US20080098646A1

US20080098646A1 - Device for producing fodder, and/or fuel by means of pressing vegetable materials

Info

Publication number: US20080098646A1
Application number: US11/924,475
Authority: US
Inventors: Lubomir Verner; Hana Maresova
Original assignee: Spolek Pro Ekologicke Bydleni Obcanske Sdruzeni
Current assignee: Spolek Pro Ekologicke Bydleni Obcanske Sdruzeni
Priority date: 2006-10-25
Filing date: 2007-10-25
Publication date: 2008-05-01
Also published as: DE502007004705D1; CZ2006679A3; EP1922942B1; ATE476878T1; EP1922942A1

Abstract

A device for producing fodder and/or fuel by pressing vegetable materials, having a matrix shaped as a ring with axially laid out channels having a circular cross-section onto the mouths of which fits at least one rolling-off body, with the channels including the conical entering/tapering end connected to the mouths and the linked up cylindrical channel section of channels, with the conical entering/tapering end length being equal to from about 15% to about 30% of the total channel length. On the lower averted side of the matrix, from the conical entering/tapering end of channels, at least one additional matrix has axially laid out channels with identical cross-section placed in an exact alignment with the channels of the matrix, and the matrix is connected with a minimum of one additional matrix in a way in which the assembly can be dismantled or knocked down.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the device for producing fodder and/or fuel by means of pressing vegetable materials, which includes a matrix shaped as a ring with small channels designed with a circular cross-section onto the mouth of which fits at least one rolling-off body, with separate channels including the conical entering/tapering end connected to the mouth and the linked up cylindrical channel section, with the conical entering/tapering end length being equal to 15% to 30% of the total channel length.
2. Description of the Related Art
At the present time, an unsatisfactory situation with respect to utilization of vegetable materials prevails, e.g. in case of wastes resulting from cleaning seeds of farming plants gathered in the field. Upon cleaning the seeds of the field crops, such as cereals, oil plants, legumes, spinning plants, and medical herbs, the cleaning equipment produces wastes including the crumbled off parts of seeds, minor seeds, bits of other parts of plants, seeds of weeds, and dust particles. These wastes are now disposed of in landfills and by bedding down and/or used to a negligible extent as a ballast fodder for game. Direct use of these wastes as fodder for animal husbandry rather turned out to be a failure because of the poor digestibility of these wastes.
Similarly, even direct incineration of these wastes has not proved successful in standard incinerators due to the fact that the process of burning in a standard incinerator gets essentially smothered in consequence of the dusty nature of these wastes. In order directly to burn these wastes, special incinerating equipment would be required, e.g. a fluid incinerator, which may not however be currently or generally available and is considerably expensive.
Another problem arising in connection with these wastes is their volume, i.e. the small specific weight of the wastes which increases the costs incurred by their transport. There had therefore taken place experiments to produce pressed pellets from these wastes in equipment including a matrix shaped as a ring with small channels designed with a circular cross-section onto the mouth of which fits as a minimum one rolling-off body, with separate channels including the conical entering/tapering end connected to the front hole and the linked up cylindrical channel section, with the conical entering/tapering end length being equal to 15% to 30% of the total channel length. It has been however proved that upon utilizing the device of this type with known small channels designed with the channel cylindrical section diameter in relation to the total channel length at a ratio of 1:8 to 1:10, the pressure required to achieve sufficient consistence of produced pellets and/or disturbance of structure of these wastes so that to achieve their sufficient digestibility cannot be reached. The above problems concern more or less also other vegetable materials, such as chaff crushed plant parts growing above the ground or sawdust, residues from commercial processing of farming crop-plants and others for which the design based on the invention is designated, as well.
The object of the present invention is therefore to find such a design/construction of a device to produce fodder and/or fuel by means of pressing vegetable materials, e.g. the wastes resulting from cleaning seeds of farming plants, through which a higher consistence of produced pellets for their combustion and/or their better digestibility for the purpose of their use up as fodder will be achieved.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The above task is resolved and the deficiencies of known facilities of this type rectified to the considerable extent by the device of the present invention for producing fodder and/or fuel by means of pressing vegetable materials, which includes a matrix shaped as a ring with small channels designed with a circular cross-section onto the mouth of which fits at least one rolling-off body, with separate channels including a conical entering/tapering end connected to the mouth and the linked up cylindrical channel section, with the conical entering/tapering end length being equal to 15% to 30% of the total channel length. According to the invention, the substance of the invention includes that, on the lower side and from the conical entering/tapering end averted side of the matrix, at least one additional matrix is designed in which in an exact alignment with the matrix channels the axially laid out channels with identical cross-sections are also made, and the matrix is connected with at least one additional matrix in such way in which it can be dismantled or knocked down.
Thanks to this measure a flexible adjustment of the total length of channels depending on the service conditions and the type and nature of the material processed is made possible.
The described equipment thus enables an effective production of fodder or fuel e.g. from the wastes resulting from the cleaning of seeds of farming plants, and it is also possible to supplement these wastes resulting from the cleaning of seeds of farming plants with up to 10 percent of the weight of another usable-as-fodder or combustible component of vegetable and/or mineral origin, when related to the overall weight of the fodder or fuel.
Wastes resulting from the cleaning of seeds will be therefore pressed according to the invention into pellets or briquettes. Pellets and briquettes thus contain the wastes resulting from the cleaning of seeds, subsequently pressed. When producing pellets or briquettes, one may add to the mass of the above wastes other usable-as-fodder components distinguished by their vegetable and/or non-vegetable origin, as related to the overall weight of the fodder, such as crushed and dried plants of hemp or sorrel, and/or crushed and dried growths of meadowland or perennial forage plants and others. In regard to the materials of non-vegetable origin, they may include, namely, wastes from slaughterhouses and other materials of animal origin usable for fodder. Similarly, combustible organic or inorganic admixtures may be added to fuel.
It is moreover advantageous if the matrix is connected with at least one additional matrix in a way in which it can be dismantled or knocked down by axially laid out clamping bolts passing through corresponding holes along the external circumferences of the matrices.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The substance of the invention is furthermore clarified by the disclosed examples of its design, which are described based on the attached drawings and which illustrate the following:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a matrix with axially laid out channels.

