FR2763577A1 - Silo for storing mixed grains, e.g. for caged bird or pet feed - Google Patents

Abstract

The silo consists of a cylindrical body and a tapering lower end (16) leading to its shuttered outlet. The inner volume of the silo tapering lower end is subdivided into a series of adjoining but separate channels (22) which converge together towards the outlet, where the flows of different grains meet and mix for packaging. The silo lower end is in the shape of a truncated pyramid, divided into several channels (22) of equal and tapering cross-section by a series of transverse partitions (21, 20) lying perpendicular to one another. In a variant of the design the lower end of the silo is truncated conical in shape, divided by radial and conical partitions. In both cases the partitions have smooth surfaces, e.g. with a thin coating of 'Teflon' (RTM). Ensures homogenous mixture of grain in predetermined proportions.

Description

 The present invention relates to a silo for storing various seeds, in particular of vegetable origin, presented according to predetermined mixtures, with a view to constituting a balanced diet for the breeding or maintenance of birds or other domestic animals.

 The production of products best suited to the feeding of small pets or pleasure animals, in particular birds such as pigeons, turtledoves, canaries, parakeets, mainates, or others, in cages or on day parole as appropriate , as also rodents such as hamsters, rabbits or the like, involves mixtures of various seeds in studied proportions, with a greater or lesser number of different natural substances, among which mention may be made, without any limiting character, of wheat , rice, corn, buckwheat, green peas, millet, sunflower ... and many other grain products of various origins, these mixtures may contain appropriate additives, or even growth or care.

 Each animal, and in particular each bird, requires indeed, for a healthy and balanced diet, well adapted to its own metabolism, carefully prepared mixtures, according to the nature of the seeds thus associated and their proportions.

 These mixtures, essentially if not exclusively made up of natural seeds, must have a high degree of homogeneity in the proportions thus defined, which in addition must remain very substantially constant from one packaging to another, due in particular to the fact that, for many pet birds whose size is generally small, these products are presented in sachet or similar packaging, of reduced capacity, where variations in the composition of the mixture produced in the factory from seed storage silos are much more sensitive than in presentations using bags or other large capacity containers, as is the case for other larger animals, such as cattle or others.

 However, if upstream, from several different reservoirs of separate seeds, it is possible, by means of continuous metering devices mounted at the outlet of these reservoirs, to deliver the necessary quantities of each different product on a conveyor before mixing the whole and sending it back to a common storage silo, it can be seen that, at the outlet of the latter, supplying downstream selected quantities of this mixture for sending to a packaging unit for packaging in sachets or the like, the homogeneity of the product is far from being constant as the emptying of the silo, the composition of the mixture is not respected in the exact proportions desired.

 The subject of the present invention is an improvement made to the storage silos of such seed mixtures, making it possible to deliver at the outlet thereof a product having increased homogeneity, where the proportion of the components initially dosed during the mixing before storage, is largely preserved throughout the emptying of these silos.

 To this end, the silo considered, preferably comprising a body with a cylindrical wall, with a vertical axis, and a bottom at the lower end of this body, having a cross section of progressively decreasing surface to join, opposite the body. , an outlet orifice for a mixture of seeds of specific weight and of different dimensions between them, this orifice comprising a maneuverable means for preventing or authorizing the flow of the mixture by gravity out of the silo, is characterized in that the internal volume of the bottom with decreasing section is subdivided according to a plurality of neighboring but separate conduits, converging together towards the outlet orifice where the seed flows, coming from each conduit in isolation, are combined to be evacuated together to a packaging installation or the like, arranged beyond the silo.

 Thanks to this arrangement, the invention achieves the above object.

 When filling the storage silo with a given mixture of seeds, where the proportions of the various components vary from one to the other, the seeds of each of these components having average dimensions which are not identical and weights also specific, naturally forms at the upper end of this silo in its cylindrical body, a natural slope whose slope depends on the nature of the mixture thus stored.

 When the emptying of this silo is initiated by its decreasing section bottom through the lower outlet orifice, this embankment subsides until forming, at its center in the axis of the body, a sort of moving pit where the seeds are attracted as they are emptied, in a manner substantially equivalent to that of a liquid vortex in a siphon.

 However, if the bottom of the silo is not arranged, we see that, because of their higher specific weight, the larger and heavier seeds tend to flow first, while the most smaller and lighter are retained longer in the silo.

