GB191010335A - Improvements in Apparatus for Removing the Pericarp from Fruit, Nuts, Seeds or the like. - Google Patents

Abstract

10,335. Buchanan, J. L., and Tyrell, J. G. April 27. Fats and fatty oils, extracting from palm nuts &c. Palm nuts and other nuts, seeds, or fruit having an oil or fat bearing pericarp are deprived of their outer covering by agitating in a cylinder composed of parallel bars 1, Fig. 1, pivoted so that their sharpened edges may be adjusted to project more or less into the cylinder. The bars preferably have a triangular cross-section, each edge forming a knife which may be plain or serrated. Vanes 16 attached to a central shaft agitate the nuts and are curved to move them forward, preferably more rapidly at the circumference than near the centre. The shaft and vanes may be hollow and perforated for the introduction of steam if the nuts have not been previously cooked. Additional supports 60 for the bars and the shaft may be provided mid-way along the drum or at other suitable points. The nuts &c. are fed into the drum by a hopper 27 and conveyer blades 26, and the kernels are discharged by a laterally oblique opening 38 and shoot 33. A second opening 37 in the end-plate, closed by a lid 39, is provided for cleaning out the drum, a lid 7, provided with handles 9 and secured by bolts hinged to lugs 23, being removed for the purpose. The drum is surrounded by a casing which confines the steam, when used, and directs the pericarp from the drum into hoppers leading to a steam-jacketed worm-conveyer 19. The kernels pass into a rectangular or polygonal screen 34, Fig. 5, rotated by a toothed wheel 54. The screen consists of an angle - iron frame mounted on a shaft by means of stays 47 screwed into the collar 48, the end bars 43 having clamping-plates 44 and nuts 45, which grip the ends of longitudinal wires 40 or of wire netting with a long mesh. Any remaining flesh is removed from the kernels by this screen and falls into a hopper and the conveyer 19, while the kernels are discharged at one side by a shoot 53. Steam or hot water may be introduced through the shaft. The material is delivered to an elevator which may be formed of wire mesh fitted with compressing rollers to extract the oil.