Dehulling System For Soft-Shelled Nuts

Abstract

A dehulling system for soft-shelled nuts includes at least two dehulling stations arranged in series, where each station is made up of at least one dehulling machine in a first dehulling stage and a screening machine in a second screening stage, both being a first and a second consecutive stages. The screening machine is a densimetric separator located lower than the dehulling machine and has an upper product inlet towards the interior thereof, which comprises a drum arranged according to an inclined plane, a first outlet for the dehulled grain in the upper part of the drum and a second outlet for the rest of materials other than the dehulled grain in the lower part of the drum.

Claims

1. A dehulling system for soft-shelled nuts, comprising: at least two dehulling stations arranged in series, where each station is formed by at least one dehulling machine for a first dehulling stage and a screening machine for a second screening stage, both first and second stages being consecutive wherein in each of the at least two dehulling stations: the screening machine is a densimetric separator that is located lower than the dehulling machine and which comprises an upper product inlet towards the interior thereof, where it has a drum arranged according to an inclined plane, a first outlet for the dehulled grain in the upper part of the drum and a second outlet for the rest of materials other than said grain dehulled in the lower part of the drum; the dehulling machine has an inlet for feeding it and an outlet for the product obtained from the first dehulling stage, directly connected to the upper inlet of the screening machine, and where those materials collected from the second outlet of the screening machine are transferred to a new consecutive dehulling station.

2. The dehulling system for soft-shelled nuts according to claim 1, wherein the dehulling machine further comprises a mechanism formed by a closed band located lower than the feeding inlet and arranged around two rollers separate from each other which determine a first and a second ends of the band, where one of said rollers is machined with rotation means around its central shaft such that the upper part of the band presents a movement from the first end towards the second end and where a third roller is connected to a motor with a rotating movement in the opposite direction to that of the machined roller of the band and is located higher than it, at a distance such that a space to pass through the fruits is provided between them.

3. The dehulling system for soft-shelled nuts according to claim 1 further comprising an additional station previous to the first dehulling station, comprised of at least one mechanism for peeling the fruit.

4. The dehulling system according to claim 3, wherein said additional station is formed by an integrated machine that comprises a feeding hopper for the peeling mechanism, a screening means arranged lower than the peeling mechanism which comprise an inlet connected to the outlet of the screening means and which have at least one screening element to separate the product into two levels, and suction selection means to be applied to at least one level of the screening means.

5. The dehulling system for soft-shelled nuts according to claim 3, wherein said additional station produces a quantity of dehulled fruit and comprises a first conveyor belt to transport the dehulled fruit to the inlet of the screening machine in the first station.

6. The dehulling system for soft-shelled nuts according to claim 1, wherein the screening machine in each station comprises an internal suction mechanism to eliminate the dust generated in the interior thereof.

7. The dehulling system for soft-shelled nuts according to claim 1 further comprising a suction mechanism before and/or after the dehulling machine in each station.

8. The dehulling system for soft-shelled nuts according to claim 1 further comprising a second conveyor belt for transporting the dehulled fruit produced in all stations to a same collection area.

9. The dehulling system for soft-shelled nuts according to claim 1 further comprising a transporter which moves the product obtained through the second outlet of the screening machine to the dehulling machine in the consecutive station, said transporter comprising at least a third conveyor belt.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0025] In order to help for a better understanding of characteristics of the invention, according to a preferred example of a practical embodiment thereof, a set of drawings is provided as an integral part of said description, where with an illustrative and non-limiting character, representations show the following:

[0026] FIG. 1 shows a plan view of a dehulling system for soft-shelled nuts according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.

[0027] FIG. 2.1 shows a cross-section view through A-A′ of a dehulling system for soft-shelled nuts according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.

[0028] FIG. 2.2 shows a view of a detail D in FIG. 2.1, which shows the integrated machine of the additional station in a dehulling system for soft-shelled nuts according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.

[0029] FIG. 3 shows a view through a section B-B′ in a dehulling system for soft-shelled nuts according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0030] In view of the accompanying figures, it can be seen how in a preferred embodiment of the invention, the dehulling system (1) for soft-shelled nuts proposed herein comprises at least two dehulling stations (2) arranged in series, where each station (2) is made up of at least one dehulling machine (3) for a first dehulling stage and a screening machine (4) for a second stage of screening, both the first and second stages being consecutive.

[0031] In this preferred embodiment of the invention as shown in FIG. 1, the system comprises 6 stations (2), each of which includes a dehulling machine (3) and a screening machine (4).

[0032] Furthermore, in this dehulling system (1), the screening machine (4) is a densimetrc separator that is located lower than the dehulling machine (3) and comprises an upper product inlet (5) towards the interior of thereof where it has a drum arranged according to an inclined plane, a first outlet (6) for the dehulled grain located at the upper part of the drum and a second outlet (7) for the rest of materials other than said dehulled grain located at the lower part of the drum.

