Abstract
A system of crushing and processing grain without destroying germ pouches in the grain by: (a) pneumatically transporting grain from truck to a cyclone and processing bin to a pre-crushing area; (b) dropping the grain from the pre-crushing area down into a single pass crushing machine while simultaneously releasing air from the pre-crushing area such that the grain falls from the pre-crushing area into a single-pass crushing machine under the force of gravity and is not blown down into the single-pass crushing machine; and then (c) crushing the grain in the single-pass crushing machine that has three or more roller pairs such that from one successive roller pair down to the next roller pair the grain is crushed smaller and smaller when moving downwardly in the machine. Also included are air locks with attached dust sleeves.
Claims
1. A method of crushing and processing grain without destroying germ pouches in the grain comprising: (a) pneumatically transporting grain from a truck in a receiving area to a cyclone and processing bin; (b) pneumatically transporting the grain from the cyclone and processing bin to a pre-crushing area; (c) dropping the grain from the pre-crushing area down into a single pass crushing machine while simultaneously releasing air from the pre-crushing area thereby dropping air pressure in the pre-crushing area such that the grain falls from the pre-crushing area into a single-pass crushing machine under the force of gravity and is not blown down into the single-pass crushing machine; and then (d) crushing the grain in the single-pass crushing machine, wherein the single-pass crushing machine comprises three or more roller pairs having intermeshed teeth, wherein each of the roller pairs have a differently shaped intermeshed teeth, and wherein the grain falls downwardly in the crushing machine from one roller pair to the next.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: (e) passing air from the pre-crushing area into a cyclone then a series of dust sleeves having pores therein such that air received into the dust sleeves escapes through the pores, but dust received into the dust sleeves is trapped in the dust sleeves and is not released to the atmosphere.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein releasing air from the cyclone and pre-crushing area comprises releasing air through a first airlock and releasing air through a second airlock, and wherein the air passing from the pre-crushing are into the series of dust sleeves passes through the first or second airlock.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: (e) controlling the temperature and moisture of the grain in the processing bin by at least one of: insulating the processing bin, passing air into the processing bin with a fan, enclosing the processing bin in an air conditioned environment, enclosing the processing bin in dehumidified environment, or enclosing the processing bin in a sun-shielding building structure.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein pneumatically transporting grain from a truck in a receiving area to a processing bin comprises blowing grain into a side of the cyclone and processing bin causing the grain to swirl inside the cyclone preserving the germ pouch and falling into the processing bin while releasing air from a top of the cyclone and processing bin.
6. The method of claim 1, further comprising placing the single-pass crushing machine in a temperature controlled room.
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: (e) crushing the grain in a second single-pass crushing machine, wherein the grain passes from the pre-crushing area falling down into both the single-pass crushing machine and the second single-pass crushing machine.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the rollers on the single-pass crushing machine have teeth with rounded edges and there is no space or valley between the teeth.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the single-pass crushing machine has 3 to 10 roller pairs.
10. The method of claim 1, further comprising: freezing the grain after the grain has exited the single pass crushing machine.
11. A system for crushing and processing grain without destroying germ pouches in the grain comprising: (a) a first pneumatic system for transporting grain from a truck in a receiving area into a cyclone and processing bin; (b) a second pneumatic system for transporting the grain from the cyclone and processing bin into a pre-crushing area; (c) a second cyclone and an airlock system in the pre-crushing area for reducing air pressures in the pre-crushing area; and (d) a single-pass crushing machine positioned below the pre-crushing area, wherein the single-pass crushing machine comprises three or more roller pairs having intermeshed teeth, wherein the grain falls downwardly in the crushing machine from one roller pair to the next.
12. The system of claim 11, wherein processing bin is temperature and moisture controlled.
13. The system of claim 1, further comprising: (e) a series of dust sleeves connected to the airlock system, and wherein the dust sleeves have pores therein such that air received into the dust sleeves escapes through the pores, but dust received into the dust sleeves is trapped in the dust sleeves and not released to the atmosphere.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein the airlock system comprises a first airlock and a second airlock, and wherein the series of duct sleeves are connected to the first or second airlock.
15. The system of claim 11, wherein the single-pass crushing machine is positioned directly below the pre-crushing area such that the grain falls down from the pre-crushing area into the single-pass crushing machine.
16. The system of claim 15, wherein the pre-crushing area is in a room or space above a room in which the single-pass crushing machine is positioned.
17. The system of claim 11, wherein the rollers on the single-pass crushing machine have teeth with rounded edges and there is no space or valley between the teeth.
18. The system of claim 11, wherein each of the rollers in the roller pairs are secured in the crushing machine using inserts or housings with self-aligning bearings that hold a roller shaft of each roller in place on center.
