Abstract: A system for processing agricultural items includes a first member having a first surface, a first axis, and a partially cylindrical space, the first surface being an inner surface of the partially cylindrical space. The system also includes a substantially arcuate second member having a second surface and a second axis, the second member being disposed at least partially in the partially cylindrical space, and the contoured second surface being an outer surface of the second member. The first surface and the second surface are substantially opposed to each other. One of the first and second surfaces substantially tapers toward another of the first and second surfaces along the first or second axes. The first and second axes are respective first and second circumferential axes.

Abstract: A system for hard-shelled nut cracking and nut meat extraction having a substantially hollow main housing, a hopper contained in the upper section of the housing, a concentric cylindrical rotor housing in the midsection of the main housing lined with a series of protrusions on the inner walls, a frustoconical shaped rotor, the rotor made up of elongate edged rods evenly spaced to have short rectangular shaped rods fixed in between the interstitials at a lower side of the rotor, the rotor is driven by a motor at the lower section of the main housing that connects to a gearbox which further connects to a vertical drive shaft that translates rotation to the rotor, the rotor and inner wall protrusions of the rotor housing are used for the cracking and meat extraction of hard-shelled nuts which are ejected from the midsection of the main housing to the collection tray.

Abstract: A shell cracking and retaining device for cracking shelled food products, wherein the device entirely or substantially retains food, shell portions and other debris during the cracking process, and therefore prevents said food, shell portions and other debris from being sent airborne from the device.

Abstract: A shelling-separating machine for almonds and other soft-shelled nuts is provided incorporating operational and functional features which ensure the obtaining of the kernel in optimal conditions, while at the same time allowing for an effective separation of the almonds and other hard-shelled nuts that may accompany the soft-shelled nuts. At the inlet end, the machine provides a device for continuously feeding the product for the purpose of eliminating obstructions inside such machine. At the outlet end, the machine provides a retaining device which can be manually or automatically actuated and which keeps the outlet closed in order to retain the non-shelled product until the operational conditions recommend the actuation and opening of such retaining device to allow the non-shelled product to exit the machine, preferably by the overflow with respect to a previously established level.

Abstract: A pecan nut meat preferably for use with pecans, extractor includes a hollow frusto-conical segment journalled about an axial drive shaft, the segment having a minor upper base and a major lower base, the upper and lower bases each defining unitary surfaces for precluding access to a hollow interior of the segment, the segment including a frusto-conical lateral surface between its upper and lower bases, the lateral surface including a multiplicity of splines having interdigitating spaces similar in polar separation to that of the splines.

Abstract: A device and method for shelling nuts. The device may be attached to a belt sander. The device includes a hopper into which the nuts are initially placed. Two large threaded fasteners on the central portion are used to adjust the system for the size of nut being shelled. A bracket placed behind the central portion attaches the device to the sander. The rotating belt brings the nut down to a lower opening formed to be just smaller than the shell of the nut being shelled. As the shell of the nut is caused to pass through this opening, the shell cracks. The nut with the cracked shell now impacts on one or more strike plates. These impacts further propagate the cracks formed in the shell so that the fragmented shells fall away from the nut. The nut and the cracked shells fall into the collection bag.

Abstract: A hand-held, manually operated seed shucking appliance enables a food preparer to remove the seed coverings of black-eyed peas from their kernels. A spring and piston inside a chamber are arranged to compress a load of pre-soaked black-eyed peas against a shuttle rasp threaded between side slots. As a user manipulates the shuttle rasp, the shucks are scraped off the seeds by a scraping surface and both pass through the side slots. The piston is configured to be cocked back such that the chamber can be loaded through one end with a fresh charge of black-eyed peas.

Abstract: A nut meat extractor includes a hollow segment, journalled about a drive shaft, having minor upper and major lower bases, each base defining a unitary surface. The segment includes a conical lateral surface between bases, the surface including splines having interdigitating spaces. A hollow cylinder is proportioned for symmetrical containment of the conical segment, an interior of the cylinder opposing the lateral surface of the conical segment and defining a pattern of elevated protrusions for interaction with shells of nuts introduced into the extractor between the conical segment and the interior of the cylinder. The interaction and pressure on shells of the nuts increases downwardly with the advance of nuts fed into an upper region between the upper base and the interior of the hollow cylinder. Pressure upon shells of the nuts increases with advance to the lower base until the nuts are cracked.

