and removed shells of the cracked eggs 6 are discharged from the housing 8 through a shell discharge port 18 formed at the bottom portion of the housing 8, and the shelled eggs are collected through an egg discharge port 19 also formed at the bottom portion of the housing 8 at a portion adjacent to the discharging port 18. A shell discharge conveyer 20 may be disposed below the shell discharging port 18 and a chute 21 for receiving the eggs b°Qg may be also arranged below the egg discharge port 19.

0000 0 o a Fig. 4 is an arrangement of a whole system for ooo carrying out the entire egg shelling operation, and 0 00 including the shell removing apparatus 1 according to\the 00 00 0 15 present invention. The system includes a vessel 22 for boiling eggs, a vessel 23 located adjacent to the vessel 0000 a 22 for cooling the boiled eggs, and an apparatus for o cracking the shells of the boiled and cooled eggs. For .r example, three cracked shell removing apparatuses 1, 1 and 1 are arranged side by side near an outlet 24A of the cracking apparatus 24 for uniformly distributing the cracked eggs to three respective shell removing apparatuses 1, 1 and 1 through a passage 25. After having been shelled, the boiled eggs are taken out through the egg discharge port 19 and transfered to a sterilizing vessel 27 for sterilizing the surfaces of the k I eggs through an inspecting vessel 26. The sterilized e-ggs are then fed towards a packing unit 28.

Fig. 5 represents the means for driving the respective rollers of the shelling apparatus in a case where three shelling apparatuses 1, 1 and 1 are arranged.

Referring to Fig. 5, the three shelling apparatuses 1, 1 and 1 are arranged side by side on a machine frame 29 and a motor 30 mounted on the lower portion of the machine frame 29. Three pulleys 31, 31 and 31 are journaled by the machine frame 29 so that the pulleys are rotated by the motor 30 at the same speed of rotation through belt means 32, 33. The rotating forces of the respective aJ' pulleys 31, 31 and 31 are transfered to the respective shelling rollers 2A and transfer rollers 4 of the S respective shelling apparatus 1 through belt means 32 and 33 to rotate the same in the direction shown by the arrow S' in Fig 1.

As the cracking apparatus 24, it is possible to utilize a known type one such as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open (Kokai) Publication No. 52-79069, in which a plurality of round rods are arranged along the inner peripheral surface of a cylindrical member in the axial direction thereof, and the boiled eggs fed into the cylindrical member rotated by the rotation of the cylindrical member. During the rotation thereof, the boiled eggs are rotated on the round rods and cracked.

Of course, other types of cracking aipparatus may be utilized.

The cracked egg shell removing apparatus is operated in the manner described hereunder in association with the entire system shown in Fig. 4.

The boiled eggs 6 with the shells cracked by the cracking apparatus 24 are subsequently supplied to between the shelling rollers 2A and 2B and the transfer roller 4 from one end, i.e. the upstream end, thereof.

The supplied cracked eggs 6 are transfered forward by the rotation of the transfer roller 4 by the engagement with the spiral protrusion 5 formed on the circumferential surface thereof. During this transfer, a pressing force is applied to the rear end of each egg 6 in a forwardly downward direction as shown by the arrow B in Fig. 3 by tight engagement with the spiral protrusion 5. Because the shelling roller 2B is positioned at a portion slightly lower than the shelling roller 2A, and the cracked egg 6 forcibly pressed against the shelling rollers 2A and 2B by the rotation of the transfer roller 4 in addition to the pressing force of the protrusion the cracked egg 6 is bitten between the shelling rollers 2A and 2B and the shelled. The removed shell is discharged downwardly from between the shelling rollers 2A and 2B, through the discharge port 18 of the outer housing 8. During these operations, ater is sprinkled through the water jet nozzles 17 of the water sprinkling 13 9 pipe 16 towards the shelled egg 6 to facilitate the shelling function and, in addition, thin film and any small pieces of the cracked shell still stuck to the surface of the white of the egg are washed off.

The position of the guide bar 10 can be adjusted in accordance with the individual size of the cracked egg 6 to be Created and the bent portion 9B of the side plate 9 supporting the cracked egg 6 can also be adjusted by adj~sting the location of the supporting rod 12 so as to 8moothly transfer the cracked egg 6.

0 3 C) 0As described in detail hereinbefore, according to 00the cracked shell removing apparatus 1 eof bb- 1--~enL- COO o the cracked shell of the boiled egg 6 can be C effectively and completely stripped and removed.

~o~o 15It is to be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the C' C, 0described embodiment and many other modifications and 0C 00 0S 0 without departing from the scope of the claims of the present application.

Claims (9)

1. An apparatus for stripping and removing cracked shells of boiled eggs, of the type in which boiled eggs with the shells cracked are received and rolled between first and second shell removing rollers and a transfer roller, the eggs are transferred by the transfer roller, and the cracked shell of the boiled eggs stripped and removed during the transfer thereof by the rotation of the transfer roller, wherein said shell removing rollers are supported by supporting members so that the second shell removing roller is positioned at a level slightly lower than that of the first shell removing roller, said first and second shell removing rollers are rotatable downwardly in opposite directions to each other, said transfer roller is positioned obliquely above said second shell removing roller and extends along the lengthwise direction thereof, said transfer roller being provided with a spiral protrusion on a circumferential surface thereof and being rotatable in the same direction as the rotating direction of the second shell removing roller, wherein, during the transfer of the cracked boiled eggs on and along said shell removing rollers, the cracked boiled eggs are transferred from one end of said shell removing rollers towards the other end thereof by engagement of the eggs with said spiral protrusion of the transfer roller.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said protrusion is integrally formed on said transfer roller and is made of a material having a large coefficient of friction.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said protrusion is formed by a string having a large coefficient of f-iction and wound in a spiral form around the circumferential surface of said transfer roller.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said spiral protrusion is made of rubber. 910510,GJNDAT.043,33864.1e,15 Ak- The apparatus according to any preceding claim wherein said first and second shell removing rollers are slightly downwardly inclined from the cracked egg feeding side towards the egg take-out side.

6. The apparatus according to any preceding claim, wherein said supporting members for supporting said shell removing rollers are constituted by end walls of an outer housing into which said shelling apparatus is accommodated.

7. The apparatus according to any preceding claim, wherein each of said first and second shell removing rollers has a diameter of less than 15 mm. S, 8. The apparatus according to any preceding claim, wherein a side plate is trio 0, disposed obliquely above said first shell removing roller, extends parallel to the ,o shell removing rollers and the transfer roller, and is located generally opposite the o 15 transfer roller.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said side plate has a bent portion for contacting said cracked eggs and said side plate is adjustably o S° °supported by a support rod. o0o00 o o 10. The apparatus according to any preceding claim, wherein a guide bar is disposed between and extends generally parallel to said second shell removing roller and said transfer roller to be movable so as to adjust the position of the cracked eggs received between said second shell removing roller and said transfer 'Ati 25 roller.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said guide bar is adjustably supported by the end walls of the outer housing.

12. The apparatus according to any preceding claim, wherein a water sprinkling unit is further disposed above said first and second shell removing rollers for sprinkling water on the cracked eggs on said rollers during the transfer 16 910510,GJNDAT.043,33864.et,16 t- S of the cracked eggs therealong. DATED this 4th day of April 1991 KEWPIE KA]3USIJIK KAISHA (also known as Q.P. CORPORATION) by its Patent Attorneys DAVIES COLLISON 000~ V 0000 0 ~0 00 0 0000 0 00 00 0 o 00 00 00 00 0 0 0 00 00 00 0 0 I 000000 1 0 000 00 0 910510, GJNDAT.043,33864.let,17