19. The system of claim 11, wherein the single-pass crushing machine has at least three pairs of rollers.
20. The system of claim 11, wherein the single-pass crushing machine has 4 to 6 roller pairs.
21. The system of claim 11, wherein the single-pass crushing machine has 6 to 10 roller pairs.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
[0024] FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of the present system.
[0025] FIG. 2 is a close-up cut away view of a preferred processing bin.
[0026] FIG. 3 is an illustration showing placement of the present first and second air interlocks in a building attic above the present crushing machine. An optional second crushing machine is also shown.
[0027] FIG. 4 is a close-up view of the present dust sleeves.
[0028] FIG. 5 is an illustration of the present single-pass crushing machine.
[0029] FIG. 6 is a schematic illustration showing the positioning of three of the six pairs of rollers with the spacings between the roller pairs progressively decreasing as grain moves downwards through the machine.
[0030] FIG. 7A is a sectional view through one of the rollers of the Bihn '408 and '783 patents.
[0031] FIG. 7B is a sectional view through one of the rollers of Patent Application 2009/0294558 also to John Bihn.
[0032] FIG. 7C is a sectional view through one of the rollers of the present invention, illustrating the Applicant's novel teeth design.
[0033] FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the present single-pass crushing machine.
[0034] FIG. 9A is a perspective view of the locator block system for positioning the rollers as described in the Bihn '408 and '783 patents.
[0035] FIG. 9B is a perspective view of the present self-aligning bearings system for positioning the rollers.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
[0036] Referring first to FIG. 1, a schematic showing overall operation of the present system is provided. System 10 is operated to perform a method of crushing and processing grain without destroying germ pouches in the grain, as follows.
[0037] First, the grain is pneumatically transported from a truck 20 to a cyclone and processing bin 40. This may optionally be accomplished by using a suction air blowing system as a first air blower 30 (for example, a granular transport air suction and blowing system such as a Kongskilde SUC 200 Suction Blowing System made by Kongskilde Industries of Soro, Denmark. In such a system, grain is unloaded from the truck 20 into a collecting area (e.g.: a hopper) 21 at the back of the truck.
[0038] Next, as seen in FIGS. 1 and 2, the first air blower 30 sucks air and grain through pipe 22, and blows the air and grain down through pipe 32 such that the grain enters the top or side of a temperature and moisture controlled cyclone and processing bin 40. Processing bin 40 is preferably itself housed in a temperature and moisture controlled room or setting. In preferred aspects seen in FIG. 2, the grain is blown into a cyclone top with the grain swirling around several times before dropping onto the pile of grain in the bin. For example, the grain may swirl 2 to 3 times around before descending onto the pile of grain already in the bin. This is preferably done while permitting air to escape from the top of bin 40 through exit 33.
[0039] Cyclone and processing bin 40 is shown in cut-away in FIG. 2 to illustrate the grains being blown out of pipe 32 and falling down into the cyclone and then down into the bin after cycloning or swirling around first. Insulated walls 41 are seen in this cutaway view. A 12-14 inch diameter fan system 43 blows air into the bottom of processing bin 40, with a vent 33 letting air out of the top. The advantage of this fan and vent system is that the interior of the cone of processing bin 40 can be kept moisture controlled. The advantage of having processing bin 40 insulated and temperature controlled is that it keeps the grain therein cool which discourages the infestation of insects and other pests and controls the moisture and prevents overheating of the germ pouch. As also seen in FIGS. 1 and 3, insulated cyclone and processing bin 40 preferably has legs 42 that support it above the ground. As such, air circulating underneath processing bin 40 further keeps the grain in processing bin 40 cool.
[0040] In the next stage of the process seen in FIGS. 1 and 3, the grain is pneumatically moved from the cyclone and processing bin 40 to a pre-crushing area 60. As understood herein, pre-crushing area 60 may include areas in an attic or other room or area of a building (as illustrated in FIG. 3) or below the attic in the room in which the single pass crusher 100 is housed, or both. In preferred aspects, the grain is transported from the cyclone and processing bin 40 to pre-crushing area 60 by a secondary air suction and blowing system 50. In preferred aspects, the secondary air blower 50 may be similar in design to the first air blower 30. As such, as seen in FIGS. 1 and 2, the grain may be drawn down into funnel 44, and then sucked though pipe 46, pass through second air blower 50 and then be blown through pipe 52 into a second cyclone at the first airlock 70, thereby passing eventually up into pre-crushing area 60. It is to be understood, however, that alternative pneumatic transportation systems may also be used for second blower 50. Preferably, pipe 52 turns and enters the building at an elevated location (i.e.: into the attic pre-crushing area 60) of the building as seen in FIG. 3. As also seen in FIGS. 1 and 3, a second single-pass crusher 102 can be used simultaneously with single pass crusher 100. It is to be understood that more than two single-pass crushing machines can be used as well, all keeping within the scope of the present invention.
