Abstract: A device for regulating and adjusting a distance between pairs of adjacent rollers in a peeling machine for almonds and similar dried fruits is provided, wherein the rollers are horizontally aligned at both sides of a central plane through which the product to be peeled is passed, the device including a movement transmission shaft coupled to each pair of adjacent rollers, a motor for operation of the movement transmission shaft, wherein the motor is coupled to one of the ends of the transmission shaft, a torque meter for measuring torque at various positions of the rollers, wherein the torque meter is coupled to a spin axis of at least one of the rollers in the pair, and a sensor for measuring and regulating a working distance between the rollers, wherein the sensor is coupled to at least the other roller in the pair.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an abrasive roll assembly, a conveyor assembly and a milling machine having the same. The abrasive roll assembly comprises an abrasive roll element configured for milling food grains.

Abstract: A hulled rice distribution device (30) is disposed between a hulling section (10) and a wind sorting section (60) of a rice huller (1). This distribution device (30) comprises an distribution gutter (35) for receiving hulled rice falling from the hulling section, and a screw (32) for conveying the hulled rice having flowed into the distribution gutter (35) in the lengthwise direction of the distribution gutter. A plurality of holes (41, 42 and 43) for the hulled rice to fall through are formed in the distribution gutter (35), and some of them may be blocked or opened by a falling rice control plate (34).

Abstract: A hulling apparatus having a main frame, a moveable support frame, a rotatable drum fixed in position relative to the main frame, a housing supported by the moveable support frame and a hulling chamber formed by the placement of the drum inside the housing. A contact element having one or more brush assemblies is attached to the drum such that the bristles project into the hulling chamber to engage walnuts, pecans or other food products and remove the outer hull therefrom. The walls of the housing are formed from one or more screened panels having openings therein to pass the removed hull material and spiral members thereon to help guide the food products through the apparatus. The housing moves up and down to increase or decrease the size of the hulling chamber. The apparatus speeds the process of hulling walnuts and pecans and more effectively utilizes the brush assemblies.

Abstract: In a rice huller, a first small-diameter pulley and a second large-diameter pulley are attached to a first roll shaft. A first large-diameter pulley and a second small-diameter pulley are attached to a second roll shaft. This configuration makes it possible to switch between a first driving state in which a rice hulling operation is performed by passing and driving a belt between the first small-diameter pulley on the first roll shaft and the first large-diameter pulley on the second roll shaft and a second driving state in which a rice hulling operation is performed by passing and driving a belt between the second large-diameter pulley on the first roll shaft and the second small-diameter pulley on the second roll shaft.

Abstract: A peeler is provided having a removable liner, the liner possessing a rough texture for assisting the turning of a food product during a peeling operation. A method of manufacturing the disclosed peeler and liner is also provided.

Abstract: An apparatus for separating hulled and unhulled pistachios includes a rotating roller and a conveyor for depositing pistachios onto the roller. Rotation of the drum frictionally separates hulled and unhulled pistachios.

Abstract: A husking apparatus supplies cereal grains between a pair of rotating rubber rolls through a guiding chute, rubs and husks them. A roll diameter marker for indicating an abrasion degree of the diameter of one of the rubber rolls is provided near the minimum gap between the rubber rolls. An incline angle changing marker previously marked with a changing degree of a position or an angle of incline of the guiding chute in correspondence to the roll diameter marker is provided near the lower end of the guiding chute. An operator can readily detect the diameter of the rubber roll by means of the roll diameter marker and accurately set the position or the angle of incline of the guiding chute in accordance with the incline angle changing marker.

Abstract: A husking apparatus supplies cereal grains between a pair of rotating rubber rolls through a guiding chute, rubs and husks them. A roll diameter marker for indicating an abrasion degree of the diameter of one of the rubber rolls is provided near the minimum gap between the rubber rolls. An incline angle changing marker previously marked with a changing degree of a position or an angle of incline of the guiding chute in correspondence to the roll diameter marker is provided near the lower end of the guiding chute. An operator can readily detect the diameter of the rubber roll by means of the roll diameter marker and accurately set the position or the angle of incline of the guiding chute in accordance with the incline angle changing marker.

