Fw: Hay Pelletizer / Biomass Machine follow-up (3)

[Snow Ranch]

-------

Okay, now to my rollers.  These are 3" diameter rollers x 1/2" thick.  Making them 1" thick adds way more expense.  They can be made from just a 1/2" x 3" x 3" plate turned on a lathe and drilled....or from 3" bar rounds cut, ground, and then drilled.  Inner hole drilled to a diameter matching the OD of the selected bearings. Press fit.  Most rollers have square (broached) machining done, but that's more costly and difficult as do-it-yourself.   Here, the radial holes are set up to allow a really sharp shreeding edge that will just axe away on the hay or wood chips, but the opening of the mouth is left wide enough to prevent clogging.  The circular nature of things will add some vortex flow of material to enhance shredding efficiency.  Though only 1/2" rollers, you stack them on the shaft (like dualie wheels on trucks) into a single rolling array.  That allows also for variance in roller RPM with length and varying resistance encountered

when shredding and compressing.  The outward round face does the compression into the extrusion holes and must be at least a bit larger than the diameter of the holes.

 

 

Rollers (1" thick), T303 Stainless
$235.44 ea
10) $99.34 each

[5 needed]

 

(1/2" thick), 303 Stainless Steel
1) $144.73
10) $46.84 ea

[10 needed]

 

 

Do-It-Yourself Roller Material Options for Machining:

 

3 inch Dia.  304 Stainless Steel Round Bar x 1 foot. $150.18
Tool Steel D-2 Flat Ground. 1/2 x 3 x 18"....$307.75
1/2" x 3" x 18" tool steel A2 flat ground, air hardened.   $214.43
Tool Steel O-1 Flat Ground, 1/2 x 3 x 18"....$160.36
3 inch Dia.  1018 Cold Finish Steel Round x 1' $48.06
1/2 X 3  Cold Finished C1018 Flat Bar, 2'....$33.66

 

For shafts:

 

1/2 inch  Alloy 4140 Steel Round - Cold Drawn Annealed, 4' bar...$12

For Bearings:

 

Bearings ...drill hole to match bearing OD desired;  Lathe shaft to desired bearing ID. At least 3/4" shaft OD.
http://www.nationalprecision.com/nu-nx-bearings/

"NX" prelubricated bearings
http://www.nationalprecision.com/cgi-bin/start.cgi/product_selector/nu/doSelector.html?inchBore=0%3A%3A1&metricBore=&selectortype=nx

 

...Price unknown.  Need and RFQ.

 

The Make Your Own Pellets dies appear to have about 120 holes compared to my design's 416.  They claim about 384 lbs/ hr @ 540 tractor PTO RPM.   My design will probably produce in the range of 1,328 lbs/ hr at the same PTO rpm and should require about 3.5 times the PTO horsepower, too.   About 88 HP needed.  Either take up the RPM and burn more fuel....or probably better to just get a little, junkyard Toytota 4 banger motor...used, running, EFI.  Something like a 3SFE.  Add some HHO for additional fuel economy.

 

In comparison, the propane tank unit and a single row extruder would have 1,224 holes.   If running a good set of rollers like mine (not 5" well casings), it could shred and compress maybe 3,917 lbs/ hr....per roller....and one could gear in about 3 per propane tank.....so, about 11,751 lbs/ hr pellet production....or maybe about 5.8 tons per hour capable on a 3 roller rig.  That's a capacity to convert maybe 106 three-wire bales/ hr....or about 1 3/4 bales/ minute shredded and transformed to pellets.    You'd need at least a 255 HP engine driving it now, but that's just a junkyard V-8 or truck's diesel engine on HHO.  The greater the machine can shed and produce, the less time you have to run the engine per Ton....and less fuel required per Ton.   Over a bale/ minute feed-in now starts to justify the cost of overhead and hired labor doing feeds.   And, if you're going to bother building one with self-labor rather than just off-the-shelf purchases....you might as well go big!  :-)   Gives you greater profit margin as a commercial operation.   Most these smaller units would cost more than building a big one, and you get less production....higher costs per ton produced, etc.

 

Anyhow, think about that some.  Might open up the pelletized feed and wood pellet fuel market for you.  Expands the hay market options.  On a little labor and time spent in a month's work....and costs about the same as buying another used tractor implement like a baler...there's a whole new business angle right there for ya. :-)

 

Stan