[0041] In the next stage in the process, the grain is dropped from the pre-crushing area 60 down into a single pass crushing machine 100 while air is simultaneously released from pre-crushing area 60. This air release significantly drops the air pressure in pre-crushing area 60 which has the beneficial effect of not forcing (i.e.: blowing) the grains down into the top of the multi-stage crusher 100. The present inventor has experimentally validated the present system which simultaneously uses two different systems for decreasing the air pressure in pre-crushing area 60, as follows. First, the air received from pipe 52 is separated from the grain and is passed out through a second cyclone at first airlock 70 where the grain is swirled in a different direction. Cyclone and airlock 70 is preferably just a flow cylinder in which mixed air and grain enters at its side through pipe 52. As the air and grain fall into airlock 70 from the second cyclone, a portion of the air is bled off and exits through pipe 72 out of the cyclone (which is preferably at the top of airlock 70), while grain falls out the bottom center of airlock 70 and into second airlock 80. Some of the remaining air pressure in second airlock 80 is then allowed to exit through pipe 81 and dust sleeve 83. As such, releasing air from the first airlock 70 into the dust sleeves 74 decreases the air pressure in the second cyclone and pre-crushing area 60 by a first amount and wherein simultaneously releasing air from the second airlock 80 (through pipe 81) further decreases the air pressure in the pre-crushing area 60 by a second amount.
[0042] After the air leaves the second cyclone and airlock 70 through pipe 72, it is directed into dust sleeves 74. Specifically, pipe 72 is seen exiting the attic and proceeding down the side of the building towards dust sleeves 74 (which are large and preferably outside the building). As seen in more detail in FIG. 4, air permeates outwardly through the dust sleeves 74 while dust entering the dust sleeves is trapped therein. Specifically, dust sleeves 74 have pores therein such that when air passes into the sleeves, dust is collected by the sleeves with the air passing there through. Dust sleeves 74 are preferably connected to a manifold 77 which rests on stand 76. The advantages of the dust sleeves 74 include the fact that they clean the air as it leaves the present system (as seen in FIG. 1). Cleaning the air as it leaves the present system advantageously permits the present pneumatic systems (blowers 30 and 50) to be used to transport the grain in bulk quantities without generating excessive dust pollution. Importantly as well, existing grain transportation systems typically have to moisten the grain to combat dust. In contrast, the present system removes dust without having to moisten the grain at all. Keeping the grain dry inhibits the infestation of insects or contamination. As such, the present system does not need to rely on preservatives at all which is distinct from other transportation systems which must rely on preservatives. Importantly as well, the use of dust sleeves 74 also lowers the air pressures in pre-crushing area 60.
[0043] As seen in FIG. 3, after passing down through the first airlock 70 in the attic, the grain falls down through a pipe 82 into the second airlock 80. In accordance with various aspects of the present system, however, a second airlock 80 described above is used to further decrease the air pressure in pre-crushing area 60. Airlock 80 may preferably be located in the same room as multi-stage crusher 100 directly below airlock 70. As such, the grain falls down through pipe 85 into the single-pass crusher 100. Working together, airlocks 70 and 80 drop the air pressure enough in pre-crushing area 60 that the grain therein simply falls down into single-pass crusher 100 (rather than being blown down by the force of the air movement caused by either or both of air blowers 30 and 50).
[0044] Optionally as well, a second single-pass crushing machine 102 can be installed in the same room as the first single-pass crushing machine 100. In this setup, pipe 87 feeds grain into the second single-pass crushing machine 102 (after the grain has passed through the above-described system). It is to be understood, however, that any number of single-pass crushing machines can be operated in parallel using the same illustrated system of pneumatically transporting grains from a truck into the crushing machines, all keeping within the scope of the present system.
[0045] Finally, the grain is crushed in the single-pass crushing machine 100 (and optionally 102). The differences between the grain crushers described in the above Bihn patents and the present grain crusher 100 and the differences between the rollers is described above, and further details of the single-pass crushing machine 100 are seen in FIGS. 5 and 6.
[0046] As seen in FIG. 6, three of the present six roller pairs are identified as 120 (rollers 120A and 120B), 130 (rollers 130A and 130B) and 140 (rollers 140A and 140B) are illustrated. (Roller pairs 150 to 170 continue below, but are not illustrated). Grain enters at the top 101 and exits through the bottom 102 of the crushing machine. The grain requires only one single pass through the machine from top to bottom. At each stage, the grain passes between successive roller pairs. In the illustrated system, there are six pairs of rollers (120, 103, 140, 150, 160 and 170). It is to be understood that the present system is not limited to only six pairs of rollers. Rather, the present invention preferably encompasses three or more pairs of rollers, more preferably four to six pairs of rollers, and optionally six to ten pairs of rollers.