Abstract: A husking apparatus for cereals comprises a pair of rolls provided parallel to each other with a clearance therebetween, and an inclined guide chute situated above the rolls. The guide chute slides down cereal grains between the rolls, and the rolls rotate in opposite directions, respectively, to nip and shell the cereal grains therebetween. The guide chute and the rolls are located so that a guide surface of the guide chute is substantially perpendicular to a line connecting the centers of rotational shafts, and that an extension line from the guide surface passes within a range of .+-.10 mm on both sides of a middle point of the clearance between the first and second rolls. The guide surface of the guide chute has such an inclination that the cereal grains spread all over a width of the guide surface in the substantially single layer of a band-like shape and are accelerated up to a speed less than peripheral speeds of the rolls while they slide down along the guide surface.

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 chain drive system is provided for communicating rotation from the bottom roller of a hay conditioner to the top roller of the hay conditioner. The top and bottom rollers include longitudinally extending flutes which intermesh as the rollers rotate. The top roller is mounted for movement at each end upwardly away from the bottom roller to accommodate increased quantities of crop or obstacles. The chain drive maintains angular synchronism between the rollers despite movement of the top roller away from the bottom roller. This is achieved using a single chain wrapped around a drive sprocket on the bottom roller and around two idlers arranged at the apexes of a triangle. The driven sprocket on the top roller is located within the triangle so that the chain wraps around the drive roller into the triangle, around the driven roller and back to the idler at the apex.

Abstract: This invention provides for an apparatus that will shell and separate the shells from the meat of a cracked nut or legume. The apparatus of the present invention is also provided with an adjustable slide plate that will render the apparatus with the capacity of dehulling any variety nut or legume.

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: Peeling rollers for vegetables, particularly root crops each comprising an hourglass-shaped core roller having a recessed portion defined and an outer cylindrical elastomer member concentrically surrounding the core roller, thereby constituting a space enclosed by the recessed portion and the elastomer member, the elastomer member being attached with abrasive pieces, the space being a hollow.

Abstract: A roller assembly for grain shellers, the assembly including a metal sleeve having first and second apertures therein, a sleeve of flexible material bonded to the exterior of the metal sleeve with portions of the flexible material sleeve extending into the metal sleeve first apertures, the metal sleeve being adapted for connection to a mounting hub, and pin means extending from the mounting hub and into the second apertures of the metal sleeve.

Abstract: The apparatus comprises a stator (1) and a rotor (3) rotatably supported in a stator housing (2) with a processing space (9) therebetween. The stator housing (2) and rotor (3) are fitted with knobs on their mutually facing sides in the region of the processing space (9) where the corn is processed. Work elements (8, 13, 21) with knobs are positioned in approximation of a circle at the stator housing (2) and at the rotor (3). The inside of the stator housing is divided in the cirucmferential direction into siftings segments (21, 22) with sieve holes provided in an alternating manner with knob segments. The stator housing (2) includes at least two detachable housing wall parts (14, 15) making the processing space (9) easily accessible in the event of operational disturbance therein.

Abstract: A device for removing coatings from granular materials such as hull-encased meats of grains. The device includes a housing within which is journaled a rotatably disposed drum. A wall is also mounted within the housing, the wall angling downwardly and being spaced at a distance from an outer surface of the drum to define a processing space therebetween. Typically, the processing space narrows downwardly within the housing. The drum is disposed for rotation so that any material fed into the housing through a hopper mounted on the top thereof will be drawn along the drum surface into the processing space. The processing space narrows sufficiently so that an abrasion is effected upon the material as it is deposited within the processing space because of the relative movement of the outer surface of the drum and the downwardly extending wall.