Abstract: The hard shells or hulls of whole nuts are effectively cracked and separated from the nut meat by propelling and impacting the whole nuts at a predetermined trajectory velocity against an adjustable impacting plate set at the appropriate impacting angle. By controlling the manner in which the whole nuts impact against the impacting plate, the fracturing of the hard shell may be controlled so as to optimize the whole nut meat recovery while minimizing the production of split nut meats. A variable speed impeller in combination with adjustability of the impacting plate optimizes the nut cracking and nut meat separation for any type of whole nut. An orderly sequential feed of whole nuts to an off-set feed zone of rotating impellers equipped with vanes having a catching section and an accelerating section at a regulated rotational speed effectively propels the whole nuts against the adjustable impacting plate.

Abstract: A nutcracker utilizes a cone with a textured exterior surface rotatably mounted and centered inside a vertical cylinder with a textured interior surface. The textured exterior surface and the textured interior surface are non-parallel and form a cracking zone that becomes smaller in the downward direction. As the conical member rotates, gravity rolls nuts down in a spiraling path, between and along the preferred elongated and slanted protrusions forming the texture. This path takes the nuts into an increasingly smaller cracking zone until the pressure on the nuts from the conical and cylindrical members causes the nut-shells to crack and the nuts typically to break into halves and thirds. The nutcracker may include an adjustable barrel that rolls up and down inside a housing, for changing the minimum width of the cracking zone.

Abstract: A nutcracker utilizes a cone with a textured exterior surface rotatably mounted and centered inside a vertical cylinder with a textured interior surface. The textured exterior surface and the textured interior surface are non-parallel and form a cracking zone that becomes smaller in the downward direction. As the conical member rotates, gravity rolls nuts down in a spiraling path, between and along the preferred elongated and slanted protrusions forming the texture. This path takes the nuts into an increasingly smaller cracking zone until the pressure on the nuts from the conical and cylindrical members causes the nut-hells to crack and the nuts typically to break into halves and thirds. The nutcracker may have a multiple plate system below the cracking zone that manages the nuts and shells after cracking. The nutcracker may include an adjustable barrel that rolls up and down inside a housing, for changing the minimum width of the cracking zone.

Abstract: A nutcracker utilizes a conical member with a textured exterior surface rotatably mounted and centered inside a vertical cylinder with a textured interior surface. The nuts occupy a cracking zone between the textured exterior surface and the textured interior surface. As the conical member rotates, gravity rolls the nuts down in a spiraling path into an increasingly smaller cracking zone until the pressure on the nuts between the textured exterior surface and the textured interior surface causes the shells to crack and the nuts to break into halves and thirds.

Abstract: An apparatus for shelling nuts comprises adjustably opposed, manual or motor-driven, rotary wheel-type rollers that engage nuts and, as they rotate, forcibly crack the shell as the nut is transported between the rollers. The clearance between the opposed rollers is adjustable by the user to obtain an optimum cracking result. A receiving hopper is provided wherein a ready supply of nuts can be presented to the opposed rollers. The hopper design includes a chute projection that orients and directs the nuts toward the rollers where an adjustable gauge further positions the nut for optimal entry. The opposed, counter-rotating cracking rollers are grooved in a manner that provides multiple surfaces with which to contact the nut and thereby apply a plurality of forces to its perimeter. This plurality of forces is uniformly applied to produce multiple fractures in the shell.

Abstract: An apparatus for dehusking small fruits uses water and pinching rollers to tear off the husk.

Abstract: A nut cracking machine comprises a cylinder mounted in bearings for rotation about a long axis of the cylinder. The cylinder has projections extending radially from its cylindrical surface. An anvil plate is held at a fixed predetermined distance from the cylinder when the machine is in operation. The cylinder is power driven. A feed hopper is provided for receiving nuts and directing the nuts onto the cylinder, the cylinder rotating in a direction to direct an upper part of the cylinder toward the anvil plate member, toward an increasingly restricted space between the cylinder and the anvil plate.

Abstract: A mechanical nut cracker for a machine having an adjustably positioned crushing plate and crusher bar for cracking various types of nuts. The mechanical nut cracker includes a crusher assembly having a crusher bar rotationally attached to an end of a base member. The crusher assembly further includes a pair of side walls and a slanted back wall extending upwardly from the crusher bar and between the side walls. A crusher plate assembly is adjustably coupled to the base member for positioning in spaced relationship to the crusher bar. The crusher plate assembly includes a crusher plate, a pair of plate assembly side walls, and a slanted front wall extending up from the crusher plate and between the plate assembly side walls. The crusher plate assembly further includes a pair of arms extending outwardly for adjustably engaging the base member.

