Sizing is sorting a product (nuts, fruits, vegetables, grains, etc.) by size from smallest to largest.
Sizing is used in enterprises that buy walnuts from the population and sell them to processors or for export. Carrying out pre-sale preparation – cleaning, washing, drying, sorting and packing, buyers get a higher quality nut, the cost of which is higher.
In industrial walnut processing plants, pre-calibration saves time on adjusting the nutcracker and other equipment and increases the yield of the whole kernel. Nut sizing is important for both small electric nutcrackers and industrial ones.
When using roller (electric) nutcrackers, calibration is undoubtedly necessary, otherwise there will be a lot of chopped and not chopped nuts, some will have to be passed through the nutcracker again, and the output of the whole kernel will be small. It also takes extra time.
Cone nutcrackers are capable of handling non-calibrated nuts, but this does not mean that calibration is unnecessary. Industrial cone-type nutcracking machines have settings for the size of the nut, which means that when using a calibrated nut and the correct setting of the nutcracker, the splitting will be done more accurately and carefully. This will increase the yield of the whole kernel.
Calibrators are of two types – linear and drum (rotary).
The advantage of linear calibrators is their versatility – they are easily adjusted to the desired size and are suitable for walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, shells and other fruits ranging in size from 0.5 to 6 cm. Linear calibrators have low productivity, therefore they are used in small enterprises for processing nuts.
Rotary (drum) calibrators are already industrial installations capable of sorting up to 500 kg of raw materials per hour by size. They are used by walnut buyers from the population, medium and large processing workshops, as well as export companies.
In addition to high productivity, rotary calibrators give a clear result thanks to the fixed holes. The nut is evenly distributed inside the drum, falling into holes that correspond to its size. Convenient unloading allows you to pack the nut into bags or boxes right during operation.
The calibrator is chosen depending on the type and scale of the nut business. For small processing shops, a linear calibrator is suitable, for a more serious business – a rotary one.