WO2005068169A1 - Press for squeezing liquid-containing substances, comprising a drainage element that is provided with a spiral-shaped support element - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is a press (1) for squeezing liquid-containing substances, particularly agricultural and chemical products, comprising a closed receptacle (2) whose interior (6) is subdivided into a chamber (10) accommodating pressurizing means and a chamber (12) accommodating pressing means with the aid of at least one press membrane (8). A feeding and discharge port that can be closed with a lid is disposed in the jacket of the receptacle. A juice outlet (16) located in the chamber (12) accommodating pressing means is allocated to said feeding and discharge port. The inventive press (1) further comprises at least one flexible drainage element (20) that is positioned in the interior (6) of the receptacle for extracting juice, can be removed from said interior through a withdrawal opening, and is provided with at least one support element (36) and a tube (26) which is arranged therearound and is made of a juice-permeable flexible tissue. Said press (1) is characterized in that the support element is formed by an elastic spiral (36).

Description

PRESS FOR PRESSING LIQUID SUBSTANCES WITH A DRAINAGE ELEMENT CONTAINING A SPIRAL-BASED SUPPORT ELEMENT

The invention relates to a press for pressing out liquid-containing substances, in particular agricultural and chemical products, with a drainage element containing a spiral-shaped support element, according to the preamble of claim 1, and a drainage element for use in such a press according to the preamble of claim 17.

Such presses are known, for example, from EP 0 145 948 B1, and are used to squeeze the grape juice used as the starting material for the production of wine or fruit juice from grapes or fruits filled into the press. The press described in EP 0 145 948 B1 has a closed container which can be set in rotation about its horizontal longitudinal axis. In the jacket of the container there is a filling and emptying opening which is opposite a juice drain provided on the opposite side of the container and which can be closed by a lid. Along the diameter range of the container, drainage elements are provided in the form of liquid-permeable pipes, which are located in a press chamber, which is defined by a pressurized membrane that is sealed inside the container and divides the container interior into a pressure medium chamber and the press chamber.

PCT / EP 01/03962 describes a press which comprises a closed container which can be rotated about its horizontal longitudinal axis, the interior of the container being divided into a pressure medium space and a pressure medium space by at least one press membrane, and one by a cover in the container jacket lockable filling and emptying opening is arranged. The filling and emptying opening is opposite a juice drain located in the press room. In the press room are furthermore arranged across the diameter and essentially perpendicular to the container axis arranged liquid-permeable drainage elements which extend from one end of the container to the other end of the container. The drainage elements are formed by an elastic or flexible support element, around which a juice-permeable fabric tube is arranged. In the juicing position, the drainage elements extend in a substantially vertical direction in order to feed the juice into a juice collecting nozzle located below, from where it is fed to a collecting container via a collecting line.

The problem with the presses described above arises that the drainage elements have to withstand the pressures acting on them from the outside, so that a sufficient drainage of juice is always ensured. In addition, in particular in the case of large presses, the problem arises that the drainage elements provided with metal reinforcement elements to increase the strength have a very high weight, so that they can no longer be used by an operator alone in the interior of the container.

Furthermore, it is crucial in the generic presses that the parts that come into contact with the material to be pressed during the pressing, in particular the drainage elements, can be easily dismantled for cleaning purposes and can be installed in the container again after the cleaning process. It is particularly important here that the dismantling and cleaning of the drainage elements and the interior of the container can be carried out from the outside, since getting into the container involves a not inconsiderable risk or is even prohibited by safety regulations.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a press for squeezing liquid-containing substances, in particular agricultural and chemical products, in which good juice drainage is always guaranteed within the drainage elements, and in which the drainage elements also in the case of the design of the Press as a large press with a diameter of the container of two to three meters, for example, have a low weight and can be cleaned in a short time. Another object of the invention is to provide a drainage element for a press mentioned at the beginning.

This object is achieved according to the invention by the features of claims 1 and 17.

Further features of the invention are contained in the subclaims.

According to the invention, a press for pressing out liquid-containing substances, in particular grapes, comprises a closed container, the container interior of which is subdivided into a pressure medium chamber and a press medium chamber by at least one press membrane. A filling and emptying opening, which can be closed by a lid, is arranged in the container jacket, into which the pressed material is filled. The filling and emptying opening is assigned a juice drain located in the press medium space, which is connected to the inner region of a drainage element, which extends essentially diametrically through the interior of the container, and which can be removed from the container interior through a removal opening.

