Patent ID: 7028608

Claim:
A high production nutcracking apparatus, comprising a hopper for storing a relatively large quantity of nuts to be cracked, an endless conveyor extending through the hopper for serially delivering the nuts from the hopper to a cracking assembly which cracks the serially delivered nuts at a cracking location, guide means for delivering at least some of the shell fragments which are produced at the cracking location of the cracking assembly and any whole nuts which are mis-fed by the conveyor or fail to be cracked by the cracking assembly, from the cracking assembly and onto an inclined grate, said inclined grate being configured to permit the shell fragments to pass directly therethrough while the whole nuts slide down and drop off a lower end of the grate, to thereby separate the shell fragments from the uncracked whole nuts, and a nut return system for receiving the whole nuts which drop from the lower end of the grate and for returning the received whole nuts back into the hopper, whereby the uncracked whole nuts are returned to the hopper without exposure to possible contamination.