Digital Re-print - May | June 2011

Pelleting: The link between practice and engineering

Grain & Feed Milling Technology is published six times a year by Perendale Publishers Ltd of the United Kingdom. All data is published in good faith, based on information received, and while every care is taken to prevent inaccuracies, the publishers accept no liability for any errors or omissions or for the consequences of action taken on the basis of information published. Copyright 2010 Perendale Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior permission of the copyright owner. Printed by Perendale Publishers Ltd. ISSN: 1466-3872

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FEATURE CPM has overcome this problem by developing the Hot Start Mixer, which functions as a buffer in the start-up of the conditioning process. The paddles and screw in the first section of the hygieniser at start-up turn in reversed direction until the mash has reached the required temperature and then the direction is changed and the mash can flow through the hygieniser. There is no more need for sion. Do you realise that a gear box has an over 11 percent higher efficiency than a two stage V-belt drive? Lange says. Do you realise the savings? For a 250kW with an

FEATURE

Pelleting: and engineering The link between practice

of these machines consider their business closer related to science. But this science can learn from the pelleting artists by developing and implementing demands and views from practice. The engineers at CPM Europe are the last ones to deny that practice is closely Through this cooperation equipment intertwined with their work on the computer manufacturer CPM Europe in Amsterdam, controlled drawing programs. Our close relationship to practice and our ability to Through higher temperatures the translate practical improvements into feed is hygienised and bugs are factual equipment has delivered us almost already killed in the conditioner. always a competitive advantage, which is CPM was at the forefront of this especially valuable in an industry, which is not specifically known development with the introduction of for its innovative power, says Peter the hygieniser or super conditioner Lange, sales manager at CPM Europe. the Netherlands, has been able to launch many firsts, which have later been adopted and copied to industry standards. Plant operators working in the feed industry often consider the handling of their pelleting equipment to be an art. Manufacturers
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The Quick Change clamps enable the operators to change which die within half all hour a bypass and the full batch of the feed can be used without chance of recontamination. operating time of 6,000 hours per year and an energy price of eight eurocents per kWh this would mean a energy cost of 120,000. At 11 percent higher efficiency this would mean a saving of 13,200 in the advantage of a gear box drive.

Specialist in pelleting
feedmill needs to produce pellets in a hygienic way with the least costs and the highest efficiency. This cannot be realised without the close relationship between the operators in the field and the engineers at the drawing table.

This conditioning of the mash has several advantages. Proper conditioning ensures a better pellet quality (hardness, durability) resulting in better conversion rates with the animals. Conditioning improves pellet mill capacity, reduces electrical power use and reduces wear of dies and rollers. Furthermore with conditioning more difficult (cheaper) ingredients can be used. Conditioning is a combination of moisture addition, (steam and/or water), mechanical treatment (kneading and shearing) and thermal treatment (time/temperature). Especially the last feature has become essential in feed manufacturing. Through higher temperatures the feed is hygienised and bugs are already killed in the conditioner. CPM was at the forefront of this development with the introduction of the hygieniser or super conditioner. This piece of equipment has shown to be an extremely efficient conditioner before pelleting and it is much cheaper than an expander, which is also often used. Table 1 shows the differences between an expander and the hygieniser.

Conditioning with Hygeniser

CPM is active in the grinding and pelleting section of the feed manufacturing process. Before pelleting the feed mash needs to be treated before it enters the pellet mill.

Hot start mixer

One small thing was still a problem: when starting the conditioning process the first approximate 100kg do not reach the required temperature and have to be bypassed or discarded before pelleting.
Grain

Around 50 percent of all pellet mills used in the world are made by CPM. So the company indeed can call itself a specialist in pelleting. Pelleting is not just the use of a machine that turns ground and mixed ingredients into pellets, it is a process and begins after the grinding process with conditioning, followed by the actual pelleting and then cooling of the hot pellets and where applicable the addition of fats. Pelleting is also about energy consumption. The way the die and the die rolls are positioned largely determine how much energy can be added to the product. There is a close relationship between energy consumption and pellet quality. The more energy is put into the pellet the better its quality will be. At the pellet mill this is limited to max. 20kWh/tonne. The consumption of energy is also depending on the roller distance to the die. An increase in roller distance will result in higher energy consumption. To be able to manage this process CPM developed the Lineator, which enables the operator to adjust the roller distances while pelleting and thus gives him the opportunity to influence pellet quality on the spot. Energy efficiency is also depending on the method of power transmission in the pellet mill. For this reason CPM pellet mills operate with a gear box instead of double V-belt drive. According to Lange, gearbox transmissions have a high efficient power transmisGrain

CPM is again setting the standard for the future with the recently award winning developed roll speed measurement system

