Method of and an apparatus for canning sauerkraut, leaf spinach and other leaf vegetables

摘要

938,877. Canning sauerkraut &c. R. HENGSTENBERG, and K. HENGSTENBERG, [trading as RICH. HENGSTENBERG]. Nov. 24, 1961 [Nov. 24, 1960], No. 42162/61. Class 49. The charging of sauerkraut, leaf spinach, or other leaf vegetable into cans or other containers involves maintaining the vegetable in suspension in a bin in the liquid in which the vegetable has been cooked, blanched, or the like, sweeping the vegetable directly from the bin by a stream of the liquid into a cylindrical sieve, returning the surplus liquid to the bin and ejecting the vegetable by a plunger from the sieve into the container. The apparatus of Fig. 1 comprises a bin 1 in the floor of which is a cylindrical sieve 2 in a jacket 3, a slidable plate 9 for the bottom end of the cylinder 2, a pipe 4, liquid pump 5 and pipe 4a from the jacket 3 to the bin 1, and a plunger 7 above the cylinder 2; the vegetable in suspension in the liquid in the bin 1 sinks into the cylinder 2, even distribution being assisted by a reciprocating member 8, and, on attainment of a sufficiently reduced pressure in the pipe 4 by the working of the pump 5, the plate 9 withdraws and the plunger 7 descends to push the vegetable from the sieve 2 into a can 10. With the apparatus of Fig. 2, the floor of a bin 20 has six cylindrical sieves 21-26 and there are six ejecting plungers 27-32.