[0033] Meanwhile, the dehulling machine (3) has a feeding inlet (8) and an outlet (9) for the product obtained from the first dehulling stage directly connected to the upper inlet (5) of the screening machine (4).

[0034] Materials collected in the second outlet (7) of the screening machine (4) are transferred to a new consecutive dehulling station.

[0035] In this preferred embodiment of the invention, the dehulling machine (3) comprises a mechanism formed by a closed band located lower than the upper product inlet (5) and arranged around two rollers separated from each other which determine a first and second ends of the band, where one of said rollers is machined with means of rotation around its central axis such that the upper part of the band has a movement from the first end towards the second end and, a third roller connected to a motor with a rotating movement in the opposite direction to that of the machined roller of the band and located above it, at a distance such that a space for the fruit to pass through is defined between them.

[0036] According to another aspect, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, in this preferred embodiment of the invention, the dehulling system (1) comprises an additional station (10), prior to the first dehulling station (2.1), formed at least by a mechanism for peeling the fruit.

[0037] In this case, said additional station (10) is comprised of an integrated machine (11) comprising a hopper (12) for feeding the peeling mechanism (13), screening means (14) arranged lower than the mechanism peeling (13) comprising an inlet connected to the outlet of the screening means (14) and having at least one screening element to separate the product into two levels, and selection means (15) by suction applied to at least one level of the screening means (14).

[0038] In this way, the fruit that enters the system (1) first passes through said additional station (10) in which a previous peeling of the nuts is carried out. Thus, it enters through the feeding hopper (12) to the peeling mechanism (13), in this case formed by cylindrical receptacles (25) the lateral surface of which is formed by a plurality of bars (26), and a rotating central shaft (27) provided with finger-like elements radially projected outward from various longitudinal positions of said central shaft. The outlet for the mixture is located at the end of the receptacle (25) arranged furthest from the feeding hopper (12).

[0039] From said outlet, the nuts go directly to screening means (14) with various levels and selection means (15) by suction in at least some of them, so that the skins on the one hand are sucked to extract them from the process and likewise, the grains that may exist due to some nuts dehulled during peeling are also sucked. In this case in which a quantity of dehulled fruit is produced in the additional station (10), it comprises a first conveyor belt (16) and an elevator for said dehulled fruit to the inlet (5) of the screening machine (4) in the first station (2.1), so that these grains are redirected to the screening machine (4) in the first station (2.1) without going through the dehulling machine (3) in the same. The rest of the peeled fruit is transported by means of a conveyor belt (22) and an elevator (23) to the inlet (8) of the dehulling machine in the first station (2.1).

[0040] According to the above, the fruit that passes to the first dehulling station (2.1) is a shelled and clean fruit. In this first station (2.1), the clean fruit first enters to the dehulling machine (3) and when leaves it, directly enters to the screening machine (4).

[0041] From this screening machine (4), the dehulled grain leaves through a first outlet (6) which, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, is located in the upper part of the drum, and the dehulled grain reaches a second conveyor belt (17) that transports it to a collection area (18).

[0042] Meanwhile, as can be seen in FIGS. 1 to 3, the rest of the materials leave through a second outlet (7) on the lower part of the drum and the system (1) comprises means for transporting said materials to the dehulling machine (3) of the consecutive station (2), formed by a third conveyor belt (19). This third conveyor belt (18) transfers the product to an elevator (20) that carries the product to the entrance level of the dehulling machine (3) of the next station and the process is repeated again. In the last station, the elevator transports the material to a final screening machine (24).

[0043] In each consecutive station (2) the partition size in the dehulling machine (3) is gradually adjusted and is smaller than that of the station (2) prior to it. On the other hand, in this preferred embodiment of the invention, all the dehulled nuts are collected on the same second conveyor belt (17), which carries all of the dehulled fruit collected from all the stations (2) to a same collection area (18).

[0044] In this preferred embodiment of the invention, the screening machine (4) comprises an internal sucking mechanism to remove the dust generated inside and the collected dust from the screening machines (4) in all stations (2) is collected by means of an endless screw (21).

[0045] Likewise, it comprises a suction mechanism before and after the dehulling machine (3) in each station. In other embodiments, the suction mechanism can only be located before said machine for suctioning the dust and those foreign elements that may accompany the fruit, or after it for sucking the skins generated by said machine.

[0046] The described embodiment constitutes only an example of the present invention, therefore, the specific details, terms and phrases used in the present specification are not to be considered as limiting, but are to be understood only as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis to provide an understandable description as well as sufficient information to the person skilled in the art to apply the present invention.