Crushers for grapes: varieties and technical characteristics

For the production of various products of the wine industry, about 80% of the cultivated grapes are annually used. It belongs to the most valuable kind of plant material. Processing it is quite simple, and the resulting products are characterized by high taste and nutritional qualities.

Technological stages of processing grapes

After the harvest is collected, it is delivered to wineries for processing. This process consists of several stages:

• Acceptance, where an average sample is taken from each batch of raw materials received;
• Primary processing, during which the grapes are washed;
• A combing, intended to separate berries and combs;
• Crushing, providing the processes by which the juice from the grapes is allocated at an accelerated rate.

Features of crushing grapes

This process occurs in crushing and pressing shops. The main type of equipment, which they use - crushers for grapes, intended for processing it into pulp and mash. Whatever the degree of crushing of the berries, it should minimize the disruption of the integrity of the bones.

Because light natural wines, champagne and cognac wine materials have little extractivity, the degree of crushing berries for their production should be the lowest. Therefore, the grinders in this case work in an easy mode.

As for complete extractive wines, which include thick, strong enough red wines, the berries for them are crushed more intensively.

As a rule, the process of crushing grapes is combined with the separation of the crests. This is due to the fact that during processing they can saturate the wort with substances that will later give the wine a rather unpleasant herbal taste. An exception is the production of Kakhetian wines, when the crests are not separated at all.

Modern enterprises use crushers for grapes of two types: centrifugal and roll. Their difference consists in the intensity of the crushing of berries and the different nature of the effect on the bunch of grapes. Each of them has its own special design and differs in its performance characteristics. But both these types are united by the fact that it is a grape crusher with a comb separator.

Centrifugal Crusher

This type of crusher is characterized by the fact that the crushing of berries occurs due to the centrifugal force, which ensures that the bunches strike against the inner walls of the shell. In this case, the berries are subjected to rather severe mechanical effects and are largely saturated with oxygen in the air. In the process of work, the machine crushes the berries, while separating them from the crests.

Such a mechanical grinder for grapes consists of a body equipped with a lid with a drive, an impeller shaft, a hopper and a tray, along which ridges are taken away.

It operates according to the following principle:

• Grapes, entering the bunker, are subjected to blows of the shafts;
• Berries in this case are separated from the crests and come along with them to the surface of the cylinder, equipped with perforation;
• After that, with the help of rowing blades, they are wiped and through the holes fall into the sledge;
• The crests are then separated into a tray located at the top of the crusher, and from there they fall onto the conveyor belt.

Roller Crusher

Such crushers for grapes are intended for separation of combs from bunches with the subsequent crushing of berries. The design of the roller crusher consists of a billet shaft, a perforated cylinder and 4 rolls of food rubber, which work in pairs.

The principle of operation is as follows:

• Grapes enter the aggregate, where the crests under the blows of the gross beams are separated from the berries and removed from the perforated cylinder;
• After this, the berries through the perforation fall on the rolls, through which the crushing occurs.

The unit has additional devices that adjust the distance between the rolls within 3-8 mm. This makes it possible, if necessary, to use a gentle mode of crushing berries depending on their variety and physical characteristics.

Pressing of pulp

In order to distinguish the so-called wort (juice from grapes) obtained in the process of crushing, special presses are used. They are of two types - periodic and continuous.

Devices of periodic action, in turn, are divided into baskets, where the pulp is loaded into baskets, after which it is compressed, and pneumatic. Such a press for grapes has a cylinder for loading the pulp and a pipe through which air is pumped. When expanding the pipe, the pulp is pressed.

Units of continuous action compress the mash during its movement. They have a great performance due to the automation of the process. Such a press for grapes works with a screw, which both moves and presses the mash.

Hand Crusher for grape

For those who are engaged in the preparation of wine at home, an irreplaceable assistant will be a manual crusher. It is a hopper with a stirrer, which pushes the berries between the rollers. By adjusting the distance between the last, it is possible to obtain a crushing of different degrees without damaging the bones.

Due to the productivity of up to 500 kg / h, a sufficiently large volume of grapes can be processed to immediately start pressing the pulp.