INVESTIGATION OF THE PROCESS OF CHIPPING OF THE WALNUT SHELL AS A RESULT OF THE FORCE ACTION OF HEMISPHERICAL SURFACES

Abstract

Knowledge of the technical properties of walnuts is essential to facilitate and improve the design of processing equipment and procedures and equipment for collection, packaging and storage. In the process of obtaining the fruit of a walnut and its derivatives, the kernels are subjected to a number of single operations. At each stage, based on the mechanical properties of walnuts, various types of equipment operate, including vibration equipment for cleaning, sorting, separating and peeling. Thus, the detailed results presented in this study provide useful data that can be used by engineers to design appropriate walnut processing machines, thereby improving process and quality control. To reduce mechanical damage and improve the Knowledge of the technical properties of walnuts is necessary to facilitate and improve the design of process equipment, as well as to mechanize the operations of collection, packaging and storage. In the process of obtaining walnuts, namely the kernels are subjected to a number of single operations. At each stage, based on the mechanical properties of walnuts, different types of equipment work, including vibrating for cleaning, sorting, separation and peeling. Thus, the detailed results presented in this study provide useful data that can be used by engineers in the design of appropriate machines for processing walnuts, thereby improving the process and quality control. The article provides a detailed review of the process of splitting the walnut kernel. Examples of many ways to split the shell, all their disadvantages and advantages are given. The mechanical method of peeling is theoretically investigated and substantiated. To reduce mechanical damage and improve the quality of extraction of walnut kernels during peeling, the object of study was selected 1 variety of walnut. The results of compression tests showed that the relationship between the breaking force and the deformation of the walnut was nonlinear, and the process of peeling (chipping) of the shell mainly consisted of three stages. The best method of splitting a walnut was «spherical compression» (between two spherical inserts), and the maximum value of the destructive force was also determined. The results showed that «spherical compression» was an appropriate way to destroy the walnut, which led to obvious trends in the spread of cracks in the shell and, moreover, to better integrity of the removed core. The article considers a number of small and large equipment designed for splitting nuts, both at home and in industrial conditions, of different design and performance.