PELLETING DEVICE

Abstract

Disclosed is a pelleting device which is designed as a field-guided stalk-crop harvesting machine and, when connected to a tractor with a chopper, includes a diesel engine that drives a current generator and also an annular die press. The chopped stalk material passes into a dry chamber and via a screw conveyor into the annular die press. The annular die of the annular die press is mounted in ring bearings on a base, on which a pair of pivot levers for a pan grinder roller is also hinged. An electric drive motor fed by the current generator drives the screw conveyor by a controller, and servomotors, which engage on the pivot levers, regulate the roller gap. The controller is governed as a function of the injection requirement of the diesel engine and/or the pressure applied by the press.

Claims

1-7. (canceled)

8. Pelleting device, in particular for a field-guided mobile stalk-crop harvesting machine (4) with a built-in internal combustion engine (7), e.g., with a diesel engine, a unit for preheating the stalk material fed from a chopper (2) with the waste heat of the internal combustion engine (7), a screw conveyor (8) for the stalk material and with a pelleting press, whereby the internal combustion engine (7) drives a current generator (13), which feeds drive motors and servomotors (11, 23) via switch components, wherein the internal combustion engine (7) also drives a ring die (17) of a ring die press (9) with at least one pan grinder roller (16).

9. Pelleting device according to claim 8, wherein a controller (12) for the speed of the screw conveyor (8) is one of the switch components.

10. Pelleting device according to claim 9, wherein the controller (12) is governed by the load-dependent and variably-injected amount of fuel of the diesel engine (7) that operates at constant speed, and the drive motor (11) of the screw conveyor (8) feeding the ring die pelleting press (9) is regulated inversely proportionally to the injection amount.

11. Pelleting device according to claim 8, wherein the pan grinder roller (16) is designed as a circular-cylindrical hollow sieve roller.

12. Pelleting device according to claim 8, wherein the servomotors (23) engage via self-locking gears on parallel pivot levers (20), which laterally encompass and hold the pan grinder roller (16) and which can be adjusted in inclination to determine the roller gap relative to the inner lateral surface of the ring die (17).

13. Pelleting device according to claim 12, wherein the pivot levers (20) are mounted on a base (19), and the latter also carries the annular bearing (18) of the ring die (17) of the ring die press (9) and receives its reaction forces.

14. Pelleting device according to claim 8, wherein the screw conveyor (8) has funnel-shaped housing elements for precompressing the biomass, in particular rods welded-in into the interior of the housing (10) and distributed on the periphery, which rods form the generatrix of a cone envelope.

15. Pelleting device according to claim 9, wherein the pan grinder roller (16) is designed as a circular-cylindrical hollow sieve roller.

16. Pelleting device according to claim 10, wherein the pan grinder roller (16) is designed as a circular-cylindrical hollow sieve roller.

17. Pelleting device according to claim 9, wherein the servomotors (23) engage via self-locking gears on parallel pivot levers (20), which laterally encompass and hold the pan grinder roller (16) and which can be adjusted in inclination to determine the roller gap relative to the inner lateral surface of the ring die (17).

18. Pelleting device according to claim 10, wherein the servomotors (23) engage via self-locking gears on parallel pivot levers (20), which laterally encompass and hold the pan grinder roller (16) and which can be adjusted in inclination to determine the roller gap relative to the inner lateral surface of the ring die (17).

19. Pelleting device according to claim 11, wherein the servomotors (23) engage via self-locking gears on parallel pivot levers (20), which laterally encompass and hold the pan grinder roller (16) and which can be adjusted in inclination to determine the roller gap relative to the inner lateral surface of the ring die (17).

20. Pelleting device according to claim 9, wherein the screw conveyor (8) has funnel-shaped housing elements for precompressing the biomass, in particular rods welded-in into the interior of the housing (10) and distributed on the periphery, which rods form the generatrix of a cone envelope.

21. Pelleting device according to claim 10, wherein the screw conveyor (8) has funnel-shaped housing elements for precompressing the biomass, in particular rods welded-in into the interior of the housing (10) and distributed on the periphery, which rods form the generatrix of a cone envelope.

22. Pelleting device according to claim 11, wherein the screw conveyor (8) has funnel-shaped housing elements for precompressing the biomass, in particular rods welded-in into the interior of the housing (10) and distributed on the periphery, which rods form the generatrix of a cone envelope.

23. Pelleting device according to claim 12, wherein the screw conveyor (8) has funnel-shaped housing elements for precompressing the biomass, in particular rods welded-in into the interior of the housing (10) and distributed on the periphery, which rods form the generatrix of a cone envelope.