Quick die change

Every pellet plant operator knows the burden of changing a die. Not only is it a heavy and time consuming job, it also adds considerably to the down-time of the plant. The CPM engineering group in Amsterdam developed a quick die change system for its 32" and 36" pellet mills. The object was to have the pellet mill up and
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FEATURE

Despite the economic crisis Lange is quite satisfied with the order list of pellet mills and other related equipment. A walk through their workshop close to the old Amsterdam docks confirm this. Loads of equipment are ready for shipping to customers all over Europe. Remarkable are the heavy 355kW motors on the pellet mills. It is a development from the wood pelleting industry. The motors are available and we adjusted our gearbox to be able to With the lineator the distance between the roll and the die can automatically be adjusted. A new mount these heavies on feature is roll speed measurement, which can protect the die from choking our mills, Lange says. Also present in the running with a new die only 30 minutes after working the roll speed measurement inten- workshop is a miniature feed mill or laborathe end of the previous batch. This means sively while operating the remote roller tory as it is being called at CPM. that for the actual (hot) die change only setting Lineator. The new integrated roll This enables us to test the most exotic 20 minutes are being reserved. To meet speed measurement device is expected to raw materials from all kinds of industries to this objective CPM installs a pneumatic the work with very little maintenance and high see if they are pelletable. We are always hoist, automatic knives posi- accuracy. working on innovations. This way we can tioning, automatic roller adjust It was observed that at clean die and roll- stay one step ahead of competition and suptype Lineator, 18 segments die ers, the roll speed measurement allows an ply good quality machines for a reasonable clamp type bear claw and pre- automatic zero positioning of the Lineator. price, he adds. assembled die with stiffening Until now this zero positioning proves ring and rotary cone. to be a rather subjective interpretation of California Pellet Mill group With this system two people can remove various operators. Different operators can The history of CPM dates back to a die in less than four minutes and the same pre-load the rollers differently against the 1883 in California's Napa Valley when the people can fit a new die in less than five die to set the zero-position. With the roll California Pellet Mill Company manufacminutes. The quick die change clamp can also speed measurement the zero-position is set tured presses, Crushers and stemmers for be mounted on existing machines that have at the moment both rollers are rotating at winemakers. In 1931, the company revolubeen supplied by CPM in the last 10 years. nominal speed. tionised the feed processing industry with In practice influencing the pellet quality the introduction of the first commercially is reached by using a thicker successful pellet mill. die or BOA-compactor or A few years later, in 1938, the Roskamp expander. story began when John Roskamp formed With the roll speed meas- the Roskamp Huller Company. In the l980s, urement these become obso- Roskamp Champion was born with the purlete, Lange says. chase of Roskamp Roller Mill Company and The Lineator can now be Champion Hammer Mills. used to put more energy into In 2002, CPM purchased Beta Raven the pellet. The speed of the of St Charles, Missouri, USA, supplier of rollers is measured and if they computerised process controls and ingrerotate too slowly a signal fol- dient scaling systems. In 2006, Century The hot start mixer accumulates feed until lows. The operator then can Extrusion, from Century Inc of Traverse City, the required temperature is reached and then take action to avoid choking of Michigan, was acquired. The latest acquisievacuates the feed and increases throughput the die. tion was Crown Iron Works, a specialist in Hendrix installed the roll oilseed processing. World headquarters and speed measurement and operates the by- Roskamp Champion production facilities are Roll speed measurement The latest innovation in combination with pass quick dump feed chute if the roller located in Waterloo, Iowa. In Asia, CPM is the Lineator is die roll speed measurement, speed passes the minimum value of 320rpm. present in Singapore and has production which was put into service in July of this year. The experience is that after a roller runs facilities in Wuxi, China. Other plants are Hendrix-UTD in Lochem (NL) has already under speed condition that the chokes and located in Crawfordsville, Indiana; Merrimack, New Hampshire, USA, and Amsterdam, The been working with roll speed measurement the main engine overloads. According to Lange the Lineator with roll Netherlands. for approximately 10 years at the available speed measurement reaches its highest potenCPM is owned by Gilbert Global Equity CPM 7730-7 and 7932-9 pellet mill series. The maintenance of this self-constructed tial when a relatively thin die is used. Pellet Partners. This strategic and financial partnerquality and throughput can be influenced up to ship has enabled CPM to grow organically system is time consuming. and by acquisition. However, the production employees are 30 percent and less die changes are needed.

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In this issue:
Synthesis of animal feed formulation techniques:

Choosing the right Hazard Monitoring System

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Conditioning as part of the pelleting process

Linear and Non-Linear model

Pelleting:
The link between practice and engineering

Pellet production to save energy, improve feed efficiency and safety

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