The drainage element comprises a tube made of juice-permeable material, preferably made of plastic fabric, e.g. Polyester fabric, or metal, one end of which is preferably detachably received on a flange element, preferably a bayonet ring, which can be screwed into an associated receptacle in the container jacket. The other end of the hose is in the preferred embodiment of the invention by a clamp, e.g. two parallel terminal strips, sealed liquid-tight, and in a known manner, e.g. attached to the inner wall of the container on the side of the container opposite the removal opening by means of a securing bolt or a screw connection.

A support element is arranged inside the hose, which is designed as a flexible spiral in the manner according to the invention. The spiral preferably consists of a spirally wound stainless steel tube or other food-compatible material and is only one of them in the preferred embodiment of the invention The end is releasably attached to the flange element, whereas the other free end of the spiral preferably extends diametrically into the interior of the container approximately to the center of the container or beyond.

The device according to the invention has the advantage that the drainage element can be produced comparatively easily and inexpensively, and can be removed as a component through the removal opening in a very short time even in the case of very large presses, the removal opening simultaneously serving as a juice drain.

The invention further comprises a drainage element for use in a press of the generic type for pressing out liquid-containing substances, in particular agricultural and chemical products, with a closed container, the container interior of which is subdivided into a pressure medium chamber and a press medium chamber by at least one press membrane Drainage element has at least one support element and a hose arranged around it made of flexible tissue permeable to juice, and the support element is formed by an elastic spiral, or contains one or more such elastic spirals.

The invention is described below with reference to the drawings based on a preferred embodiment.

The drawings show:

1 is a schematic spatial representation of a press to illustrate the arrangement of the drainage elements according to the invention,

2 shows a schematic cross-sectional view of the press container with the drainage element inserted,

3 shows a spatial representation of the spiral support element according to the invention with associated rod-shaped locking element, 4 shows a schematic spatial representation of the flange element designed as a bayonet ring with an inserted rod-shaped fastening element without a fixing clamp,

Fig. 5 shows the bayonet ring of Fig. 4 with the fixing clamp inserted in the release position, and

Fig. 6 shows the bayonet ring of Fig. 5 after turning the fixing clamp in the clamping position in which the rod-shaped fastening element is rotatably fixed in the associated recesses of the bayonet ring by the fork-shaped ends of the fixation clamp.

As shown in FIG. 1, a press 1 according to the invention comprises an elongated cylindrical container 2 which can be rotated about the longitudinal axis 4 of the container via drive devices (not shown in more detail). Arranged inside the container interior 6 is a press membrane 8, which is indicated only schematically for reasons of illustration technology and which divides the container interior 6 into a pressure medium chamber 10 and a press medium chamber 12.

The pressed material, for example grapes, is filled into the press medium space 12 through one or more filling and emptying openings 14, and after the openings 14 have been closed, the pressure medium space 10 is pressurized by a cover (not shown) between the inner wall of the container 2 and the membrane 6 , for example with compressed air, which has a pressure of z. B. may have 1.2 to 2 bar.

On the side of the container 2 opposite the closable filling and emptying opening 8 there is a juice drain 16 which is arranged during the squeezing process by rotating the container 2 into the corresponding position on the underside of the container 2. Here, a plurality of juice drains 16 are preferably arranged along the longitudinal axis 4 of the container 2, which are connected to one another by a common connecting line 18, via which the pressed grape juice is fed to a collecting container, not shown, for further processing. As can be seen from FIGS. 1 and 2, there are several liquid-permeable flexible drainage elements 20 inside the container 2, which are arranged above the juice drains 16 during the squeezing process, and each of which has an associated removal opening in the lid that can be closed by a lid 22 The area of the juice drain 16 can be removed from the interior of the container 2 in the direction of the arrow 24 as one component.

2 and 3, each drainage element 20 comprises a juice-permeable hose 26, preferably made of flexible, possibly also elastic, plastic fabric, e.g. Polyester fabric, or metal fabric, which preferably has a first end 28 via a bead (not shown in detail) and an associated clamping piece on a flange element on one side of the container 2, and its other end 32 via clamping strips 34 and unspecified securing bolts on the opposite Side of the container 2 is attached.

