The performance of polyurethane coated shear rollers to shell in-shell nonpareil almonds
Date
2013
Authors
Fielke, J.M.
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Conference paper
Citation
2013 Society for Engineering in Agriculture Conference : innovative agricultural technologies for a sustainable future, 2013, iss.102, pp.1-6
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2013 Society for Engineering in Agriculture (SEAg) Conference (22 Sep 2013 - 24 Sep 2013 : Mandurah, Western Australia)
Abstract
Almonds are now an important crop for Australian horticulture and a vital stage in processing of almonds is the removal of the kernels from their shells. Current shelling equipment (roller over belt) damages some of the kernels and new methods of shelling that reduce damage are required. This work was undertake to benchmark the performance of shear rolls for shelling of almonds. Nonpareil in-shell almonds from South Australia were shelled using a set of polyurethane coated shear rollers with a range of settings. The results showed that the compression of the almond (almond thickness minus the roller clearance) was a critical factor. A high compression setting was required to achieve 100% shelling in one pass but this resulted in 90% of the kernels being broken and the remaining 10% were chipped. Using multiple passes with a smaller compression was able to achieve at best 10% broken kernels and 20% chipped kernels but required from 6 to 40 passes to achieve 100% shelling. The speed ratio of the rollers rotating in opposite directions did not affect shelling performance between 50 and 80% speed ratio but as the speed ratio reduced below 50% the amount of damage increased. When holding the speed ratio constant, decreasing the overall speeds reduced both chipped and broken kernels but increased the number of passes to achieve shelling of all almonds.
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Copyright 2013 Engineers Australia