GB2059742A - Plant for production of animal feed - Google Patents

Abstract

A plant for production of dry animal feed is disclosed, the plant serving for economic preparation of a feed based on fibrous substances, especially straw, with increased energy concentration, the feed being produced in compacted or loose form. The plant is composed of machines associated on a modular basis so that the plant can be increased or decreased in size as desired, with a plurality of process steps, even all process steps, being able to be carried out in one machine. The embodiment illustrated comprises a receiving station 1, a hole sorting machine 2, a foreign object separator 4, a treatment station 8 for decomposing the feed substance, a mixing station 11 and a pelleting station 12. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Plant for the production of animal feed The present invention relates to a plant rorthe production of animal feed.

Different types of plant are known for processing of dry fodder, especially straw, into animal feed with increased energy concentration, the increased energy concentration being achieved by decomposition agents, such as NaOH and NH,. These types of plant are so constructed that baled straw, whether in large bales, highly compressed bales or standard bales, can be processed with an orderly feed to the plant. The bales are broken down by chaff cutters, supplied to a machine for reducing variations in the product, and then conveyed by screw conveyors to a mill which operates on the principle of impact crushing. From the mill thr ground material is supplied pneumatically through separators and filters to a leaching mixer. Straw mixed with leaching agent is fed to a molasses mixer which, after a mixing operation, supplies the material to a press.From the press, the pressed objects (pellets) are mechanically conveyed to a belt cooler, when the cooling process is completed, the pellets are mechanically removed from the belt cooler.

Other types of plant are known, in which the conveying to the mill is carried out mechanically and a cooling tower is used instead of the belt cooler.

Also known is a straw pelletizing plant comprising a container station which serves for the storage, preparation and metering of solid components.

A characteristic of the known plants is that they are composed of individual machines and plant sections, each machine usually being designed to carry out only one process step. More recently, there have been used straw disintegrating machines -- taarup which break up the straw and simultaneously mix in NaOH. Machines of this type are not found in a closed plant.

The known types of plant have the disadvantages of complication and expensive machinery, high use of materials, high energy consumption, large overall size, high electrical engineering costs, and an unacceptably high exposure of operating personnel to dust due to open conveyors.

According to the present invention there is provided a plant for the production of animal feed, comprising a plurality of machines so operatively associated on a modular basis as to permit selectable increase or decrease in the operational scope of the plant, the machines being operable to carry out the majority of a plurality of different production stages, each comprising a plurality of process steps, in the production of such feed.

Such a plant is equipped with machines which simultaneously realise a plurality of process steps. In this way a compact form of construction is obtained, which enables satisfactory monitoring and carrying out of the process. The plant serves to improvefod- der substances having a low energy concentration in loose or compacted form, wherein a plurality of process steps, and finally all the process steps, can be carried out in one machine, the plant itself being either mobile or stationary.Thus, for example, the process steps of preparation (disintegration and decomposition) of fodder substances, especially straw, having a low energy content, mixing and buffer storage of the prepared fodder substances with solid and liquid components, pressing ofthe mixture, and cooling of the pressed fodder articles, can be realised in the one plant or machine. The fibrous substances with their properties are used for controlling solid, liquid and gaseous components.

The plant is constructed on the modular principle and can thus be extended or reduced as desired, which enables it to be used in a highly versatile manner in agriculture. The plant is preferably used for the production of straw concentrate mixtures, and it may be constructed as a compacting plant or as a section of a drying plant or mixed fodder installation. By virtue of its compactness and capacity for variation - on the modular principle - the plant can be arranged in flat or multi-storey structures and can be constructed as a framework plant.

An embodiment of the present invention will now be more particularly described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing, which is a schematic view of a plant for dry feed pelletization.

Referring now to the drawing, there is shown a plant for the production ofdryfeed,the plantcom- prising a receiving metering unit 1 which communicates with a breaking-open and metering or sorting machine 2 for straw bales. In this unit, the process steps of storage, conveying, breaking-open, arranging and metering are carried out. Furthermore, it is possible in this machine unit to process baled straw in unsorted form, chaff and long straw.

The machine 2 is followed by a cranked conveyor belt 3, which conveys fibrous substances to a foreign objects separator 4, where separation of foreign objects is carried out on the basis of the difference in specific gravities. A conveyor 5 then conveys the fibrous substances to a forced feeder 7; straw bales, apart from large bales, may also be placed on the conveyor 5. The conveyor 5 connects with a metal locating device 6. The forced feeder 7 consists of two conveyors, or one conveyor and conveyor rolls disposed thereabove, and carries out conveying, with firm clamping, of the material in a continuous feed to a stalk material preparation unit 8, in which decomposition agents are added to the stalk material and mixed therewith during or after disintegration.

This arrangement with the machines 5 to 8 enables storage, preparation and metering of the fibrous substances, so that an entire process stage is carried out in one simple machine. The machines 1 to 4 are additional items of equipment and reduce the number of operating personnel required within the plant.

A conveyor belt with mass and volume flow measuring devices 9 serves to measure volumetric and mass flow rate. This is followed by an elevating belt or chain conveyor 10 feeding a gravity paddle mixer 11, in which all the feed components are mixed together in accordance with specific prescriptions. At the same time the mixer 11 fulfills the function of a buffer vessel ahead of a compacting machine 12 for compacting the material into pellets.

In this way the compacting machine 12 can be fed at a constantvolumetric flow and can aiways operate with maximum performance efficiency. In addition, the mixer 11 smooths out fluctuations in the metering, thus improving the quality ofthe resulting feed.

