A shredding rotor rotatably coupled to a support frame is configured to remove plant leaves from plant stems fed into an aperture in the support frame. The shredding rotor includes many flexible shredding strands attached to a rotor axle. The shredding strands are sufficiently flexible to strip leaves from all sides of the stems without breaking the stems into pieces. Shredding strands are spaced far enough apart from one another to prevent plant material from becoming lodged between the strands. A destemming and shredding apparatus including two shredding rotors separates an incoming stream of plant materials into an output stream of shredded leaves and another output stream of essentially intact stems. A shredding apparatus having no more than one shredding rotor receives destemmed leaves at an inlet aperture and outputs shredded leaf fragments.

An impact mill (10) has an inlet (12) for material to enter the mill, an impact mechanism (16, 50) arranged to rotate about a rotation axis and being operable to pulverise the material after entering through the inlet, and an outlet (154) for discharge of pulverised material. Blockage sensors (Bj), vibration sensors V, torque sensors Tn, temperature sensors and proximity sensors may be selectively incorporated into the mill.

A jet milling mechanism includes an impeller with a plurality of rotating members mounted for rotation in a housing. Each rotating member has multiple negative pressure blades formed thereon for producing multiple negative pressure zones therebetween and multiple positive pressure blades formed thereon for producing multiple positive pressure zones between the positive pressure blades. The pressure blades define at least four grinding areas each distributed circumferentially about the rotating member. Each of the negative and positive pressure blades has a straight portion and an arcuate portion, and upon rotation of the impeller, the pressure blades divert material-containing air to flow into corresponding grinding areas sequentially in one direction by way of the negative pressure zone and in another direction by way of the positive pressure zone to define a two-phase flow. The jet milling mechanism is installed on a motor shaft of a jet mill.

The invention relates to a comminuting device including a cylinder casing which surrounds a comminuting chamber, in which several rotors can be operated independently from each other with individual drives, said rotors being driven by concentric shafts which are arranged concentrically to the central axis (z) of the comminuting chamber, said concentric shafts having a central shaft and at least one outer hollow shaft surrounding said central shaft. At least one lubricant line for connecting to a lubricant supply is arranged in the central shaft and/or in a shaft casing, the lubricant line being connected by at least one radial lubricant through guide to at least one bearing of the rotors.

The invention relates to a comminution device for mechanically comminuting material conglomerates consisting of materials of varying density and/or consistency, including a comminution chamber having a supply side with a supply device above the comminution chamber and a discharge side, which comminution chamber is enclosed by a circular cylindrical and/or conical, downwardly widened comminution chamber wall and has at least two portions in succession in the axial direction, in each of which at least one rotor is arranged coaxial with the comminution chamber, each rotor having a rotor shaft and having striking tools which extend substantially radially into the comminution chamber at least during operation, the rotors having opposite directions of rotation in at least two successive portions, deflection ribs being arranged on the inside of the comminution chamber wall at axial intervals and/or the radius of the comminution chamber wall increases from top to bottom.

A hybrid twin process uses an independent mechanical destructive process and an illumination process to change of state of weed seeds to having reduced germination viability by illuminating a seed with at least one of 2 J/cm.sup.2 cumulative illumination energy, and 0.2 W/cm.sup.2 irradiance, but no more than 7 W/cm.sup.2 average irradiance, of at least one of an Indigo Region Illumination Distribution (IRID), and infrared radiation that is substantially Medium Wavelength Infrared (MWIR) radiation, preferably 2-8 microns. The process can be incorporated into a harvester combine to convert a tailings flow prior to discharge on an agricultural field. For the mechanical destructive process, high required applied energy, noise, wear, and difficulty treating impact-resistant seeds are avoided by modifying a driven load flow via increased capability of exposure to illumination and underdriving the mechanical destructive process. This can include randomization, rarefaction and enhanced circulation.

A counter-rotating pin mill for grinding food products includes a housing assembly comprising a first and a second housing part. A first and a second grinding shaft are arranged coaxially in the housing assembly on a grinding axis. A first grinding disk is arranged on an end of the first grinding shaft. A second grinding disk is arranged on an end of the second grinding shaft. The first and the second grinding disks are parallel to each other. A bearing device is formed by at least two slide assemblies arranged parallel with the grinding axis in the first housing part. The at least two slide assemblies comprises a slide bushing arranged in the first housing part and a slide axle guided in the slide bushing and being connected with the second housing part. The first and/or the second housing part is displaceable along the grinding axis via the bearing device.

Apparatus to reduce size of a light, dry, fibrous material, particularly straw, with a material supply area (1), an impeller (2) and a material release area (5) for the size reduced material as well as a ring element (4), which is arranged with a distance to the impeller (2), wherein least one size reduction tool (6) is provided at the impeller (2) and/or at the ring element (4), that is provided angular shaped, particularly L-shaped, or having the shape of a polygonal, particularly ashlar-formed, hollow profile or solid profile. Splitting particularly hard, closed fibrous structures such as nodes of straw can thereby be enabled to a major portion without excessive shortening of the straw.

A pulverizing device for pulverizing a base material, e.g. pellets, having a predetermined shape and size, for use in an asphalt mixture. The pulverizing device includes a pulverizing member and a pulverizing surface arranged in a housing, the pulverizing member and the pulverizing surface being arranged such that the base material is adapted to be pulverized between the pulverizing member and the pulverizing surface. The housing at least partly encloses the pulverizing member and the pulverizing surface. The pulverizing surface extends essentially along a longitudinal axis, and the pulverizing member includes a plurality of planar circular cutting discs, adapted to pulverize the base material. The cutting discs are provided with a planar surface, and the cutting discs are arranged along the longitudinal axis, such that the planar surfaces of the cutting discs are oriented essentially parallel to each other.

A system processes seeds that are present in crop material. The system includes a first shearing surface, a second shearing surface arranged opposite the first shearing surface, and a clearance between the first shearing surface and the second shearing surface. The system passes crop material between the first and second shearing surfaces, where the crop material contacts the shearing surfaces as it passes through the shearing surfaces. Contact with the first and second shearing surfaces damages seeds that are present in the crop material. The system can be installed in an agricultural harvester to damage seeds that are present in crop residue to prevent the seeds from germinating after the crop residue is discharged from the agricultural harvester back into the field.