Gold Hills Stages of Processing

Sizing

During the sizing process, the almonds pass over round hole screens (RHS).

Gold Hills has an LMC sizer with 20,000 lbs. per hour capacity -- one of the highest outputs available in the industry. It is a two-stage sizer with a splitter for precision sizing to produce eight different sizes. To keep the decks clean and to keep screens from plugging, Gold Hills installed a pre-cleaning scalper that rids the product of foreign material, splits and fines.

Cleaning

Even though some cleaning begins during sizing, the gravity process is where the major cleaning of product commences. Gold Hills' gravity machine is also an LMC brand with 20,000 lbs. per hour capacity. It has the largest destoner available. For better separation of product, it has primary and secondary in-line gravity tables. And for more quality assurance, the machine contains a hand-sorting table at the end of each line.
 
Sorting

Electronic sorting utilizes the most advanced technology available to remove foreign material. Gold Hills' BEST Argus laser sorter removes rock, plastic, glass and metal at a capacity of up to 7 tons per hour. Laser sorting drastically reduces the burden previously carried by hand sorters, increases throughput and decreases the cost of production.
 
The hand-sorting room contains a built-in quality control station and six through-stage hand-sorting tables.
 
These six tables are fed by three separate tanks; allowing three different products to be run at the same time. Additional hand-sorting tables are located at various lines throughout the plant.

The sized, cleaned and sorted natural almonds are now ready to be packaged for contracts or placed in our cold storage warehouse for manufacturing stock.