US 6,205,915 B1Granted

Apparatus for cracking nuts at high production rates

AssigneeMachine Design Incorporated

InventorJames Bland Quantz

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Abstract

A high production nutcracking apparatus wherein the nuts are fed from a hopper on a feed conveyor which has an upwardly inclined segment which passes through the hopper, a horizontal segment which leads to the cracking apparatus, and an arcuate transition juncture which is between the two segments. The nuts are singularized and oriented while being advanced on the feed conveyor, by means of a free floating covering plate which continuously overlies the feed conveyor from a point along the upwardly inclined segment, along the transition juncture, and to a delivery point where the nuts are lifted from the conveyor by a cracking apparatus. The cracking apparatus comprises a plurality of cracking units mounted on a rotatable turret, and the rotating cracking units are cyclically controlled so as to clampingly engage and lift each oriented nut from the advancing conveyor, and so as to preserve its orientation. Each nut is then cracked and thereafter released at separate spaced points along the circular path of travel of the cracking unit. The elevation of the feed conveyor relative to the cracking apparatus can be adjusted to accommodate nuts of different sizes.

Claims19

Dependent claims

An apparatus for successively delivering nuts in a predetermined orientation to a cracking head of a nutcracker, and comprising

a hopper for storing a relatively large quantity of the nuts to be cracked,
an endless conveyor having an upper run extending through said hopper to a delivery point exteriorly thereof, with said conveyor comprising a feed chain and a plurality of nut transport elements mounted in succession on said feed chain, with each element including opposite sides and a generally semicircular, laterally extending receptacle which faces upwardly during movement of the element through said hopper and to said delivery point, and with each receptacle being sized to supportingly receive a single nut to be cracked which is orientated with its end to end direction extending along the receptacle,
said upper run of said endless conveyor including an upwardly inclined segment extending through the lower portion of said hopper and a substantially horizontal segment extending from said upwardly inclined segment to said delivery point, and with the upwardly inclined segment and the horizontal segment defining an arcuate transition juncture therebetween,
a drive for rotating said endless conveyor such that said nut transport elements move in succession through said hopper and to said delivery point, and
a plate positioned so as to continuously overlie the path of the nut transport elements from a point along said upwardly inclined segment, along said transition juncture, and to a point immediately upstream of said delivery point, and with said plate being mounted such that the plate may be lifted upwardly from the elements.

2 more elements

A high production nutcracking apparatus comprising,

means for advancing a plurality of nuts individually in succession along a first path of travel with at least substantially all of the advancing nuts being disposed in a predetermined orientation,
means for lifting the advancing nuts in succession from the first path of travel at a delivery point and advancing the removed nuts in succession from the delivery point along a generally curvilinear second path of travel, and including means for clampingly engaging each nut during its removal from the first path of travel and advance along the second path of travel so as to preserve the predetermined orientation of each nut, and
means for imparting a cracking force to each nut while being advanced along the second path of travel, and with the cracking force being applied in a direction corresponding to the clamping engagement of the nut,
said means for advancing nuts along the first path of travel including means for adjusting the elevation of the first path of travel with respect to the lifting means at the delivery point, and so as to accommodate nuts of different sizes.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.