A support element is arranged within the tube 26 and is designed as an elastic spiral 36 according to the invention. The elastic spiral 36 preferably consists of a tubular material, in particular a stainless steel tube, which has a wall thickness of, for example, 100-300 mm and a tube diameter of 25 mm, a wall thickness of, for example, 1-3 mm, preferably 2 mm. However, the spiral 36 can also consist of another elastic hollow or solid material, for example carbon or glass fiber material, and have a different dimension. The use of hollow material has the advantage that the weight of the spiral 36 - and thus also the weight of the drainage element 20 - is further reduced compared to solid material without the supporting function of the spiral being impaired.

In order to ensure that the elastic spiral 36 "floats" within the hose 26 during the pressing process, and that the compressive forces acting perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the drainage element 20 or the elastic spiral 36 do not compress and stretch in the longitudinal direction of the spiral, according to one another embodiment of the invention, the ends 40, 41 of the elastic spirals 36 through a locking element 38 connected to one another, which is advantageously designed as a rod or as a rope, for example as a flexible steel rope.

As the applicant has found, the use of an elastic spiral 36 according to the invention in conjunction with the locking element 38 effectively prevents the spiral from compressing, which so to speak floats within the flexible, but at least longitudinally non-elastic, juice-permeable tube 36, and due to this movement can adapt to the pressure forces occurring in the container through the pressed material. In addition, the use of a locking element 38 ensures that the space remaining within the spiral 36 essentially maintains its size, and thereby ensures the juice drain along the juice channel designed in this way to the flange element and from there through the juice drains 16 and the connecting line 18 is.

The mobility of the elastic spiral 36 - and thus also the mobility of the drainage element 20 - in the transverse direction, i.e. To further improve in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the press container 2, the locking element 38 is preferably articulated to the ends 40, 41 of the elastic spiral 36 in the case of a rod-shaped element shown in the figures.

Although the spiral 36 preferably has a cylindrical shape, it can also be provided that it has an oval envelope profile which widens, for example, from the ends of the spiral towards the center thereof.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the elastic spiral 36 is preferably only attached at one end 40 to the container 2, which results in a particularly good mobility of the drainage element 20 in the transverse direction. 3 to 6, one end 40 of the elastic spiral 36 is fastened to a flange element, which is advantageously designed as a bayonet ring 42, which can be snapped into an associated receptacle 44 in the wall of the container 2 , which is preferably located in the area of the juice drain 16. 4 and 5, the associated end 28 of the juice-permeable hose 26 is also fastened to the bayonet ring 42 by means of an additional clamping ring or clamping flange 46. For this purpose, beads (not shown in the figures) are preferably formed at the first end 28 of the juice-permeable tube 26, which are clamped between the bayonet ring 42 and the clamping flange 46 to produce a liquid-tight connection by means of screws not shown in the figures.

In order to obtain an additional gimbal suspension which improves the mobility of the elastic spiral in the transverse direction, the spiral is fastened at its first end 40 to a rod-shaped fastening element 48 which extends essentially transversely to the longitudinal axis of the spiral 36 and which advantageously serves as a grip part for Holding and handling the spiral 36 is designed.

4, the rod-shaped fastening element 48 is preferably fastened in that a first and second diametrically arranged recess 50 are arranged in the bayonet ring 42, into which the ends of the rod-shaped fastening element 48 engage when the spiral 36 is inserted.

In order to secure the rod-shaped fastening element 48 rotatably in the recesses 50, in the preferred embodiment of the invention according to FIGS. 5 and 6, a fixing clamp 52 is inserted into the inner region of the bayonet ring 42, which has fork-shaped ends 54 that follow turning the fixing clamp 52 from the release position shown in FIG. 5 into the closed position shown in FIG. 6, overlapping the recesses 50 above and below, thereby securing the ends of the rod-shaped fastening element 48 in the recesses 50 against slipping out.

This type of reception of the first end 40 of the elastic spiral 36 results in the advantage that the spiral can be removed from the interior of the container 2 separately from the juice-permeable hose 26 or from the bayonet ring 42 after removing the fixing clamp 52 , In order to also remove the juice-permeable tube 26 from the container 2, only the bayonet ring 42 has to be rotated from the latching position shown in FIGS. 4 to 6 into the release position indicated by the groove-like recess 56 in the receptacle 44 and the associated, in To loosen the securing bolts not shown in the figures for fixing the terminal strips 34 at the second end 32 of the juice-permeable hose 26.

In the same way, however, it is also possible to remove the juice-permeable hose 26 and the spiral 36 as one component from the interior 6 of the container 2 when the fixing clamp 52 is in the position shown in FIG. 6 relative to the bayonet ring 42 remains in which it is fixed, for example, by securing clips not shown in the drawings.

