design, construction and evaluation of sizing machine for hazelnuts

regarding the importance sizing and grading crop in the market and other processing operations, in this study, a machine for hazelnut sizing designed, constructed and evaluated. the machine based on sizing mechanism of diverged belt. the sizing unit has a structure similar to a horizontal belt conveyor. the distance between the ropes at the entrance of the product (the end of the driven roller) is small and gradually to the other end (drive roller) becomes larger. hazelnuts are continuously are fed into the sizing unit through the feeding unit that consist a hopper and inclined conveyor. hazelnuts along the sizing path based on the size discharged on the tray with the output of the drain. in this plan, hazelnut be sizing the based on the smallest diameter in three sizes small (less than 14 mm), medium (greater than 14 mm and less than 16 mm) and large (greater than 16 mm). the evaluation results showed that the linear velocity and the class size had significant effect on the performance of this machine. the best linear rope speed 0.8 m/s was determined. sizing machine efficiency for medium-sized nuts is highest at about 92%. the overall efficiency of 84% was estimated.