Rotating Cutting Blade for Selective Grape Skin Fragmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current wine production methods, particularly in red wine vinification, face challenges in efficiently extracting desirable components from grape skins without breaking the seeds, leading to potential release of undesirable substances, and lack solutions to reduce maceration/fermentation time while maintaining quality, especially in industrial-scale production.
Innovation Solution
A device with a rotating cutting blade is introduced to fragment grape skins within the must flow, positioned between the destemming-crushing stage and maceration or pressing, allowing for selective extraction of skin components without damaging seeds, and can be integrated into conventional vinification processes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional destemming-crushing is used to obtain must, then the process is simple and seeds remain intact, but skin fragmentation is insufficient leading to slow extraction of desirable components
Solution Approach 1:
The cutting blade is divided into multiple segments or teeth that individually interact with the must flow, creating controlled fragmentation zones. This segmentation allows selective cutting of skins while passing seeds through without damage, resolving the contradiction between extraction speed and selectivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The cutting blade is positioned and oriented to create localized cutting zones within the must flow path. By concentrating cutting action in specific areas where skins are present while maintaining gentle flow conditions elsewhere, the system achieves rapid skin fragmentation without subjecting seeds to damaging forces.
2Manufacturing precision
If longer maceration time is used, then extraction of skin components is more complete, but fermentation time increases reducing productivity
Solution Approach 1:
The cutting blade performs preliminary fragmentation of skins before maceration begins. By pre-processing the skins to increase their surface area and porosity, the subsequent maceration process achieves complete extraction in significantly reduced time, resolving the contradiction between extraction completeness and time consumption.
3Reliability
If immersion mixer is used for skin fragmentation as in prior art, then seed damage is avoided, but the apparatus is not suitable for industrial-scale production
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the fragmentation function from a complex immersion mixer system and implements it through a simple cutting blade in the must flow path. This extracted approach maintains seed integrity through controlled cutting action while being easily scalable to industrial production lines, resolving the contradiction between reliability and device complexity.
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
This method enables faster extraction of quality-determining substances from grape skins, reduces maceration/fermentation time, and enhances the organoleptic properties of wines, while maintaining industrial compatibility and increasing productivity.
Implementation Method 1
cutting means (20) comprising at least one rotating cutting blade (22) interfering at least partially with the must flow
Data Source
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AI summary
A device (12) for treating must, comprising a duct (14) for the flow of said must, having an inlet end (16) and an outlet end (18), characterized in that it comprises inside the duct (14) cutting means (20) comprising at least one rotating cutting blade (22) interfering at least partially with the must flow.