Method and apparatus for cracking nuts

摘要

The nut cracking apparatus includes a conveyor comprised of a plurality of parallel slats connected to endless chains for intermittent movement from a hopper to a nut gripping and cracking apparatus. Each slat is provided with a row of openings extending therethrough for receiving nuts from the hopper and an underlying support is provided to retain the nuts in the openings until each slat is moved in sequence to a plurality of cracking apparatus. Each nut is located between an upper and lower nut gripping block each of which has a recess therein with a slot in the bottom thereof. The lower nut gripping block is spring biased on a fixed blade to normally have the blade retracted out of the recess. The upper nut gripping block is spring biased on an opposed blade which in turn is connected to the piston of an hydraulically operated piston and cylinder device. The upper nut gripping block is normally biased so that the blade is withdrawn from the recess. Upon lowering of the upper blade toward the lower blade a nut is gripped between the upper and lower blocks and continued downward movement of the blade will cause the upper and lower blades to penetrate into the recesses to cut the shell of the nut into two pieces without damaging the kernel of the nut. A blade position sensing device is provided for limiting the travel of the blade and upon cutting the shell into two pieces, the upper blade is retracted and the upper and lower nut gripping blocks are spring biased back to their normal position. Upon the next stepwise movement of the belt, the slat is moved to a position whereby the shell pieces will drop from the openings in the slat to a container.