Abstract: A grain polishing machine of a vertical shaft and friction type in which a vertical polishing rotor and a bran removing polishing cylinder surrounding the former have each different diameters so as to have step parts dividing a polishing chamber defined between the polishing rotor and the polishing cylinder into a plurality of parts which are communicated with each other through connection passages that are defined between the step parts of the polishing rotor and the polishing cylinder thereby to prevent the weight of grain in the upper part of the polishing chamber from affecting the polishing pressure in the lower part thereof so that the polishing pressure in the polishing chamber is made to be uniform as a whole.

Abstract: In a rice pressing apparatus having mating rollers mounted in parallel at a specific gap, each roller comprising a slightly tapered metal hub of aluminum or an aluminum-zinc alloy, a removable rubber sleeve and retaining caps at each end to maintain proper alignment of parts. The hub includes external splines which dovetail with internal splines of the rubber sleeve.

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: The apparatus includes a hulling section, mounted above and in communication with an air-blow separating section which directs a blast of air onto the processed grain as it is discharged from the hulling section into a vibratory separating section which separates the mixture into hulled and unhulled rice. Unhulled and hulled rice lifters are disposed adjacent opposite sides, respectively, of said sections for supplying unhulled rice to the hulling section, and hulled rice through a valve selectively one of two discharge gutters for feeding grain back to the vibratory separation section or to other hulling apparatus. Means is also provided for vibrating the casing of the air-blow separating section.

Abstract: A vertically disposed unhulled rice lifter is mounted adjacent a stationary frame with its upper end secured against movement relative to and in communication with a hulling section which is secured on the frame above and to one side of a vibratory separating section of the apparatus. Grain from the lifter is hulled between a pair of hulling rolls in the hulling section and is fed downwardly through an air stream on to a vibrating surface on the vibratory separating section. The air stream conveys away hulls and dust from the hulled rice; and the vibrating surface separates the hulled rice grains from any unhulled rice which may have passed through the hulling section. The unhulled portion of grain is then returned to the lifter and the completely hulled grains are conveyed to a storage section.

Abstract: A husking machine for cereals, with a husking roller mounted in fixed bearings and with a husking roller which is adjustable along an approximately horizontal path and the bearings of which are arranged on a support displaceable on guide members. The support is equipped with linear horizontal guide members, so that the geometric relationships of the roller gap always remain constant. The husking rollers are driven via belt pulleys arranged on their shafts. In the region of the adjustable husking roller, the belt drive is guided in the form of a Z over a fixed belt pulley, then, parallel to the direction of the guide members, to one of the two belt pulleys arranged on the support, from this to the other belt pulley arranged on the support, and finally, parallel to the direction of the guide members, to a belt pulley arranged fixedly. As a result, the belt tension becomes independent of the readjustment of the husking 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: An abrasive roll rice polishing machine which comprises a vertical framework assembly, a vertical rotary shaft extending in the vertical axis of the framework assembly and journalled therein, an abrasive roll mounted on the shaft for rotation therewith, a vertically movable polishing cylinder provided within the framework assembly surrounding the abrasive roll in peripherally spaced relationship to the latter to define a polishing chamber therebetween, a hopper at the top of the framework assembly and a discharge port at the bottom of the polishing chamber.

Abstract: The present invention is a seed dehulling device including mechanism for adjusting the aggressiveness of the device. The adjusting mechanism provides for changing the spacing between an abrading disc and an adjacent plate.

Abstract: A pistachio huller is provided wherein a means having projections pushes unhulled nuts between the surface of the means having projections and a surface of a means having slots, the slots being narrower than the pistachio nuts to be hulled. The projections protrude into the slots and the hulls are ruptured and abraded through contact between the surface of the means with projection and the surface of the strips forming the means having slots whereby the nuts are hulled.

