Fruit hull remover
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing fruit hull removers often fail to efficiently remove fruit hulls without damaging the fruit meat, leading to incomplete removal, excessive meat loss, or requiring manual processing, especially for fruits like berries and kiwi.
Innovation Solution
A fruit hull remover with a handle, tongs, and prongs configured with pitch-directional threads and angled prongs that score and cut around the fruit hull, allowing secure attachment and removal with minimal meat loss, featuring an external hull ejector collar and internal plunger ejector mechanism for enhanced operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a hollow tube pierces entirely through the fruit to remove the hull, then the hull can be removed completely, but fruit meat is cut out along with the hull and yield is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The device divides the hull removal function into two separate components: a cutting element that scores around the hull perimeter without penetrating through, and a grasping element that secures the hull for extraction. This segmentation allows the hull to be removed completely while leaving the fruit meat intact.
Solution Approach 2:
The device extracts only the hull portion from the fruit by scoring around its perimeter and grasping it, rather than piercing through and removing a core-containing portion of the fruit. This selective extraction minimizes fruit meat loss while achieving complete hull removal.
2Productivity
If tubular cutting edges rotate around the hull to gouge it out, then hull removal is attempted, but the device leaves behind some hull or cuts out fruit meat
Solution Approach 1:
The device separates the cutting function into fixed angled prongs that score around the hull perimeter, and the grasping function into a movable jaw that secures the hull. This segmentation provides precise control over the cutting depth and hull extraction, eliminating the imprecision of rotating tubular cutters.
Solution Approach 2:
The device incorporates a movable jaw that can be adjusted to different positions to accommodate varying fruit sizes and hull depths. This dynamic adjustment capability allows the same device to precisely remove hulls from both small and large fruits without cutting into the fruit meat or leaving hull remnants.
3Device complexity
If the cutting device is fixed diameter, then the structure is simple, but it cannot adapt to different fruit sizes and either leaves hull or removes excessive meat
Solution Approach 1:
The device employs a movable jaw mechanism that can be positioned at different distances from the handle, allowing adjustment of the cutting diameter to match different fruit sizes. This dynamic structure maintains relative simplicity while providing versatility across various fruit dimensions.
Solution Approach 2:
The device changes the operational parameter of cutting diameter by adjusting the position of the movable jaw relative to the fixed prongs. This parameter adjustment allows the same device structure to adapt to different fruit sizes, preventing both hull remnants and excessive fruit meat removal.
4Reliability
If cutting across the fruit below the top is used to remove the hull, then the hull is removed, but the widest portion of the fruit is cut off and appearance is spoiled
Solution Approach 1:
The device segments the hull removal action into a peripheral scoring motion around the hull base, rather than a horizontal cut across the fruit. This segmented approach removes the hull cleanly without cutting into the fruit's widest portion, preserving the fruit's natural shape and appearance.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of cutting horizontally across the fruit to remove the hull, the device inverts the approach by scoring vertically around the hull perimeter and then grasping and pulling the hull outward. This inverted method achieves hull removal while preserving the fruit's top portion and overall appearance.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution effectively increases fruit yield by ensuring intact hull removal with reduced fruit meat loss, improving the efficiency and usability of fruit hull removal for various fruit types.
Implementation Method 1
The vertical rod (130) has a plurality of pitch-directional threads (135) to frictionally engage the fruit hull (B) when the vertical rod (130) is directionally rotated into the fruit hull (B) consistent with the pitch-directional threads.
Data Source
AI summary
A fruit hull remover removes hulls from berries and other fruit with hulls. The fruit hull remover has a handle, an at least one tong, and an at least one prong, all of which are typically curved or round. The handle has a threaded rod between or at the center of the at least one tong to engage and remove a fruit hull. The threaded rod may be recessed from the at least one prong and have a distal unthreaded region, both which reduce entry pressure into the hull and mitigate entry of the threaded region into the fruit meat to increase intact hull removal performance. A hull ejector has an inner ring and an outer ring to slide down from between the prongs to eject the hull, or the hull ejector may have hemi-cylindrical halves to slide down from between the prongs to eject the hull.