[0047] As seen in the close-up view of FIG. 6, only roller pairs 120 to 140 are illustrated. Each of the roller pairs 120, 130 and 140 have identical circumferences and have identical central axis to central axis separation distances 121, 131 and 141. (Note: the separation distances between roller pairs 150, 160 and 170 is the same but is not illustrated in the close-up view of FIG. 6). Importantly, however, the size of the teeth and their angles effectively crushes the grain finer and finer as the grain moves downwards from one successive roller pair to the next. As grain falls down though single-pass crushing machine 100, it is progressively crushed to smaller and smaller sizes (until the desired grain size is finally reached) simply due to the size and shape of the teeth on each roller pair, despite the same distance between rollers and same size of circumference of rollers. Specifically, the angle and size of teeth progressively cause the grain to be crushed smaller and smaller. Note: the illustration of teeth size and shape in FIG. 6 need not be to scale. It may be exaggerated somewhat for ease of illustration and understanding. It is also to be understood that different grains will be crushed down to different sizes. As such, different numbers of roller pairs and different sizes of pairs and teeth may be used for crushing different types of grain, all keeping within the scope of the present system.
[0048] Most \ preferably, the present single pass crushing machine has 3, 4 to 6 or 6 to 10 pairs of rollers, and these roller separation distances are not adjustable or do not require adjustments after the single pass machine 100 has been manufactured. In preferred embodiments, the rotational speeds of each of the roller pairs are different, and the roller pairs that have smaller separation distances between the intermeshed teeth have faster rotational speeds.
[0049] Next, FIGS. 7A to 7C show sectional views through various roller pairs showing the present inventor's novel teeth design. First, FIG. 7A is a sectional view through one of the rollers of the Bihn '408 and '783 patents. As can be seen, its rollers 200 each have sharp teeth 201 with large flattened valleys 202 there between. At this time, it was believed that the large valleys 202 ensured no metal-to-metal contact between the rollers of the roller pair and that the grains could successfully be crushed between the individual teeth 201 and valleys 202 without damaging the germ pouches of the grains. The tooth design of FIG. 7A followed the earlier tooth design in FIG. 7B which is a sectional view through one of the rollers of Patent Application 2009/0294558 also to John Bihn. In FIG. 7B, the rollers 300 simply had standard interlocking teeth 301. This design also suffered from the disadvantage of damaging the germ pouches of the grains. Moreover, the valleys had too much grain get in between the teeth causing the grain to expand. In contrast, the present design of the teeth and rollers prevents expanding of the grain during the crushing process, which in turn allows the machine to better pull the starch out during the crushing process while preserving the germ pouch resulting in higher levels of protein concentrate.
[0050] Through considerable experimentation and testing, the present inventor developed the novel tooth and roller design of FIG. 7C in which each of the successive teeth 401 have a rounded top edge 402 and straight edges 403 and no valleys or spaces between the teeth. This particular design has been determined to be very suitable when crushing grains as it prevents destruction of the grains' germ pouches and, as described above, allows the machine to better pull the starch out during the crushing process.
[0051] FIG. 8 shows a perspective view of the present single-pass crushing machine 100. Roller pairs 120, 130, 140, 150, 160 and 170 can be seen. A motor 500 drives a belt 502 which turns one roller of each of roller pairs 140 and 130 (through belt 504). Rotating one of the rollers of roller pair 140 causes the other roller of roller pair 140 to turn. Similarly, rotating one of the rollers of roller pair 130 causes the other roller of roller pair 130 to turn. Belt 506 causes roller pair 120 to rotate and belt 508 causes roller pair 150 to rotate. Belts 510 and 512 similarly cause roller pairs 160 and 170 to rotate. Grain enters at the top of machine 100 at the top and after passing sequentially through roller pairs 120, 130, 140, 150, 160 and 170, the finely ground grain exits the bottom of the machine.
[0052] Lastly, FIGS. 9A and 9B compare the prior art locator blocks positioning system as seen in Bihn '783 patent (FIG. 9A) to the present system which does not use locator blocks (FIG. 9B). In FIG. 9A, a single large locator block 250 is used to hold both rollers 200. In contrast, in the present system seen in FIG. 9B, each roller (e.g.: 170A and 170B) is held in position by a self-aligning bearing 175.
[0053] It is to be understood that the specification and drawings describe and illustrate exemplary embodiments of the invention and that the present claims are to be interpreted to encompasses modifications and equivalents known to persons skilled in the art.
