Patent GB-1199813-A (GB)
Title: Cashew Nut Decorticating Machine
Inventor: LAWTON FREDERICK
IPC: A23N5/00
Filed: 1968-09-11
Abstract: 1,199,813. Decorticating cashew nuts. TANZANIA CASHEW MACHINES Ltd. 11 Sept., 1968, No. 43149/68. Heading A2Q. [Also in Division B8] A machine for decorticating cashew nuts comprises a rotatable turret 2 having three nut-holding devices, each in the form of a pair of axially-slidable members 9, which are spaced equiangularly about the axis of rotation of the turret, means for rotating the turret stepwise to dispose a nut held by each device opposite each of three stations in turn, means at the first station for feeding a nut to the device opposite it, means at the second station for cutting right round and through the shell of the nut presented to it, and means at the third station for removing the grooved nut from the device opposite it, separating the two cut halves of the shell and ejecting the kernel. The turret consists of a pair of discs 6 carried on stub shafts 7 and rotatable as a unit, through stepwise rotation gear comprising a cam-driven reciprocating linkage incorporating drive and check pawls engaging three circumferential spaced drive pins (Fig. 6, not shown), together with friction brake holding means 112. The members 9 of each pair are coupled by linkage 11 to a cam and follower arrangement 10, which causes the members to come together to grip a nut fed to the first station by a reciprocating transfer arm 22 which has a spring-controlled gripper 27 into which a nut is fed from a feed shoot 20 by a reciprocating pusher arm 26. The arrangement 10 thereafter causes the nut to remain gripped until it reaches the third station where a gripping and shell-opening assembly comprising gripping jaws 44 engages the nut whereupon the members 9 are retracted to release the nut from the turret. The means at the second station for cutting right round and through the nut consists of a circular saw blade 30, which has special stepped teeth to provide a narrow cut right through the shell together with a groove on either side of the cut, together with means for rotating the relevant members 9 about their axis which consists of a reciprocating linkage (133, Fig. 6, not shown) which is positioned to engage an arm (132), associated with a pair of gear sectors (130) engaging pinion formations on the members 9, each pair of members 9 having an associated arm and pair of gear sectors for enabling rotation thereof to be effected by the linkage. The gripping and shell-opening assembly includes a pair of arms 40 pivoted on parallel axes and spreadable by a cam 42 against the action of springs 43. A pair of gripping jaws 44 is mounted on each arm 40, together with a third jaw 47 slideable longitudinally of the respective arm 40. When a nut arrives at the third station the springs 43 maintain the arms 40 close together so that pairs of jaws 44 are in juxtaposition and the jaws 47 are also in juxtaposition, but the jaws of each set of three jaws are open. The jaws are then closed so that the juxtaposed jaws enter the groove in the nut around substantially the whole circumference of the grooves, after which the arms 40 are moved apart so that the two sets of jaws move apart, so breaking open the shell. At the same time, a pair of interconnected camming arms 83, 84 cause axial movement of a pair of pins which are carried by T-shaped link members 79, 80 and slide in guides 79a, 80a, so that as the shell halves move apart they are inpaled on the pins, so ejecting the nut which falls into a shoot (170, Fig. 4, not shown) which is mounted on parallel links and is reciprocated into a position to receive the nut as it is being ejected.