FIG. 2 is an axial longitudinal cross-section of the matrix shown in FIG. 1 along lines 2-2 with axially laid out channels and three additional matrices.

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the matrix of FIG. 1 with axially laid out channels and an example rolling-off body.

FIG. 4 is an axial longitudinal cross-section of the matrix shown in FIG. 3 along lines 4-4 with axially laid out channels and three additional matrices and the example rolling-off body.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The device for producing fodder and/or fuel by means of pressing vegetable materials, e.g. wastes from cleaning of seeds of farming plants, according to the invention shown in FIGS. 1-4, includes a matrix 1 or matrix member shaped as a ring with a central axis 5 and with a plurality of separate axially laid out channels 2 having a circular cross-section onto the mouths 21 of which at least one rolling-off body there fits or moves, e.g. a body 4 of a cylindrical shape shown in an example embodiment in FIGS. 3-4, which rolls away under pressure on the circular path of the top face of the matrix 1, and presses the waste positioned on the top face of the matrix 1 into the mouths 21 of separate channels 2 shown in FIGS. 2 and 4. Other types and shapes of rolling-off bodies in addition to or instead of the body 4 may be used, and any known mechanism may be used for rolling the rolling-off body 4 over the surface of the matrix 1 to press the waste into the mouths 21.
In operation, the waste positioned on the top face of the matrix 1, and rolling of the rolling-off body 4 presses the waste into the mouths 21 and thence into the separate channels 2. Further operation causes the waste to first be compacted into the conical entering/tapering end 22 of each channel 2 and further passes to the cylindrical section 23 of each channel 2, where the compaction is finished and becomes stable in the conical entering/tapering end 22. The compacted waste may be removed from the bottom of each channel 2, for example, by applying additional pressure to the compacted waste to form the pellets or to form elongated compacted waste which is later fabricated into pellets, or the additional matrices 11, 12, 13 may be removed with the compacted waste still within the channels 2 for removal of the compacted waste as pellets from the removed additional matrices 11, 12, 13.
Separate channels 2 thus include the conical ending/tapering end 22, linked to the mouths 21 and the connected cylindrical section 23 of each channel 2, with the length of the entering/tapering end 22 being equal to between about 15% and about 30% of the total length of each channel 2. The substantial point of the present invention is that the diameter of cylindrical section 23 of each channel 2 is designed at a certain ratio to the total length of the each channel 2, e.g. within a range of from about 1:11 to about 1:14.
Surprisingly, it was demonstrated that with the channels 2 designed according to the foregoing, which usually are substantially thinner in comparison with the channels depending on the state of the art, one can achieve an expectedly disproportional increase of waste compaction, resulting in the conveniently increased consistence of produced pellets used as fuel and/or the higher disturbance of the waste structure, resulting in the improved digestibility of produced pellets used as fodder.
Only for illustration sake one may mention in the same connection that the diameter of each channel 2 is usually in the portion of its cylindrical section 23 within a range from about 6 mm to about 20 mm, which is then the diameter of the produced pellets thus formed in each channel 2 and removed therefrom.
The above specification shows that, for the pellet-making process, the essential point is the above mentioned ratio of the diameter to the total length of each channel 2 and/or the value of the total length of each channel 2 if the channel diameter has been given, depending on the type of the vegetation material processed, its moisture, content of certain components, etc. That is why it is desirable that the total length of each channel 2 could be flexibly modified depending on these properties and parameters of the vegetable material processed.
