How do machines de-shell nuts like sunflower seeds and peanuts in massive quantities without harming the actual nut itself?
In: Technology
It varies depending on the type of nut, but generally speaking they go through a machine with a rotating drum inside a stationary drum: the gap between the drums is slightly smaller than the whole nut with its shell but bigger than the nutmeat inside. This gently cracks the shell, and then the nutmeat and shell pieces fall out through the bottom.
Typically the shells are separated from the nutmeats using an air blast, which blows the light shells away and leaves the heavy nutmeats behind.
How do they do it without harming the nutmeat? Well, they do harm a lot of them, but they use screens and air flow and manual inspection to sort them by size and weight, so the intact nuts get sold in the snack aisle, while the broken ones get sold as chopped nuts, butter, meal, or oil.
https://www.lmcarter.com/peanut-shellers/
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