GB243650A - Improvements in or relating to machines for husking and cracking nuts - Google Patents

Abstract

243,650. Hopkins, C. A., and Wood, M. R. Aug. 14, 1925. Husking.-In a machine for husking and cracking nuts, means for removing the husks from the nuts before cracking comprises a rotary wheel and a co-operating concave provided with spring-pressed knives. The husking-mechanism 6, 7 is arranged on cross-bars 2, 3, 4 at the upper part, and the cracking-mechanism 35, 36 on bars 5 at the lower part, of the frame 1. The wheel 6, Fig. 2, is fixed on a rotary shaft 8 mounted in bearings 9 on .the bars 3, and the eccentric concave 7 is connected at its ends with the bars 2, 4 by shafts 10, 11 mounted in journal-boxes 12, 13 secured by bolts 14, 15 which pass through elongated holes in the bars 2, 4 to allow of horizontal adjustment. Vertical adjustment of the boxes 12, 13 is effected by means of screws 16, 17. The knives 18, 19, Fig. 4, of tha wheel 6 and concave 7 are arranged in parallel transverse rows and have transverse cutting- edges 18<1>, 19' formed concave in the direction of their length. As shown, each row consists of three knives, a central one with a smaller knife at each side thereof. The knives 18 have inclined side faces and are detachably seated in dovetail grooves 20 in the face of the peripheral part 6<a> of the wheel. The knives 19 of the concave are secured in slots in the head parts 23a of plunger rods 23 which extend through radial openings 25 in the concave and at their outer ends pass through sleeves 26 on a curved frame 27 carried by the concave. Springs 30 surrounding the rods 23 are regulatable by means of the screwed sleeves 26, and nuts 29 are provided on the screwed ends 28 of the rods to adjust the distance the knives 19 project from the face of the concave. Side plates 33 on the concave prevent the nuts from escaping at the sides. The nuts to be husked and cracked are fed by a shoot 34, Fig. 1, and the husked nuts pass down a discharge shoot 47, where they are subjected to an upwardly-directed air blast from a pipe 49. The lighter husk portions are carried away through a spout 48, and the husked nuts pass downwardly to the cracking-machine.