ศูนย์นวัตกรรมเทคโนโลยีหลังการเก็บเกี่ยว

Development of a method for separating macadamia nut kernels from cracked nuts.

Sarig, Y.; Blas, H.;

Applied Engineering in Agriculture Year: 2000 Vol: 16 Issue: 6 Pages: 665-670 Ref: 19 ref.

2000

บทคัดย่อ

The macadamia nut is one of the world's finest dessert nuts and its production is expanding constantly. However, a major factor in its relatively high production cost is the unsatisfactory results achieved in the retrieval of good quality kernels. The poor recovery of the nuts is a result of uncracked or incompletely cracked nuts, and of kernels discarded in the bulk of shells due to imperfect shell and kernel separation. While extensive research has been conducted on cracking principles pertaining to macadamia nut, and some machines are already in commercial use, the problem of efficient separation between kernels and shells basically remains unsolved. The method is based on handling the mixture of kernels and shells obtained after cracking on a vibratory feeder. The tests were carried out with commercial vibratory feeder, in which various amplitudes, frequencies, inclination angles and surface materials were altered to yield the best possible separation. A separation efficiency of 98 to 100% h

as been achieved, demonstrating clearly the proof of concept, and showing that almost complete separation could be achieved, not only between shells and nut kernels, but also between fragments of the two components.