Patent ID: 7197977

Claim:
An apparatus for successively delivering nuts in a predetermined orientation to a cracking head of a nutcracker, and comprising a hopper for storing a relatively large quantity of the nuts to be cracked, an endless conveyor having an upper run extending through said hopper to a delivery point exteriorly thereof, with said conveyor comprising a feed chain and a plurality of nut transport elements mounted in succession on said feed chain, with each element including opposite sides and a generally semicircular, laterally extending receptacle which faces upwardly during movement of the element through said hopper and to said delivery point, and with each receptacle communicating with each of said opposite sides of the associated element and being sized to supportingly receive a single nut to be cracked which is orientated with its end to end direction extending along the receptacle, wherein said apparatus further comprises means for laterally ejecting any nuts in excess of one from the receptacle of each nut transport element and so that they are ejected from the receptacle on one of said sides thereof, said ejecting means comprising a longitudinal slot communicating with the full length of the side of each nut transport element opposite said one side thereof and also communicating with the associated receptacle, with the slot extending laterally a substantial portion of the distance across the element, and with said ejecting means further comprising an arm, and means mounting said arm in said hopper so that the arm extends laterally into the slot of each advancing element and thereby deflects each excess nut therein from the receptacle on said one side, means including an actuating member located on the outside of a side wall of hopper for adjusting the lateral extent to which the arm extends into the slots of the advancing elements, to thereby permit adjustment for differently sized nuts which are being processed by the nutcracker, and wherein said arm is pivotally mounted in said hopper for movement about a pivotal axis which is perpendicular to the direction of advance of the advancing nut transport elements, and so that pivotal movement of the arm about said pivotal axis causes the lateral extent to which the arm extends into the slots to be varied.