In order to further reduce the risk of damage to the juice-permeable tube 26 during the pressing process, the free end 41 of the spiral 36 is preferably provided with an arcuate end element 58, which preferably extends in a plane running parallel to the longitudinal axis of the drainage element 20.

As shown in detail in FIG. 3, the arcuate end element 58 is preferably bent in a U-shape, the free end of the spiral 36 being connected to the first leg 60 at an angle of 90 °, and the second leg 62 essentially being one another extends parallel to the longitudinal axis of the spiral 36 and is supported on the last spiral turn.

As can further be seen from the illustration in FIG. 3, the end of the rod-shaped locking element 38 is preferably pivotally fastened in the center of the arcuate end element 58, for example by means of screws or bolts, in order to improve the mobility of the free end 41 of the spiral in the transverse direction.

Claims

Expectations 1. Press (1) for squeezing liquid-containing substances, in particular agricultural and chemical products, with a closed container (2), the container interior (6) of which by at least one press membrane (8) into a pressure medium chamber (10) and a press medium chamber (12 ) is subdivided, and in which a filling and emptying opening, which can be closed by a lid and to which a juice drain (16) located in the press medium space (12) is assigned, and with at least one arranged in the container interior (6) for juicing the space, is arranged in the container jacket flexible drainage element (20) which can be removed from the container interior through a removal opening and which comprises at least one support element (36) and a hose (26) made of flexible tissue permeable to juice, characterized in that the support element is formed by an elastic spiral (36). 2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the ends (40, 41) of the elastic spiral (36) are coupled to one another by a locking element (38) which elongates the elastic spiral (36) in the longitudinal direction of the drainage element (20) prevented. 3. Device according to claim 2, characterized in that the locking element (38) is formed by a rod or a rope which is coupled to the ends (40, 41) of the elastic spiral (36). 4. The device according to claim 3, characterized in that the locking element (58) is movably coupled to the ends (40, 41) of the elastic spiral (36). 5. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the spiral (36) has an oval envelope profile, which preferably extends from the ends (40, 41) towards the center of the spiral (36). 6. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the spiral (36) consists of a tubular material, in particular stainless steel tube. 7. The device according to claim 6, characterized in that the tubular material of the spiral (36) has a wall thickness of 1-3 mm, preferably 2 mm, with a diameter of 25 mm. 8. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the spiral (36) is fixed on one side to the container (2). 9. The device according to claim 8, characterized in that the elastic spiral (36) is received with its one end (40) on a flange element (42) with which a first end (28) of the elastic spiral (36) surrounding it Hose (26) is connected liquid-tight. 10. The device according to claim 9, characterized in that the flange element (42) in the region of the juice drain openings (16) via a Recording (44) is releasably attached to the container (2). 11. Device according to one of claims 9 to 10, characterized in that the free end (41) of the spiral (36) is provided with an arcuate end element (58) which extends in a parallel to the longitudinal axis of the elastic spiral (36) Level extends. 12. The device according to claim 11, characterized in that the arcuate end element (58) is U-shaped, and that the free end (41) of the spiral (36) forming an angle of substantially 90 ° with a first leg ( 60) of the U-shaped end element (58) is connected, and the second leg (62) of the U-shaped end element (58) extends essentially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the elastic spiral (36) on the one assigned to the free end (41) supports last spiral turn. 13. Device according to one of claims 1 to 12, characterized in that the flange element is designed as a bayonet ring (42) which can be snapped into the receptacle (44) in the container wall. 14. Device according to one of claims 9 to 13, characterized in that the spiral (36) is provided at its first end (40) with a substantially transversely to the longitudinal axis of the spiral rod-shaped fastening element (48) which is detachably on the flange element (42) is included. 15. The apparatus according to claim 14, characterized in that the rod-shaped fastening element (48) in recesses (50) of the Flange element (42) engages, and is fixed in this rotatably about its longitudinal axis. 16. The apparatus of claim 14 or 15, characterized in that the rod-shaped fastening element (48) is designed as a handle part. 17. Drainage element (20) for use in a press (1) for squeezing liquid-containing substances, in particular agricultural and chemical products, with a closed container (2), the container interior (6) of which by at least one press membrane (8) into a pressure medium space (10) and a press medium space (12), the drainage element (20) comprising at least one support element (36) and a hose (26) arranged around it made of juice-permeable flexible fabric, characterized in that the support element is formed by an elastic spiral (36 ) is formed or contains one.