Nut cracking machine
OwnerRalph V. Packwoodinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A nut cracking machine comprising a plurality of wheels rotatable by a power drive on axes forming a closed, planar polygon, the peripheries of the wheels meeting at the center of the polygon, peripheral grooves of arcuate cross-sectional form in the peripheries of the wheels conjointly forming a circular orifice between the wheels in the plane of the polygon, through which nuts to be cracked are passed.
Claims1
A nut cracking machine comprising a frame, cracking means consisting of a plurality of wheels carried rotatably by said frame, the axes of said wheels forming a closed polygon lying in a horizontal plane, each of said wheels contacting the next adjacent wheels centrally of said polygon, and there being a groove of arcuate cross-sectional contour formed peripherally in each of said wheels, said grooves of all of said wheels conjointly forming a circular orifice having a vertical axis at the juncture of said wheels, there being at least four of said wheels, in which case the axes of said wheels form a square, and the groove in the periphery of each of said wheels is on 90.degree. angular extend in cross-sectional contour, gravity means operable to feed nuts and nut fragments to be cracked downwardly between said wheels to said orifice, said nuts and fragments being of non-circular cross-sectional and having a major dimension greater than the diameter of said orifice, and power means operable to rotate all of said wheels at equal speeds in such directions that the portions of their peripheries defining said orifice at any given moment downwardly with respect to said orifice, whereby said nuts and fragments are drawn through said orifice and cracked by pressure across the major dimensions thereof.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.