Peanut sheller - GIF

[neilbourjaily]

Wonder how many test mountings and differently shaped intakes of the centrifugal blower it took to screen hulls from peanuts so efficiently.

The manufacture of food processing equipment is an art form. I knew high school graduate Lester Altermatt, who invented the machine used by Lindsay Ripe Olives to pit and stuff green olives in two strokes. Oranges were automatically pattern-packed using a take-off from pinsetters powered by shop vacs. In Northern Arizona and New Mexico pinon nuts are harvested by backing a pickup severely into the trees. The nuts get sized on a screened shaker. Recall some of the sizing technique videos from third-world economies. Time after time, the engineering to get product off the trees and into boxes is figured out by people out there just doing it. And, yes, the Land Grant Universities do a lot of design testing, too. Heck, until the 1970s, state of the art for grape cooling and storage was ice bunkers using 1000s of tons a day. Long term storage used saw dust filled crates.

So, Toolmaker51, there is a lot of tack weld, break, and move an inch. There is a lot of try this size screen at that oscillation period. And, yep, that's what they do at the Land Grant U.