GB789751A - An improved method and apparatus for the preparation of vegetable material for drying and ensilage - Google Patents

Abstract

789,751. Grass &c. cutting and drying food for animals. FELBER, N. June 10, 1955 [June 12, 1954], No. 16743/55. Classes 5(1) and 5(2). [Also in Group II] Vegetable material, e.g., grass for drying or silage, is first compressed into a compact mass at a restricted nozzle D2 by a screw conveyer D7 or between rollers or converging belt conveyers and is then cut into flakes by rotated oblique milling cutters E1 to 5, Fig. 1 (not shown), so that more surfaces are exposed to drying in the dryer G. The grass from a waggon load A is pushed on to a belt elevator B where its depth is equalized by a plate B1, the grass falling into a centrifugal separator C with rotating radial vanes Cl whereby heavier foreign material is thrown out past the grass receiving funnel D3 into a distant container H, Fig. 1 (not shown). The cut grass is passed by a belt conveyer F to the dryer G. In Fig. 3 the grass is tipped on to a grid conveyer 1 through a part of which passes exhaust hot air from the final drier. Such hot air blows the grass up against another grid conveyer 2, or a grid only, leaving any stones behind which are scraped off the conveyer by an inclined catcher plate 5. When beyond the air channel 3 the grass then falls down to the lower conveyer 4 and then passes to the main drier. To preserve the silage added beetroot, fruit or other sugar-containing matter may be dropped through a funnel direct to the cutters.