Patent ID: 6584890
Filing Date: 2003-07-01
Classification: A23N

Abstract:
An apparatus for successively delivering relatively small nuts, such as pecan seedlings, in a predetermined orientation to a cracking head of a nutcracker or the like, comprisinga hopper for storing a relatively large quantity of the nuts to be cracked, endless conveyor means having an upper run extending through said hopper to a delivery point exteriorly thereof, with said conveyor means comprising a feed chain and a plurality of nut transport elements mounted in succession on said feed chain, with each element being of generally block-like configuration and having an upper face, with the upper face of each element having a longitudinally extending notch formed in an upper corner thereof and a generally semi-cylindrical upwardly facing receptacle extending laterally across the remainder of the upper face, power means for rotating said endless conveyor means such that said nut transport elements move in succession through said hopper and to said delivery point, a longitudinally extending spacer bar fixed in the hopper and being sized and positioned to occupy the notches of a plurality of the elements as they move through the hopper with the feed chain, and singularizing and orienting means mounted along said upper run of said endless conveyor means for effectively removing any nuts in excess of one from the receptacle of each nut transport element and for effectively orienting such nut with its end to end direction extending along the receptacle.