The mixer 11 thus carries out a further process stage.

The dry fodder mixture now passes via a conveyor 13 into the compacting machine 12 or onto a delivery chain, belt or screw conveyor 14, which transfers the loose mixture to a vehicle.

After leaving the compacting machine 12, the pressed material pellets are transferred by a vertical conveyor 15 to a cooling machine 16. When the cooling operation has ended, fine material abraded from the pressed pellets is sieved by a sieving machine 17 and recycled via a conveyor 18, a storage, preparation and metering unit 20 for solid components, and conveyors 21 and 24 to the elevating conveyor 10.

The cooled, pressed pellets are transferred to a vehicle by a vertical conveyor 19, which comprises pivoted buckets.

The storage, preparation and metering unit 20 consists of storage vessels, metering devices, a mill 23 and mechanicai conveyors. The solid components are fed via the conveyor 21, mill 23 and conveyor 24 to the elevating conveyor 10 or via conveyors 22 and 24 to the elevating conveyor 10. Prepared solid components are also supplied directly from the storage, preparation and metering unit 20 via an elevating conveyor 25 to the gravity paddle mixer 11. The preparation of the solid components can also be carried out outside the plant.

Machines and equipment 26 and 27 for storing, preparing and metering liquid and gaseous components are constructed as a sub-assembly so that they may be used both in the plant embodying the invention and in other preparation plants.

Equipment 28 serves for storage of small quantities of molasses, in which dissolving of urea is carried out.

The entire plant for dry feed production is constructed as a closed system from the the stalk material preparation unit 8 to the cooling machine 16, which enables a subatmospheric pressure to be produced in the system by means of an extraction system composed of suction units 29 to 31 and ducts 32 and 33, thus substantially reducing the dust load on operating personnel.

Arranged centrally of the plant is a closed control room 34, from which the entire production process, including receiving of the straw, can be monitored.

Claims (19)

1. A plant for the production of animal feed, comprising a plurality of machines so operatively associated on a modular basis as to permit selectable increase or decrease in the operational scope of the plant, the machines being operable to carry out the majority of a plurality of different production stages, each comprising a plurality of process steps, in the production of such feed.

2. A plant as claimed in claim 1, comprising a conveyorforconveying stalk material, metal detector means downstream of the conveyor for detecting the presence of metal in the stalk material, pressure feeding means downstream of the detector means for pressurablyfeeding the stalk material in a continuous flow, and material preparation means for preparing the stalk material.

3. A plant as claimed in claim 2, comprising, upstream of the conveyor, receiving and metering means for stalk material, a bale opening or material sorting unit downstream of the receiving and metering means, a further conveyor downstream of the unit for conveying stalk material therefrom, and a separating device downstream of the further conveyor for separating foreign objects from the stalk material, the first-mentioned conveyor being arranged to convey the stalk material from the separating device.

4. A plant as claimed in either claim 2 or claim 3, comprising a mass and volume flow measuring device downstream of the preparation means.

5. A plant as claimed in claim 4, comprising an elevating conveyor downstream of the flow measuring device and a gravity paddle mixer downstream of the elevating conveyor for mixing up the prepared stalk material with additives.

6. A plant as claimed in claim 5, wherein the elevating conveyor is a belt or chain conveyor.

7. A plant as claimed in either claim 5 or claim 6, comprising a screw conveyor, a compacting machine and a delivery conveyor downstream of the mixer, the screw conveyor being operable to feed loose prepared material from the mixer to a selectable one ofthe compacting machine for compaction and to the delivery conveyor for delivery in loose form.

8. A plant as claimed in claim 7, wherein the mixer is arranged to act as a buffer to the flow of prepared material to the compacting machine.

9. A plant as claimed in either claim 7 or claim 8, wherein the delivery conveyor is a belt, chain or screw conveyor.

10. A plant as claimed in any one of claim 7 to 9, comprising a vertical conveyor downstream of the compacting machine, and a cooling machine downstream of the vertical conveyorforcooling compacted material transferred from the compacting machine by the vertical conveyor.

11. A plant as claimed in claim 10, comprising a sieving machine for sieving fine material abraded from the cooled compacted material.

12. A plant as claimed in either claim 10 or claim 11, comprising a vertical bucket conveyor for conveying cooled compacted material from the cooling machine.

13. A plant as claimed in any one of claims 7 to 12, comprising liquid additive storage, preparation and metering means for supplying liquid additives for admixture with prepared material conveyed by the screw conveyor, the liquid additive storage, preparation and metering means being arranged as a separate unit.

14. A plant as claimed in any one of claims 5 to 13, comprising solid additive storage, preparation and metering means for supplying solid additives for admixture with stalk material conveyed by the elevating conveyor.

15. A plant as claimed in claim 14, comprising conveyor means to convey solid additives from the solid additive storage, preparation and metering means to the elevating conveyor and milling means for processing the conveyed solid additives.

16. A plant as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 15, comprising decomposition agent storage, preparation and metering means for supplying decomposition agents for admixture with stalk material processed in the plant, the decomposition agent storage, preparation and metering means being arranged as a separate unit.

17. A plant as claimed in claim 16, the decomposition agent storage, preparation and metering means being arranged to supply decomposition agents to the material preparation means for admixture with stalk material in said preparation means.

18. A plant as claimed in any one of the preced- ing claims, comprising plant control means disposed centrally of the plant.

19. A plant for the production of animal feed, the plant being substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawing.