Apparatus for splitting pistachios
OwnerRobert F. Lemosinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A process for splitting pistachios including a bin dumper, a sizer, moisturizers, blowers and splitting units arranged in seriatim. The blower removes excess water and particles from the nut surfaces after moisturizing and before splitting. The splitter includes a controlled surge bin having a brush gate associated with a sensor to control flow to a singulator. A vibrated singulator operates to release nuts to a splitting mechanism having opposed elements with cavities aligned to receive the ends of the nuts. Cradles retain the nuts in alignment for compression. Lateral vibration is induced in the cradles to ensure placement of the retained nuts.
Claims12
A pistachio splitter comprising a support means;
- a movable splitting head including a first splitting surface that moves relative to the support means;
- a splitting jaw secured to said support means, said jaw including a second splitting surface, said first and second splitting surface being opposed;
- cradles extending between the first and second splitting surfaces being opposed;
- cradles extending between the first and second splitting surfaces and being elongated in a direction perpendicular to the first and second splitting surfaces;
- and
- a vibration generator having a bottom end and a top end, said bottom end connected to said support means and said top end connected to the cradles to vibrate the cradles laterally.
A pistachio splitter comprising
- a support means;
- a movable splitting head that moves relative to the support means including a first splitting surface having first cavities;
- a splitting jaw secured to said support means, said jaw including a second splitting surface having second cavities, the first and second splitting surfaces being opposed and the first cavities and the second cavities being aligned, respectively;
- cradles extending between the first and second splitting surfaces, each of the aligned first and second cavities being further aligned with each of the cradles, respectively;
- and
- a vibration generator secured to the support means at one end and connected to the cradles at the other to vibrate the cradles laterally.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.