Shelling and Processing at Ramah 2007

This photo sequence shows the product flow during the shelling and selection process.

On the left of picture 1 are three crackers that feed nuts from the hoppers above, through the cracker and out below onto a conveyor. The ribbed conveyor carries the cracked nuts to the sheller at the left of the picture.











After the sheller the kernels and shells are fed into a separation blower. The air stream blows the lighter shells away and the kernel is put onto a conveyor. Here Melouise and Linda are removing any shell and kernel still stuck in shell.











In the foreground of photo 3, a vibration sieve separates halves and very large pieces from the smaller pieces of kernel. In the background is the blower separator. The elevated ribbed conveyor right, takes the pieces and any tiny shells to a second blower separator to remove that material missed by the first inspection.












Photo 4 shows Elsabe, Esta and Jenny inspecting the halves and larger pieces. At this point Select Grade is left to proceed straight on while Choice and Pieces are placed in the middle section. Select goes straight on to a bin for packing. The Choice and Large pieces go to a second grading vibrating set of sieves where all the pieces and Choice are graded.

Quality control and selection is their primary objective.














Photo 5 shows the Conveyor carrying the Choice and Large Pieces on the left while the Smaller Pieces are checked for any small wafer or shell that passed by the second air separator in the background. Here Mary (right) and Chantel make certain that quality remains the optimum and not the smallest shell goes by.

Stiena sitting in the middle removes kernel stuck in the shell.












After the second vibrating sizing sieve, the kernel is weighed and packaged by George and placed in our Branded box before going into the cold store at 5 degrees Centigrade.



The specifications are described on our website: http://www.pecannuts.co.za/ in English and in German at: http://www.pecannuts.ch