 This phenomenon of vertical suction of the mixture through the lower outlet orifice, in the axial vertical stream, therefore causes relative braking of the lightest seeds, all the more important as these seeds are located further from the central axis. , the movements of material being practically zero in the vicinity of the internal wall of the body as the level drops. This results in a natural segregation of the mixture, which very significantly harms its homogeneity before packaging.

 Thanks to the invention, which aims to segment the lower volume of the silo, ensuring the transition between the cylindrical body and the outlet orifice, each conduit provided in this volume offers the seeds a path where the above phenomenon is greatly minimized , or even entirely annihilated, the mixture of seeds flowing in each of these conduits retaining its composition and its proportions, this flow occurring according to a path which is specific to it, without interfering with that of neighboring fractions in the other conduits.

According to an advantageous characteristic, the conduits have, in the same cross-sectional plane of the internal volume of the silo, identical surfaces from one conduit to the other,
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the internal volume of the bottom of the silo has the shape of a truncated pyramid, the neighboring conduits being produced inside this volume by a set of transverse plates extending respectively in two perpendicular directions, parallel to the two to two opposite sides of the pyramid trunk.

 In an alternative embodiment, the internal volume of the bottom of the silo has the shape of a truncated cone, the neighboring conduits being produced inside this volume by a set of respectively radial and conical walls, the latter being coaxial with the bottom of the silo and with decreasing radii from one wall to the next.

 According to another characteristic, the internal walls of the conduits have a smooth surface to facilitate the flow of seeds. Advantageously, these internal walls may comprise a thin coating of a material improving the sliding, of the "Teflon" type or the like.

Other characteristics of a silo for storing a mixture of seeds, established in accordance with the invention, will become more apparent from the following description of several exemplary embodiments, given by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the drawings annexed on which
- Figure 1 schematically illustrates an installation for preparing a mixture of seeds and storing this mixture in a silo established in accordance with the invention.

 - Figures 2 and 3 are views on a larger scale, respectively in longitudinal and transverse sections, of a part of the storage silo, in particular of its lower bottom with progressively decreasing section, according to a first embodiment of the invention .

 - Figure 4 is a cross-sectional view, similar to that of Figure 3, but relative & an alternative embodiment.

 In Figure 1, the reference 1 designates as a whole an installation for preparing a mixture of several species of vegetable seeds of different natures, having specific weights and different dimensions from one species to another, the mixture obtained , especially intended for the feeding of pet birds or small pleasure animals, having a composition exactly determined according to the type of bird or animal concerned.

 In a manner known per se, the installation comprises a plurality of silos such as 2, neighbors, each containing a single species of precise seeds, of the genus wheat, rice, millet, buckwheat, sunflower or others, forming any of the components of the mixture to be produced, the seeds in each of these silos having suitable homogeneity.

 Each silo has a lower bottom 3 where the seeds are collected when the latter are discharged by gravity to the lower part of the silo, which is provided with a device 4, for continuous metering, regulating the output flow of the seeds through a discharge orifice 5, the structure of the device 4 does not directly matter to the invention.

 The seeds thus delivered from a given number of silos 2 are collected on an appropriate conveyor, preferably on a continuous belt conveyor, stretched between two end pulleys 7, one of which is associated with a motor. entralment (not shown), these seeds being at the exit of this carpet mixed together and returned by a connecting pipe 8 to the upper end 9 of a common storage silo for mixing the seeds 11, which are distributed in according to the chosen proportions, supplied from each of the previous silos 2.

 In the storage silo 10, the seeds are thus suitably mixed and ready, outside this silo, to be delivered to a packaging installation 12, schematically represented in the figure, where the mixture is packaged in sachets 13 , which are then sealed to form a closed package 14, corresponding to a given weight of the mixture, ready to be marketed.

 Experience shows that, if the storage silo 10 is constructed in a conventional manner, with a body 15, of generally cylindrical shape with vertical axis, extended at its bottom by a bottom 16 with inclined walls, so as to have a volume internal 17 whose horizontal section is progressively decreasing from the body 15 to an outlet orifice 18 through which the seed mixture is delivered to the packaging installation 12, following the operation of a slide valve 19 adjusting the output flow of this mixture, the latter has a composition which is not perfectly constant, the largest and heaviest seeds tending to flow by gravity out of the silo, in a higher proportion than the seeds smaller and less heavy, so that the bags 13 do not contain a homogeneous mixture of one and the other as the emptying of the silo.