Abstract: An apparatus for shucking pecans having a stator, which is a trapezoidal front plate with a pair of adjoining tapered side-walls with longitudinal edges, a mounting bracket for immobilizing the stator, and a chute which is a reservoir for the pecans, where said stator is axially connected to a rotor, which is a circular back plate that pivots at the centroid of the front plate; the combination of the back plate and the front plate forming a chamber that is narrow at the bottom, wherein the pecans are cracked as the rotor is rocked back and forth through an arc, where the rocking action forces the pecans into compression and then in the reverse rock into relief, where the shell separates from the kernel.

Abstract: A nutcracker that cracks nuts such as pecans with a pair of spaced-apart counter-rotating rollers having a gap therebetween. Nuts are fed through the gap between the rollers and cracked as they are compressed between the rollers. The outer surfaces of the two rollers rotate at different speeds, which causes the nuts to rotate as they pass through the gap. This speed differential of the rollers and resulting rotation of the nuts causes the cracks in the nuts' shells to spread around substantially the entirety of the shell. The nuts are then much more easily opened than nuts cracked using previously designed nut-cracking apparatuses.

Abstract: A grinder-type juicer including an upper and lower plate which squeeze foodstuff while rotating. The upper plate has spiral-shaped guide grooves (or elongated guide lands), the lower plate has juice-squeezing grooves. The juice is squeezed by the oblique action between the two grooves when the upper and lower plates rotate relative to each other in opposite directions with the juice dropping under its own weight and the residue being discharged at the outer edge of the lower plate.

Abstract: A knurled horizontal roller is journaled for rotation from a mount and a vertically elongated abutment member having upper and lower ends is pivotally supported at its upper end from said mount for angular displacement about a horizontal axis generally paralleling the axis of the roller. One side of the abutment member includes a partial cylindrical surface opposing one side of the roller and yieldable stop structure is operatively connected between the mount and the lower end of the abutment member yieldingly resisting movement of the lower end of the abutment member away from the lower periphery of the roller. The roller may be either rotated by hand through a hand crank operatively connected thereto or motor driven through the utilization of a pneumatic wrench or a variable speed drill, or the like.

Abstract: A nut shelling apparatus including a back plate having a first roughened surface on one side, a rocker plate rotatably connected to the back plate and having a second roughened surface on a side adjacent the first roughened surface of the back plate, and a nut inlet connected to the back plate so as to open to a nut-receiving space defined between the roughened surfaces of the back plate and the rocker plate. The roughened surfaces are diamond plate surfaces. A skirt is affixed to the back plate and extends outwardly therefrom so as to be adjacent an outer edge of the rocker plate. The rocker plate is a concave member. The concave member includes a shaft which is rotatably connected to the back plate.

Abstract: Two counter rotating rollers are provided having elastomeric exterior coatings into which ribs and grooves are formed for intermeshing to blanch nuts at a pinch point therebetween. Grooves in the lower roller hold nuts as ribs on the upper roller pass across the nuts to break skins on the nuts. The elastomeric exterior coatings have surface hardness values which measure around 30 durometer. The squeeze at the pinch point between the two rollers can be repeatably adjusted for running different sizes of nuts.

Abstract: A nut cracking machine constructed with a cracking unit having a first reel of generally cylindrical configuration with a periphery having a series of uniformly spaced first cracking faces and a second reel of generally cylindrical configuration disposed within the first reel with a periphery having a series of uniformly spaced second cracking faces oppositely facing the first cracking faces, the first reel and second reel being rotated together on displaced axes that are parallel, the machine having a nut dispensing mechanism for dispensing nuts between the opposed cracking faces where the nuts are cracked as the reels rotate.

Abstract: An apparatus wherein a platform mounts an electric drive for selective use and cooperation with a manual crank to rotate a drum supporting shaft to rotate a drum in cooperation with a chute, wherein the chute includes a convex grinding surface to receive members therethrough to grind such members in cooperation with a multi-lobed drum. The drum lobes are optionally provided for selective replacement utilizing lobes of a multi-ribbed construction in cooperation with an initial and primary shell cracking rib.