Abstract: A driving device of sorting cylinders for use in a rotary type rice hulling and sorting device, characterized by comprising a hulling part, a pneumatical sorting part and a rotary type sorting part provided with sorting cylinders rotatably installed therein with one end thereof as the feeding side of rice grains to be sorted and the other end thereof as the discharging side of rice hulled and sorted and having a large number of recesses formed on the internal surface thereof and receiving troughs for taking out the rice grains scooped up by said recesses, said hulling part, said pneumatical sorting part and said rotary type sorting part being integrally constructed and interlocked, and the rotational speed of said sorting cylinders being controllable optionally in no connection with the revolution of said hulling part and said pneumatical sorting part.

Abstract: An inclined chute is attachable to a support by means of a base including a clamping arrangement. An inclined base portion supports said chute and also a pair of bearing posts. A drum disposed within the chute is journaled within the bearing posts. Adjustment means enable axial positioning of the bearing posts for adjusting drum and chute clearance to accommodate various sized nuts. A handle imparts rotation to the drum.

Abstract: A nut blanching arrangement in which nuts to be blanched are passed between first and second spaced, counter-rotating rollers. Each roller is provided with a plurality of hollow elastic tubular rings extending around its outer circumference. The tubular rings on the first roller are longitudinally aligned with respect to the tubular rings on the second roller such that each four adjacent tubular rings, two on each roller, form an opening through which the nuts pass during the blanching operation. In this arrangement, the nuts passing between the counter-rotating rollers are forced between the grooves of adjacent tubular rings such that the rings encapsulate and compress the nuts as they pass therebetween. The counter-rotating rollers are rotated at slightly different speeds such that during the blanching operation, the slight differential in the roller speeds causes the outer skin of the peanut to peel away from the nut meat.

Abstract: A vertical frictionally abrasive roll rice polishing machine in which a vertical rotary shaft extended in the vertically axial direction of a framework assembly, a vertical frictionally abrasive roll is mounted at the upper end of the shaft, a polishing cylinder surrounds the abrasive roll in coaxial and peripherally spaced relationship to the roll to define an annular polishing chamber therebetween, the polishing cylinder rotates and moves depending upon load applied thereto, the abrasive roll rotates but does not move vertically, a material supply passage is formed above the polishing chamber and a polished rice discharge passage is formed below the polishing chamber.

Abstract: An apparatus for separating hulls from unhulled rice having a fixed rotating roll and a movable rotatable roll located in pressure contact with the fixed roll. A control rod connected to a biasing spring holds the movable roll in pressure contact with the fixed roll. An automatically operated control senses the biasing force of the biasing means and adjusts the biasing force to maintain substantially constant contact pressure between the fixed and movable rolls.

Abstract: A rice mill comprising grain feed means, grain husking means connected to said grain feed means, paddy removing means connected to said grain husking means, first grain elevating means connected to said paddy removing means, grain polishing and whitening means connected to said first grain elevating means, second grain elevating means connected to said polishing and whitening means, grain classifying means connected to said second grain elevating means, bin means connected to said grain classifying means, and pneumatic cyclonic separating means for removing light materials from said paddy removing means, said grain husking means, said polishing and whitening means, and said grain classifying means, is rendered capable of full pneumatic conveyance of the grain by the provision of first, second and third grain decelerating and abrading sifter means at the entrances of said grain husking means, said grain polishing and whitening means and said grain classifying means, respectively, and sieve means between each s

Abstract: Apparatus and method for degerming maize are disclosed. The maize is introduced into a cylindrical, perforated working housing in which is mounted a rapidly rotating rotor which drives the maize along an annular working chamber between the rotor and housing. The rotor carries a large number of blades having edges which detach the germ from the endosperm. A collecting chamber surrounds the working housing, and the working housing is provided with an outlet aperture for oversize particles.

