Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Processes – Separating a starting material into plural different...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-27
2004-11-30
Weier, Anthony (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Processes
Separating a starting material into plural different...
C426S482000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06824804
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Not applicable.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not applicable.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The preferred embodiments of the present invention are directed to increasing nut shelling efficiency. More particularly, the preferred embodiments are directed to increasing the value of a shelled crop of nuts by decreasing the amount of breakage of the meat of the nuts and decreasing the amount of shell in the final product. More particularly still, the preferred embodiments are directed to increasing the percentage of halves created in pecan processing facilities, decreasing breakage, and decreasing shell in the final product.
2. Background of the Invention
U.S. Pat. No. 5,879,734 (the '734 patent), incorporated herein by referenced as if reproduced in full below, describes that before the '734 patent, and referring to
FIG. 1
, the technology in the mass mechanical shelling of pecans involved sizing pecans from the orchard in a sizer
80
and then feeding pecans of a particular size to a cracker
82
to produce cracker product. From there, and again prior to the '734 patent, all the cracker product was fed directly to the sheller
86
. A sheller, as the name implies, is designed to remove the woody exterior, the shell of the pecan, from the pecan meat. Because pecan meat typically has a series of lines or crevasses extending longitudinally on an outer portion thereof, portions of the shell may remain attached to the meat even if the rest of the shell has broken and fallen away. When a piece of shell remains attached to the meat, this meat and shell combination are referred to as a “stick-tight.” If all the woody shell has been removed from the meat, it is referred to as “stick-tight free.” In the art before the '734 patent, all the cracker product from the cracker
82
was fed to the sheller
86
, regardless of whether any particular piece was stick-tight or stick-tight free. From the sheller
86
of the art before the '734 patent, the various pecan parts, including shells and meat, were fed to a width screen
88
, where the cracker product was separated by width. Each width category was then fed to an air separation device where the heavier meat was separated from the lighter shells in an upward flowing air stream. The air separators of the art before the '734 patent may have included a large separator
94
, an extra large separator
92
, a halves separator
90
, and various additional separators
96
for the smaller pecan pieces.
The '734 patent describes an improvement over the art before the '734 patent which bypasses the sheller with a portion of the cracker product that does not need to be sent to the sheller. These pecan parts may include stick-tight free halves, stick-tight free extra large pecan pieces, and stick-tight free large pecan pieces. In the '734 patent, separating the cracker product to bypass the sheller is accomplished in part with a series of stacked vibrating screens.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,135,020 (the '020 patent), incorporated herein by reference as if reproduced in full below, a second embodiment for separating the cracker product to bypass the sheller is disclosed that comprises a series of co-planar screens, with each screen having a plurality of uniform sized holes therein. In particular, the '020 patent describes that the cracker product is applied to a first screen
108
, indicated by line
106
in FIG.
1
. The '020 patent teaches that the graduation or width range of the cracker product that falls through the first screen
108
may be classified as mediums, smalls, midgets and/or dust. That width graduation of the cracker product that falls through the first screen
108
is applied to the width screen
88
. That portion of the cracker product that does not fall through the first screen
108
is conveyed, by vibratory motion of the co-planar screens, to the second screen
110
, which separates from the remaining cracker product by width into a graduation being the large meat pieces and shells of substantially the same size. The large piece graduation that falls through the second screen
110
is applied to a first slot
130
. The first slot
130
separates the large meat pieces and shells of substantially the same size by thickness, with greater thickness pieces being stick-tight meat and large shells, and smaller thickness pieces being stick-tight free meat and smaller shells. The portion of the graduation that falls through the first slot
130
is applied to the air separator
94
of the prior art. The portion that does not fall through the first slot
130
is applied to the sheller
86
of the prior art.
The '020 patent further describes a third screen
112
and a fourth screen
114
, and respective slots
136
and
142
. The third screen
112
is sized to allow extra large pieces to fall therethrough. The fourth screen is sized to allow halves to fall therethrough. The second slot
136
and third slot
142
are each designed to separate the width graduations of the primary cracker product falling through the third and fourth screens respectively by thickness to separate stick-tight meat from stick-tight free meat, along with some shell.
Finally, the '020 patent and the '734 patent each describe that whole, uncracked pecans and substantially whole cracked pecans are applied to double rollers
148
. In the co-planar screen arrangement of the '020 patent, this category or portion of cracker product is that portion which did not fall through any of the width separation screens
108
-
114
. In the '020 patent, this category of cracker product is fed to the double rollers
148
, where further shelling takes place. After being further shelled and broken up, the product is conveyed to a fourth slot
150
where yet another thickness separation is made. Product that falls through the fourth slot
150
represents pecan pieces, stick-tight pieces, halves and stick-tight halves that were further cracked by the double rollers
148
, and these are therefore applied to the first screen
108
for further processing. That portion of the cracker product that does not fall through the fourth slot
150
is then directed, as shown in
FIG. 1
, back to the cracker
82
.
While the disclosures of the '734 and '020 patents represent the most significant steps in pecan processing since the early 1900's, there may be room for improvement. In particular, crackers
82
are specifically designed to crack whole, uncracked nuts. If nuts previously cracked are applied to the cracker
82
, the cracker has the tendency to apply too much cracking force to the particular pecan, which creates breakage of the meat.
Relatedly, present day crackers effectively have two product streams. The crackers produce a primary product stream of nuts and nut parts typically at an output spout. This primary cracker product is typically conveyed to the next step in the process by means of gravity, elevator legs, vibratory chutes, and the like. However, and as was not discussed in the '734 and '020 patents, there is a secondary product stream associated with modern day crackers. While the great majority of what is produced by the cracker leaves as primary cracker product, crackers also produce what will be termed secondary cracker product, being shells and meat parts which are thrown in various directions based at least in part on the transfer of momentum from cracking hammers or shuttles to the pecans. Most crackers are surrounded by metallic or plastic material which captures the secondary cracker product and forces it to fall to a pan below the cracker. The standard in the pecan processing art is to use a shovel to scoop the secondary cracker product from the pan beneath the cracker onto the width separation device. While this procedure is effective for getting the secondary cracker product into the separation process, it has two downfalls in particular: 1) the secondary cracker product is mostly p
Broyles Andrew D.
Broyles Cathy W.
Broyles David J.
Broyles Michael C.
Broyles Properties, Ltd.
Conley & Rose, P.C.
Scott Mark E.
Weier Anthony
LandOfFree
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