Abstract: There is provided an apparatus for splitting closed pistachio nuts in a controlled manner such that the longitudinal sutures of the nuts will be cracked open. The apparatus includes a cylindrical housing wih a mandrel mounted for rotation therein to provide an annulus into which nuts can be introduced. According to various features of the apparatus, the pistachio nuts are rotated, oriented and then split along their sutures in the annulus and subsequently discharged through an opening in the housing. There is also provided a continuous process of treating closed shell pistachio nuts which includes the step of removing the denser foreign particles from the closed shell nuts by flotation; and a soaking step so that the shells of the unopened pistachio nuts will be saturated with water to provide a degree of shell flexibility such that when pressure is applied to the suture of the shell to effect splitting, the shell will flex rather than crack.

Abstract: There is provided an apparatus for splitting closed pistachio nuts in a controlled manner such that the longitudinal sutures of the nuts will be cracked open. The apparatus includes a cylindrical housing with a mandrel mounted for rotation therein to provide an annulus into which nuts can be introduced. According to various features of the apparatus, the pistachio nuts are rotated, oriented and then split along their sutures in the annulus and subsequently discharged through an opening in the housing. There is also provided a continuous process of treating closed shell pistachio nuts which includes the step of removing the denser foreign particles from the closed shell nuts by flotation; and a soaking step so that the shells of the unopened pistachio nuts will be saturated with water to provide a degree of shell flexibility such that when pressure is applied to the suture of the shell to effect splitting, the shell will flex rather than crack.

Abstract: A nut shelling machine in which a rotary drive mechanism operates a rotary feed mechanism and a rotary shelling mechanism, the shelling mechanism having a frame with four shafts arranged in spaced, side by side, upper and lower pairs, the shafts having surface lobes and indentions for enlarging and contracting the effective space between the upper pair and lower pair of shaft for accepting and trapping a nut between the pair of upper shafts and lower shafts, where it is shelled by a shafting implement before the shell and nut passes between the pair of lower shafts.

Abstract: A machine specifically designed to remove the husks from the coconut fruit including a plurality of rollers rotating in opposite directions effectively toward one another wherein each roller includes a plurality of penetrating spikes sharpened to penetrate and effectively engage the husk portion of the coconut fruit. The interaction of the rollers in combination with the gripping action of the spike serves to tear away the husk from the nut leaving the nut in tact.

Abstract: A nutcraker comprises a pair of relatively rotatable discs (manually or motor operated) defining a space in which a nut to be cracked is directed by an upper intake chute and from which the cracked shell and freed nutmeat are directed by a lower discharge chute. The rotatable disc comprises nut-receiving recesses and projections for pushing the nut. The stationary disc comprises space-restricting components, such as a sloped surface or groove and a tapered wall, which define a space which gradually decreases in width and height. As the nut is moved through this space its shell is cracked and the nutmeat freed. Nutcrackers designed to process nuts of different sizes can be ganged together and driven by a common power source. In some embodiments the nut-receiving chamber contains components which automatically adjust to the size of a nut placed therein and releasably lock into such position. In another embodiment the two discs define several spaces of different sizes.

Abstract: A roller mill for cracking or crimping oats or the like is constructed with a cam adjustment which will positively maintain the rollers at an adjustably selected minimum spacing and which can be readily adjusted to establish a wider spacing for handling coarser materials or to clear obstructions from the rollers.

Abstract: A nutcracking apparatus comprising a motor driven rotary roller type cracker member with longitudinal serrations or teeth which engages a nut and forcibly cracks the shell between the roller member and a stationary cracking member comprising a plurality of spaced apart cracking plates having a series of serrations or teeth formed thereon along a curved path. The stationary cracking member is mounted on a support member which is slidable on a bearing member within the apparatus housing and is adjustably positioned by an actuating screw. The adjustable support member includes a gauging jaw mounted thereon which is cooperable with a second gauging jaw mounted on the apparatus housing for gauging the overall dimension of a shell-enclosed nut.

Abstract: A nutcracking machine is provided which utilizes a cylindrical sizing roll and a cylindrical cracking roll. The sizing roll has a plurality of parallel circumferential grooves, the width and depth of the grooves varying in a predetermined fashion along the length of the roll. The cracking roll has a tractive surface. A spring mounting is used for adjustably and resiliently urging the sizing roll and cracking roll together to allow a predetermined lateral pressure to be exerted on the nuts passing between the rollers. The spring mounting also allows the rollers to separate momentarily to allow passage of foreign objects such as rocks. A separator is used to direct smaller nuts to one portion of the sizing roll and larger nuts to another portion of the sizing roll.

