How to Run an Almond Huller
Almonds are edible nuts that grow on trees. Long sought for their sweet, nutty flavor, almonds make excellent additions to salads, entrees and desserts. Today, almonds are mass-harvested from large orchards and transferred to processing plants which use almond hullers to remove the hull, exposing the shell which surrounds the sweet inner nut meat which can be sold whole, sliced or chopped for consumption. Some processing plants both hull and shell almonds; by the time an almond huller and sheller machine has removed the hulls, shells, debris and soil, only 20 percent of the original almond field weight remains.
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Instructions
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Receive harvested almonds with their hulls and shells still on from orchards starting in August. Instruct deliverers to dump harvested almonds into a receiving pit. Turn on conveyor belts and bucket elevators which lead to a series of vibrating screens to sift debris, leaves, soil and pebbles out of the raw almonds. Wear safety goggles and a dust mask around the raw almonds as much dust will fill the air as debris is sifted away from the almonds.
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Monitor the almonds as they run through a destoner to remove large rocks and chunks of soil from the almonds, and then through a detwigger to remove sticks, twigs and branches from the almonds. Observe the almonds as they move from the pre-cleaning area to another storage bin for hulling.
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Place almonds on a conveyor belt for transfer to the huller. Observe the hullers crack the almond hulls inside of large cylinders and dump them onto additional conveyors which should run the almonds through additional hulling cylinders before being packaged and sold as cattle feed or shipped to a plant to shell the hulled almonds.
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References
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