 To overcome this drawback and in accordance with the invention, the lower bottom 16 of the silo 10 is arranged in line with the internal volume with decreasing section with the arrangements more particularly illustrated in Figures 2 and 3 on the one hand, in Figure 4 d 'somewhere else.

 In the first embodiment shown, the bottom 16 of the storage silo 10 has the shape of a pyramid trunk with a square section and is subdivided in its internal volume 17 by a set of partitions, respectively 20 and 21, extending in two perpendicular directions, parallel to the opposite sides two to two in the inclined side walls of the bottom.

 These partitions 20 and 21 together define a plurality of channels 22, which are adjacent to each other and fill the entire internal volume 17 of the bottom 16, the cross section of these channels gradually decreasing in the same way from one to the other. the other as and when, starting from the body 15, one approaches the outlet orifice 18 at the base of this bottom.

 The seeds 11 contained in the silo thus flow in the direction of this orifice through the different channels 22, each of which has a reduced section compared to that of the bottom 16, in proportion to the number of these channels. Inside these, the flow of the seed mixture is notably more homogeneous, the segregation between the larger seeds and the others being reduced, or even completely annihilated, so that the overall flow of the mixture collected through the outlet orifice 18, remains substantially the same as for the composition of the product, whatever the filling level of the silo and the duration of the emptying thereof.

 Advantageously and in order to facilitate the sliding of the seed mixture inside the channels 22, the internal walls of the latter, formed by the corresponding surfaces of the partitions 20 and 21, are carefully treated in manufacturing in order to present a perfectly smooth wall, or also comprise a thin coating 23 of a film of a suitable plastic material, of the "Teflon" or polyethylene type.

 In the variant embodiment shown in FIG. 4, on which identical reference numbers have been used to designate similar elements, the bottom 16 of the storage silo has a profile in the form of a truncated cone.

 In this variant, the internal volume 17 of the bottom 16 is also subdivided into a number of individual channels 22, which are delimited by partitions, respectively radial 24 and conical 25, for the latter coaxial with the vertical axis of the silo.

 In this case, so that the channels 22 thus delimited inside the bottom 16, have substantially from one to the other a section of the same surface, so that the flow of the mixture remains as homogeneous as possible, the radial partitions are split and multiplied as one moves away from the axis of the silo, as illustrated in Figure 4 under the references 24a and 24b in particular.

 This produces a storage silo of very simple design, inexpensive and easy to implement, which provides a real improvement in the homogeneity of the mixture supplied to the packaging installation, thanks to the presence of the multiple channels provided in the bottom of the silo, eliminating static areas and allowing a practically the same flow in all points of this mixture.

 Of course, it goes without saying that the invention is not limited to the embodiment more specifically described above with reference to the accompanying drawings; on the contrary, it embraces all its variants.

Claims (6)

 1 - Silo for storing a mixture of seeds, comprising a cylindrical body & wall, with a vertical axis, and a bottom (16) at the lower end of this body, having a cross section of progressively decreasing surface to reach, at opposite to the body, an outlet orifice (18) for a mixture of seeds of specific weights and of distinct dimensions therebetween, this orifice comprising an operable means for preventing or authorizing the flow of the mixture by gravity out of the silo, characterized in that the internal volume (17) of the bottom with decreasing section (16) is subdivided according to a plurality of conduits (22) neighboring but separate, converging together towards the outlet orifice (18) where the seed rates, coming from each duct in isolation is brought together to be evacuated together to a packaging installation or the like, arranged beyond the silo.  2 - Storage silo according to claim 1, characterized in that the conduits (22) have, in the same cross-sectional plane of the internal volume (17) of the silo, identical surfaces from one conduit to the other,  3 - Storage silo according to one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that the internal volume (17) of the bottom (16) of the silo has the shape of a trunk of a pyramid, the neighboring conduits (22) being produced inside this volume by a set of transverse plates (20, 21) extending respectively in two perpendicular directions, parallel to the two opposite two b sides of the pyramid trunk.  4 - Storage silo according to one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that the internal volume (17) of the bottom (16) of the silo has the shape of a truncated cone, the neighboring conduits (22) being produced inside this volume by a set of respectively radial (24) and conical (25) walls, the latter being coaxial with the bottom of the silo and having decreasing radii from one wall to the next.  5 - Storage silo according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the internal walls of the conduits (22) have a smooth surface.  6 - Storage silo according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the internal walls comprise a thin coating (23) of a material improving the sliding, of the kind "Teflon" or the like.