Abstract: In the separation of kernels from the shells of apricot stones the steps of placing at least the medially opened kernels not separated from the shells onto two moving surfaces with the separating gap below the shells, the moving surfaces each moving in an upward direction from the separation gap, and being arranged to carry the said medially separated shells along said separation gap from an input location to an output location.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for cracking and/or deshelling nuts or seeds by feeding them between adjacent runs of clockwise and counterclockwise driven belts which carry them against and between vertically spaced pairs of rollers to effectively posture and then to apply cracking pressure to the nuts and seeds along their largest dimension. Similar operating apparatus also has utility for cracking naturally occuring clusters of garlic or shallot bulbs and the like into the individual bulbs.

Abstract: An apparatus is provided for buff blanching peanuts. The machine is adapted to remove the dark outer skin of shelled peanuts and, at the same time, produce a textured finish on the surface of the nuts to enhance the adhesion of an applied coating such as chocolate or the like. The buff blancher includes a pair of driven parallel rollers having abrasive surfaces and mounted in closely spaced parallel relation with one roller being offset above a lower roller. The rollers are mounted in a housing into one end of which peanuts are delivered for movement along and against the two rollers and discharged at the other end of the housing. The housing may be raised at the feed end in order to provide an incline for the flow of nuts and may be tilted about its longitudinal axis to control the degree of buffing action between the peanuts and the rollers.

Abstract: Machine for cracking shell fruit comprising a rotor (1) formed of two plates (2) and (3) and having cavities (4), the axes of the plates (2) and (3) being inclined so as to vary the overall size of the cavities (4), and furthermore comprising a feed device formed in particular of transfer tubes (19) and cups (20) mounted on a disk (18).

Abstract: A nut cracking machine including a pair of spaced apart cracking plates having confronting cracking faces provided with cracking means thereon, the cracking faces and cracking means thereof being disposed to distribute cracking forces substantially tangentially along the periphery of the shell of a nut received therebetween, for rolling and cracking engagement of a nut, rather than crushing of the same; one of the cracking plates comprising a stationary base plate and the other comprising a rotatable holding plate that is moveable toward and away from the base plate; limit means for initial positioning of the cracking face of the holding plate apart from the cracking face of the base plate according to the proximate diameter of the nut to be cracked, for insertion of a nut therebetween, and thrust means operative on rotation of the holding plate for movement of the holding plate toward the base plate in juxtaposed relation for rolling and cracking engagement of the shell of a nut received therebetween and, on

Abstract: A plurality of pointed nail-like members extend from a surface of a circular base plate in spaced mutual relation parallel to the axis thereof. A cylindrical side is affixed to the base plate around the circumference thereof. A plurality of pointed nail-like members extend from a surface of a circular cover plate in spaced mutual relation parallel to the axis thereof. The cover plate is releasably secured to the base plate with the nail-like members of each pointed toward the other with the points spaced from each other whereby when the cover plate is coaxially secured to the base plate with a plurality of nuts placed on the base plate and the cover plate is rotated back and forth relative to the base plate a plurality of times, most of the nuts are shelled.

Abstract: Apparatus for shelling or husking cereals comprising a horizontally oriented rotatable drum, a perforated cylinder surrounding and spaced from the annular wall of the drum, a radial chamber on the inlet side of the drum, an annular chamber between the surface of the drum and the perforated cylinder, a collection chamber for the shells or husks outside the perforated cylinder, a collection chamber at the other end of the drum for the material that has been shelled or husked and a sealable lip at the downstream end of the perforated cylinder, the seal of which is adjustable to properly control the separation of the shelled material from the shells or husks.

Abstract: A portable machine incorporating a first chamber in which pecans are subjected to drum mounted resilient flails which cooperate with a roughened chamber portion in effecting a separation of the husks or hulls of the pecans. A second chamber located outward of the first chamber receives the pecans, hulls and other vegetation which might have been gathered with the pecans with all of the materials in the second chamber being subjected to a separating flow of air whereby the normally heavier pecans are allowed to pass therethrough with the lighter hulls and other materials being air separated from the pecans.