Abstract: Shelled nuts, particularly peanuts, are blanched by depositing the nuts in a stream onto the surface of a horizontal, rotating table. Relatively fixed baffles or vanes having abrasive working faces are positioned slightly above the upper surface of the rotating table and extend generally from the periphery of the table to a point offset from the center thereof, whereby nuts deposited near the outer portion of the table will be carried against the abrasive face of each vane and spin inwardly towards the center of the table as they are being blanched. The center of the table is formed with a well opening into which the blanched nuts are dropped and then fed onto a conveyor by an inclined trough for subsequent handling such as roasting, packaging or the like. The vanes may be curved or straight and may be adjustable to control the blanching action as well as the blanching time.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for utilizing a horizontal disc having a plurality of guide vanes extending in a curvilinear path with each vane terminating in an end portion that is substantially parallel to a tangent to the disc. A plurality of impact surfaces are provided in the same horizontal plane as the disc with each surface being substantially linear and extending transversely of the path of travel of a kernel impelled by the disc. The method includes locating the impact surfaces away from the periphery of the disc a sufficient distance so as to preclude application of crushing forces to the kernels as the latter pass between the disc and the surface. The kernels are fed onto the disc at a point near its center from an overhead position at a carefully controlled rate whereby each kernel is aligned by centrifugal forces as it moves along the guide vane so as to expose one of the side edges of the kernel for contact with one of the impact surfaces.

Abstract: An automatic control system for a hulling machine including a fixed rotary hulling roll, a movable rotary hulling roll, means for moving the movable rotary hulling roll toward and away from the fixed rotary hulling roll to adjust the gap between the two hulling rolls and a main electric motor for driving the two hulling rolls. The system includes load detecting means for detecting the load applied to the main electric motor, and control means for connecting the load detecting means to the means for controlling the movement of the auxiliary shaft whereby the gap between the two hulling rolls can be automatically adjusted in accordance with the load applied to the main electric motor.

Abstract: A grain husker has two decorticating rollers which are accommodated in a housing, one of the rollers being rotatable about a stationary axis, while the other roller is mounted on a carrier which, in turn, is mounted on the housing for pivoting relative thereto in such a manner that the movable roller moves with the carrier closer and farther away from the stationary axis of the first-mentioned roller. A drive for the rollers includes a motor, a driving pulley mounted on the output shaft of the motor, and idler pulley and a driven pulley of the movable roller, all of these components being also mounted on the carrier for displacement therewith, the drive further including a driven pulley of the stationarily mounted roller and an endless element which is trained about all of the above-mentioned pulleys.

Abstract: A degerminating process wherein the grain kernels are crushed from the thin edges toward the center while avoiding crushing of the relatively flat side surfaces. The crushing force fractures the endosperm under and around the germ and squeezes the germ away from the endosperm in a whole condition. A machine for carrying out the degermination includes relatively rotating discs having corrugations in their facing surfaces in which the kernels are caught and crushed from the thin edges toward the center. An alternative degerminator machine includes a single rotating disc having curved guide vanes on its upper surface for guiding the kernels as they are propelled outwardly by centrifugal force. The vanes orient each kernel with its top or bottom edge in position to impinge upon flat impact surfaces which results in a crushing force applied from the thin edge toward the center of the kernel.

Abstract: An improved apparatus for hulling and separating loosened seed hulls from kernels of meat employing compartmentized separator for the meat products.

Abstract: A roll type huller including a housing, a pair of hulling rolls parallelly spaced apart within the housing, a main shaft carrying one of the rolls and supported by the housing rotatably about a fixed axis, and a counter shaft carrying the other roll and supported near the free end of an arm mounted at the base by a pivot which is spaced from, and parallel with, the fixed axis, so that the counter shaft can move toward and away from the main shaft while maintaining the parallelism. The pivot is supported by the housing in a relative position opposite to the roll-carrying portion of the counter shaft. The location of the pivot may be inside the housing beneath the counter shaft or outside of the housing above the shaft or elsewhere provided the aforesaid relationship with the shaft is maintained.