Batch reception station for winemaking grapes - which checks wt. and quality of each batch for process control and purchase price

摘要

A plant installation is claimed for the reception, weighing and onward transfer of a batch of freshly gathered grapes to winemaking operations and/or storage vessels. The plant is a combination of:- (a) a reception hopper into which the batch is tipped, the hopper being mounted on the weighing platform of a mechanical or other type of weighing device, e.g., load cells; (b) a pump rigidly fixed to the hopper from which it is to pump the must which passes from the hopper into the pump suction; (c) means to ensure that hydrostatic loading in the pipework on the delivery side of the pump is not transmitted back to give rise to errors in weighing the batch. Pref. the pump outlet is connected to the onward transfer pipe via a deformable coupling or a telescopic gland coupling and an isolating stop valve is fitted between the coupling and the transfer pipe. A sampling branch for must is fitted in the pump delivery, as near as possible to the pump. Must analysis, to determine batch allocation via a multi-way valve at the end of the transfer line, is pref. completed in the time taken for the start of the batch to be pumped from the hopper to the multi-way valve. Using only a single reception hopper, the wt. and the quality of each batch is individually assesses so that process allocation can be decided at once and the batch supplies eventually paid on a wt./quality basis.