| 摘要 |
An apparatus for processing hard-shelled nuts and a method therefore. A nut processing apparatus has a plurality of mechanical grippers moving in a continuous loop, each gripper configured to carry a nut through a plurality of processing stations. A conveyor system sequentially transports single nuts from a hopper to a position where the mechanical grippers may engage each nut and begin the processing cycle. Once engaged, the grippers carry the nuts to a grooving station where a grooving blade is brought into contact with the shells of the nuts. Once the grooving blade is in contact with the shells, the grippers rotate the nuts one complete revolution, thereby cutting a groove in the peripheries of the nuts. The grippers then carry the nuts to a splitting station, where splitting blades are brought into contact with the shells of the nuts where the grooves have been cut, thereby splitting the shell into two parts. The grippers carry the split shell to a collecting station where the shell is separated and the nut kernel is collected for processing. The shells are carried by the grippers to a dumping station where the shells are discarded. The grippers then engage another nut and the process continues with the various nuts in the plurality of grippers being simultaneously processed at different stations.
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