Matrix 1 is composed of a quality material with a refined surface on its upper side in which several hundreds of accurate channels 2 with conical entering/tapering ends 22 are made; however, fabrication of such a matrix 1 may be a relatively costly affair so that it is hardly possible to avail on a continuous basis of a set of matrices 1 distinguished by various thickness rates and/or various diameters of each channel 2. Another problem is the fact that after a longer time of service of matrix 1, a certain mutual “running in” of the upper side of the matrix 1 with the rolling-off bodies 4 takes place, together with the increased output of the whole equipment, which would be negatively affected by replacement of the matrix 1 by another matrix with a different thickness.
A solution of this problem according to the invention includes that the matrix 1 has a certain basic thickness which may equal at a diameter of the cylindrical section 23 of each channel 2 to be in the range of, e.g., about 12 mm to about 70 mm, and this matrix 1 is supplemented as required by additional matrices 11, 12, 13 attached to matrix 1 from below, each of which is designed with a thickness of e.g. about 15 mm, as shown in FIG. 2. These additional matrices 11, 12, 13 are also designed with channels 2 of the same diameter, in the exact alignment with the channels 2 of the matrix 1. These channels 2 in the additional matrices 11, 12, 13 are cylindrical all over their length, which means that they lack the conical entering/tapering ends 22 of the channels 2 in the matrix 1.
The matrix 1 is connected with the additional matrix or matrices 11, 12, 13, for example, by clamping screws 3 shown in FIG. 2, which pass through the corresponding axial bores laid out at regular angular intervals about the axis 5 along the external periphery of the matrices 11, 12, 13. These clamping screws 3 are designed, for example, with conical heads 31 sunk into the upper side of the matrix 1 and are tightened by nuts 32.
The described design according to the invention enables a flexible adjustment of the total length of each channel 2 depending on the service conditions and the type and nature of the materials processed.
The submitted solution according to the invention enables both the ecologically and economically advantageous utilization of vegetable materials. Obtained fodder may be fed in the shape of briquettes or pellets in most cases of animal husbandry. A similarly obtained fuel may be burned without any problem in standard incinerators.

Claims

1. A device for producing fodder and/or fuel by means of pressing vegetable materials, the device comprising:

a matrix (1) shaped as a ring with a plurality of separate axially laid out channels (2) designed with a circular cross-section onto mouths (21) thereof on which fits at least one rolling-off body, with each of the separate channels (2) including a conical entering/tapering end (22) connected to the mouths (21) and a linked up cylindrical channel section (23) of each channel (2), with the conical entering/tapering end length being equal to from about 15% to about 30% of the total channel length (2); and

at least one additional matrix (11, 12, 13) positioned below the conical entering/tapering end (22) of the channels (2) of an averted side of the matrix (1), with the at least one additional matrix (11, 12, 13) including the axially laid out channels (2) with identical cross-section in an exact alignment with the channels (2) of the matrix (1), and the matrix (1) is connected with the at least one additional matrix (11, 12, 13) in a way in which the at least one additional matrix (11, 12, 13) can be dismantled or knocked down.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the matrix (1) is connected with at least one additional matrix (11, 12, 13) connected such that the at least one additional matrix (11, 12, 13) is able to be dismantled by removal of axially laid out clamping bolts (3) which pass through the corresponding holes along the external periphery of the matrices (1, 11, 12, 13).