Description

The previously graded whole fruit is worked in order to obtain a maximum yield of juice and essential oil. The extraction system is made up of 5 pairs of upper and lower cups.
There are 3 versions of the SP40 depending on the citrus fruit size: up to 60mm in diameter for the SP40-2, from 60 to 80mm for Model SP40-3 and from 80 to 105mm for the SP40-4. For small or medium size fruit its absorption capacity is 500 fruit per minute at a speed of 100 strokes per minute, for larger fruit it’s 375 fruit per minute at a speed of 75 strokes per minute.

The fixed lower cups are made out of a series of vertical finger-shaped elements, arranged with very small  intervening spaces into which the corresponding elements from the mobile upper cups come down in a vertically alternating movement. This downward movement is launched by a fixed-stroke cam which pushes and squeezes the citrus while a cylindrical cutter located at the centre of the lower cup cuts a circle through the peel in the lower part of the fruit. The juice, pips and pulp are forced toward an opening, going through the strainer tube. This tube, which acts as a juice prefinisher can undertake circular, cuts of differing diameters depending on the need.

At the end of the stroke in the upper cup, a piston (which is synchronised with the cam) lifts up inside the strainer tube (prefinisher) and squeezes the juice out through the tube’s holes, discharging its used pulp, pips and the circular piece of peel into a container below. The essential oil is extracted from the peel through an effect of compression exerted by the « fingers »and is carried by water jets placed in the cup carrier.

Then after having gone through the centrifuge, the water-essential oil mixture is rid of its thicker solid deposits in a finisher. The peels are ejected by the upper cups and distanced by an endless screw. The essential oil free water is usually recycled collected by a pump, which has it pass through static filters covered with ultra-fine stainless steel nets. It is then sent to the water jets in the cup carriers. This method allows for maximum yield in juice and essential oil and above all, it produces a higher quality juice due to the fact that it was extracted by pressure without letting or mixing with air and consequently free from contamination: the juice never comes into contact with the outer part of the citrus fruit.