Design and Performance Evaluation of a Multi-Point Extrusion Walnut Cracking Device

Hong Zhang, Hualong Liu, Yong Zeng (), Yurong Tang, Zhaoguo Zhang and Ji Che
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Hong Zhang: College of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Tarim University, Alar 843300, China
Hualong Liu: College of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Tarim University, Alar 843300, China
Yong Zeng: College of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Tarim University, Alar 843300, China
Yurong Tang: College of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Tarim University, Alar 843300, China
Zhaoguo Zhang: Faculty of Modern Agricultural Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650000, China
Ji Che: Xinjiang Jiangning Light Industry Mechanical Engineering Technology Co., Ltd., Urumqi 830011, China

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-17

Abstract: The practical problems of existing methods of walnut cracking under compression loading, including incomplete walnut-shell crushing, broken walnut kernels, and so on, are widespread in walnut processing and are constraints that hinder mechanized walnut processing. Therefore, attempts have been made to design and optimize a multi-point extrusion walnut cracking device. For this, walnuts were fed manually into a cracking unit through the hopper. The tangential force of the grading roller graded the walnuts and dropped them into the gap between the rotating cracking roller and extrusion plate, causing them to crack. The developed machine was tested and the parameters were optimized using a central composite design (CCD). The objective functions involving the cracking angle (CA: 0.17, 0.27, 0.52, 0.76, 0.86°) and roller speed (RS: 63, 75, 105, 135, 147 r/min) were calculated. The shell cracking rate ( SCR ), whole kernel rate ( WKR ), and specific energy consumption (Es) regression models were established using the quadratic regression orthogonal combination test and the parameters were optimized using MATLAB software. The results showed that the most significant factors for the RS were the linear terms of the SCR and WKR , whereas for the CA the most significant factor was the linear term of the Es. The interaction term of the two factors had a significant effect on the three indicators. The optimal parameter combination was determined to be 0.47° for the CA and 108 r/min for the RS. On this basis, the adaptability test showed that the cracking device had a better cracking effect on walnuts with a gap between the walnut shell and kernel greater than 1.6 mm and a shell thickness less than 1.2 mm. The results have practical significance for the design of walnut cracking devices.

Keywords: walnut; multi-point extrusion; central composite design (CCD); parameter optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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