Improved methods and apparatus for dry hulling or dry peeling harvested crops, particularly pistachio nuts, are disclosed. The methods and apparatus of the present invention provide crop harvesting with great efficiency resulting in consistently high percentages of hulled or peeled crops and low percentages of nut breakage, without increasing processing times regardless of the sizes of the crops being hulled or peeled. The methods and apparatus of the present invention also provide for a relatively small overall machine footprint, plus easy and efficient removal and replacement of the impingement drum to accommodate for different drum speeds, different crop sizes, different bolt patterns, different bolt sizes, and other variations allowing embodiments of the invention to be used on a wide range of nuts and vegetables of different varieties, sizes and shapes.

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.

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.

The present disclosure discloses a machine and a method for peeling skin from un-peeled objects that mainly includes at least one controller, an object: handling unit, an agitating: and heating unit and a peeling and separating unit. The agitating and heating unit includes an agitator and a heater. The agitator receives un-peeled objects and hot abrasive particles. During agitation, un-peeled objects and hot abrasive particles tumble with each other thereby loosing bond between skin and objects and provide objects with loosely bonded skin. The heater heats the abrasive particles and then permits, flow within the agitator by use of abrasive conveyor. Objects with loosely bonded skin are then provided in the peeling and separation unit for peeling and separating skin from un-peeled objects and provide peeled objects in a controlled manner.

The present disclosure discloses a machine and a method for peeling skin from un-peeled objects that mainly includes at least one controller, an object: handling unit, an agitating: and heating unit and a peeling and separating unit. The agitating and heating unit includes an agitator and a heater. The agitator receives un-peeled objects and hot abrasive particles. During agitation, un-peeled objects and hot abrasive particles tumble with each other thereby loosing bond between skin and objects and provide objects with loosely bonded skin. The heater heats the abrasive particles and then permits, flow within the agitator by use of abrasive conveyor. Objects with loosely bonded skin are then provided in the peeling and separation unit for peeling and separating skin from un-peeled objects and provide peeled objects in a controlled manner.

The invention relates to a method for treating shell-fruits (3), in particular for producing shell-fruits (3) with improved shelling properties in comparison to untreated shell-fruits (3). The invention further relates to a device (1) for treating shell-fruits (3), in particular for producing shell-fruits (3) with improved shelling properties in comparison to untreated shell-fruits (3), comprising a hermetically sealable treatment chamber (2) for conditioning the shell-fruits (3). In order to provide a method and a device for treating shell-fruits which do not damage the contents of the kernel and simultaneously permit improved shelling of the shell-fruits and the opened shell to be better separated from the kernel, the method according to the invention comprises softening the shell of the shell-fruits (3) by applying an electric field, and the device according to the invention comprises at least one capacitor (4) for generating an electric field in the treatment chamber (2).

The present invention relates to a camellia fruit shelling and sorting machine, including a sorting belt conveyance trough provided on a frame, the sorting belt conveyance trough is connected with a shelling mechanism through a sorting tank. The sorting belt conveyance trough is provided with a sorting tank, and a sorting guide block and a sorting separate block is provided within the sorting tank. A sorting sweeping block is placed in the inner top of the sorting tank, and the inner top of which is adjacent to the sorting conveyor. Spacing between the sorting sweep block and the sorting belt conveyance trough is greater than one camellia seed but less than two camellia seeds. The sorting separate block is provided with a sorting opening, and the sorting tank is embedded with a sorting push block. The sorting push block is connected with a sorting cylinder moved forwards and backwards on the frame, and the inner side of the sorting push block is embedded with a sorting beam emitter and is provided with a reflected beam receiver. The sorting beam emitter and the reflected beam receiver on the sorting push block of the present invention are used for detection of the camellia seeds, which may separate the inferior camellia seeds to realize the high-efficiency sorting of camellia seeds.

The present invention relates to a camellia fruit shelling and sorting machine, including a sorting belt conveyance trough provided on a frame, the sorting belt conveyance trough is connected with a shelling mechanism through a sorting tank. The sorting belt conveyance trough is provided with a sorting tank, and a sorting guide block and a sorting separate block is provided within the sorting tank. A sorting sweeping block is placed in the inner top of the sorting tank, and the inner top of which is adjacent to the sorting conveyor. Spacing between the sorting sweep block and the sorting belt conveyance trough is greater than one camellia seed but less than two camellia seeds. The sorting separate block is provided with a sorting opening, and the sorting tank is embedded with a sorting push block. The sorting push block is connected with a sorting cylinder moved forwards and backwards on the frame, and the inner side of the sorting push block is embedded with a sorting beam emitter and is provided with a reflected beam receiver. The sorting beam emitter and the reflected beam receiver on the sorting push block of the present invention are used for detection of the camellia seeds, which may separate the inferior camellia seeds to realize the high-efficiency sorting of camellia seeds.

Improved methods and apparatus for dry hulling or dry peeling harvested crops, particularly pistachio nuts, are disclosed. The methods and apparatus of the present invention provide crop harvesting with great efficiency resulting in consistently high percentages of hulled or peeled crops and low percentages of nut breakage, without increasing processing times regardless of the sizes of the crops being hulled or peeled. The methods and apparatus of the present invention also provide for a relatively small overall machine footprint, plus easy and efficient removal and replacement of the impingement drum to accommodate for different drum speeds, different crop sizes, different bolt patterns, different bolt sizes, and other variations allowing embodiments of the invention to be used on a wide range of nuts and vegetables of different varieties, sizes and shapes.

Improved methods and apparatus for dry hulling or dry peeling harvested crops, particularly pistachio nuts, are disclosed. The methods and apparatus of the present invention provide crop harvesting with great efficiency resulting in consistently high percentages of hulled or peeled crops and low percentages of nut breakage, without increasing processing times regardless of the sizes of the crops being hulled or peeled. The methods and apparatus of the present invention also provide for a relatively small overall machine footprint, plus easy and efficient removal and replacement of the impingement drum to accommodate for different drum speeds, different crop sizes, different bolt patterns, different bolt sizes, and other variations allowing embodiments of the invention to be used on a wide range of nuts and vegetables of different varieties, sizes and shapes.