24. Pelleting device according to claim 13, wherein the screw conveyor (8) has funnel-shaped housing elements for precompressing the biomass, in particular rods welded-in into the interior of the housing (10) and distributed on the periphery, which rods form the generatrix of a cone envelope.

25. Pelleting device according to claim 15, wherein the screw conveyor (8) has funnel-shaped housing elements for precompressing the biomass, in particular rods welded-in into the interior of the housing (10) and distributed on the periphery, which rods form the generatrix of a cone envelope.

26. Pelleting device according to claim 16, wherein the screw conveyor (8) has funnel-shaped housing elements for precompressing the biomass, in particular rods welded-in into the interior of the housing (10) and distributed on the periphery, which rods form the generatrix of a cone envelope.

27. Pelleting device according to claim 17, wherein the screw conveyor (8) has funnel-shaped housing elements for precompressing the biomass, in particular rods welded-in into the interior of the housing (10) and distributed on the periphery, which rods form the generatrix of a cone envelope.

Description

BEST WAY TO EXECUTE THE INVENTION

[0015] A towing machine, here a tractor 1, is equipped on the front end with a chopper 2. The latter cuts and crushes, for example, crop straw, sunflower straw, corn crops, or corn straw or bioproducts (energy crops) grown only for the purpose of the production of biomass, such as giant knotweed or miscanthus. The crushed biomass passes over a blower 3 into a harvesting machine 4 pulled by the tractor 1. This hasif need be connected to a fine chopperan input area as a dry chamber 5, which has a heat exchanger 6, for example in the form of an at least partial sheathing of the dry chamber 5. The heat exchanger 6 is connected to a diesel engine 7, whose waste heat is fed to the heat exchanger 6. The chopped biomass that is stored intermediately in the dry chamber 5 is removed by a screw conveyor 8 and compressed en route to a ring die press 9. To this end, either the housing 10 and/or the screw itself is designed with a taper. Rods can also be provided in the housing 10 with a circular-cylindrical design thereof in the interior, which form the generatrix of a cone envelope and converge toward the output of the screw conveyor 8. The latter has an electric drive motor 11, which is fed via a controller 12 by a current generator 13. The drive of the current generator 13 is done at constant speed via the diesel engine 7, which drives the ring die press 9 via a transmission 14. If the load of the diesel engine 7 increases because of an increased power demand of the ring die press 9, then more fuel is injected to maintain the constant speed of the diesel engine 7. This consumption forms the reference variable for the controller 12, as indicated by the arrow 15. With an increasing injection amount, the controller 12 reduces the speed of the screw conveyor 8, so that the ring die press 9 is loaded with less biomass and thus load is removed from it. The consumption of the diesel engine 7 decreases.

[0016] In the embodiment, the ring die press 9 operates with a pan grinder roller 16, which here also is designed as a circular-cylindrical hollow sieve roller.

[0017] The ring die 17 itself is mounted on the edge side in each case in a holding ring or ring bearing 18 in the form of a roller bearing, which is held by a base 19. This base 19 also accommodates the pivot bearing of a pair of pivot levers 20 that are arranged in parallel and that comprise the ring die 17 and the pan grinder roller 16 in a forklike configuration and hold the pan grinder roller 16 (bearing 21). With the free ends of the two pivot levers 20, in each case spindles 22 are connected to electrical servomotors 23, via which the roller gap between the pan grinder roller 16 and the ring die 17 can be adjusted. In the case of pressing force that is too high, the pivot lever 20 can be pivoted to the right via the controller 12 and the servomotors 23 in the embodiment, and the roller gap can be increased. Additional criteria for adjusting the roller gap are the specific conditions of the accumulating biomass (e.g., straw or shavings), its moisture, and the mechanical quality of the pellets.

[0018] The pellets that accumulate both from the interior of the pan grinder roller 16 and outside on the ring die 17 in the area of the roller gap are collected (cup 24) and conveyed by means of a blower or a conveyor belt into a silo 25 and pass on demand into an output 26. The advantage of this arrangement lies in the compact design of the ring die press 9 with the base 19 and the pivot levers 20 that are mounted on the latter for the pan grinder roller 16 as well as in the use of the diesel engine 7 as a pressing drive, but also as a generator drive for the adjustable drive motors and servomotors 11 and 23. When the harvesting machine 4 is not being used in the fields, it can then be stationary and can be operated independently of a tractor 1 and a chopper 2, for example with wood scraps from the forest or with other waste materials. This is of great importance during the time when no field crops are available for pellet production. Also, the harvesting machine 4 that is turned off is fully operational and can produce pellets from crushed wood or small shredded combustible waste products.