A modular nut cleaning plant comprises a nut sizer and a stick remover mounted to the nut sizer. A vacuum unit is mounted to the stick remover. A nut product stream will pass on the stick remover through the vacuum unit which will vacuum light debris from the nut product stream. The nut product stream moves on a chain on the stick remover. Large debris and sticks that do not fall through openings in the chain will pass into a debris conveyor. Nuts and debris that fall through the openings in the chain will be delivered to the nut sizer. The nut sizer will rotate and tumble nuts and debris in the nut product stream. Nuts of an undesirable size and debris will pass into a debris conveyor. Nuts of a desired size will pass through the nut sizer into a chute or other conveyance to be delivered to further nut processing apparatus.

A device for cleaning root vegetables include at least two rollers each rotatably mounted about an axis perpendicular to a direction of travel of the root vegetables on the rollers. At least one of the rollers is equipped with a means for heating its outer wall. Thus, with the outer wall of the roller being heated, this has the effect of drying soil that is possibly stuck thereon. This drying is enough to make the soil crisp and to overcome the suction phenomenon of wet soil on the roller and on reliefs of the roller. Vibrations due to the displacement of the root vegetables on the rollers ensure that the dried soil is detached and falls to the ground.

Described herein are conveyor systems and application units which can be used to transport and simultaneously treat, or to facilitate treatment and inspection of produce, agricultural products, or other items. The conveyor systems and application units can be configured to allow products to be simultaneously rotated as they are moved along a packing line, which can facilitate the uniform application of spray coatings and/or allow the products to be uniformly blow dried while they are moved. Exemplary conveyor systems and application units can include a bed formed of a plurality of rollers and a rotation inducing device that causes the rollers to rotate while they are laterally transported, thereby causing the products lying on top of the bed to rotate during transport.

A nut sizer includes a nut sizer frame and a rotatable nut sizer cage mounted therein. A motor is attached to the nut sizer frame at an intake end thereof. The motor will drive a drive sprocket which will in turn drive a reel sprocket that is connected to the rotatable sizer cage. A chain engages the drive sprocket and the reel sprocket. The sizer cage may be lifted from the nut sizer frame by removing the chain. The nut sizer cage is a sectioned sizer cage and includes a first sizer section and a second sizer section detachably connected thereto.

A dirt removal and piling machine is ideally suited for use in cleaning and piling individualized and non-uniformly shaped workpieces, preferably sugar beets but also potatoes, other tuber crops, and even with aggregate rocks for a tilting receiving station. A further aspect of the present machine includes a workpiece unloading or receiving station which can tip sideways after a dump truck unloads the workpieces and longitudinally drives therethrough. In another aspect, the machine also includes a cleaning station having rotatable rollers, an underlying dirt conveyor and a moveable dirt dumping conveyor, hopper or bucket adjacent an end of the dirt conveyor and external to the rollers. Furthermore, another aspect of the machine includes an automatic and/or robotic sampling arm which is operable to remove a tuber crop workpiece sample and automatically package the sample after the sample has moved through a cleaning station.

A cleaning equipment for food production. The cleaning equipment includes a cleaning platform and a cleaning device arranged on the cleaning platform, where the cleaning platform is provided therein with a cleaning tank; the cleaning tank is provided with a plurality of air spraying tubes at the bottom; the cleaning device includes a first pulley rotatably arranged on the cleaning platform, a first driving member driving the first pulley to rotate, a second pulley rotatably arranged on the cleaning platform, a crawler belt wound between the first pulley and the second pulley and a plurality of wipers evenly arranged on the crawler belt; a cleaning cavity for accommodating food is formed between two adjacent wipers; when the crawler belt rotates, a wiper moving to the cleaning cavity drives the food to move forward in the cleaning tank; the crawler belt is provided with a clamping member for fixing the wiper.

A longitudinally movable infeed mechanism that allows for variations in the effective length of a peeler that uses rotating rolls to clean, peel or otherwise treat the exterior of objects, such as potatoes. The infeed mechanism has a surface, which can be the upwardly-facing surface of a conveyor belt, that conveys or is part of a structure that conveys the objects into the peel bed. A terminal end of the surface may move longitudinally parallel to the rolls, and may have a wall that prevents objects from moving past it. Thus, movement of the terminal end and wall defines the effective peel bed length and restricts the objects to that peel bed, permitting variation in amount of peeling by movement of the infeed mechanism.

The invention relates to a cleaning device (2) for cleaning crops comprising a roller bed (4) comprising several rollers (3) rotatable about a rotational axis (3a), whereby gaps (10) are or can be provided between said rollers (3) in such a manner that impurities present together with the crop on an upper side (4a) of the roller bed (4) can be discharged through the gaps (10) while, at the same time, the crop can be kept on the upper side (4a), whereby the rollers (3) of the roller bed (4) can be driven in such a way that the impurities can be discharged through the gaps (10).

According to the invention, tappets (6) movable in the direction of conveyance (F) are arranged above the upper side (4a) of the roller bed (4) in such a way that crop present on the upper side (4a) of the roller bed (4) can be carried along by these tappets (6) in the direction of conveyance (F), whereby, to that end, said tappets (6) extend between at least two driver means (8; 12), whereby at least the tappets (6) arranged above said upper side (4a) of said roller bed can be moved by the at least two driver means (8; 12) in the direction of conveyance (F).

A modular nut cleaning plant comprises a nut sizer and a stick remover mounted to the nut sizer. A vacuum unit is mounted to the stick remover. A nut product stream will pass on the stick remover through the vacuum unit which will vacuum light debris from the nut product stream. The nut product stream moves on a chain on the stick remover. Large debris and sticks that do not fall through openings in the chain will pass into a debris conveyor. Nuts and debris that fall through the openings in the chain will be delivered to the nut sizer. The nut sizer will rotate and tumble nuts and debris in the nut product stream. Nuts of an undesirable size and debris will pass into a debris conveyor. Nuts of a desired size will pass through the nut sizer into a chute or other conveyance to be delivered to further nut processing apparatus.

A nut sizer includes a nut sizer frame and a rotatable nut sizer cage mounted therein. A motor is attached to the nut sizer frame at an intake end thereof. The motor will drive a drive sprocket which will in turn drive a reel sprocket that is connected to the rotatable sizer cage. A chain engages the drive sprocket and the reel sprocket. The sizer cage may be lifted from the nut sizer frame by removing the chain. The nut sizer cage is a sectioned sizer cage and includes a first sizer section and a second sizer section detachably connected thereto.