OPTIMIZATION OF PRESS-GRANULATOR WORK IN SMART TECHNOLOGIES SYSTEM
Authors: Gaponyuk O , Aleksashin A , Goncharuk G 
Published: October 2022

It has been repeatedly tested and proven that granulated feed and granulated semolina have a number of advantages over loose feed, since there is no self-sorting of components, losses during transportation and loss of nutrients during storage is reduced. The effective effect of such compound feeds is higher than that of loose feeds by 10-15% due to an increase in the level of sanitary quality and an increase in the digestibility of nutrients. In addition, up to 3...4% of liquid components can be introduced into the compound feed during granulation, compared to 1...2% for loose compound feed. At present, there is a tendency towards an increase in the share of production of granulated feed. The technology of granulating feed allows you to ensure stable uniformity, improve sanitary and hygienic indicators, increase nutritional value, increase shelf life, and minimize losses during its transportation and distribution. All this affects both the consumption of compound feed and the performance of animal and poultry rearing. At the same time, the main equipment for the production of mixed feed pellets is a pellet press. The task of controlling the press granulator as part of SMART technologies is to determine and implement such a ratio of steam consumption and the initial product, in which the indicators of the granulation process such as productivity, specific consumption of steam and electricity, as well as the quality properties of the granules would correspond to the required values. According to the most important practical recommendation for conducting the technological process of granulation, it is to provide the required conditions for conditioning with steam, liquid components in accordance with the properties of the initial processed product. At the same time, the hydrothermal treatment of compound feed affects, practically, all indicators of the granulation process and the quality of its final product. An analysis of the dependence of productivity on steam consumption obtained for various compound feed recipes allows us to conclude that it is possible and expedient to search for the optimal position of the regulating body for supplying steam to the pellet press mixer. At the same time, it is necessary that the productivity of the press tend to the maximum depending on the position of the regulating body for supplying steam to the press, and the magnitude of the current load of the main drive motor, which mainly determines the energy intensity of the process, was limited in a given range of values at zeroing of the corresponding compound feed recipe: The increment in the filling time of the cooling column between the cycles of the unloading device, which characterizes the performance of the pellet press, can be used to indirectly evaluate it and be used as an output indicator in the control system for the granulation process. The search algorithm for the optimal granulation mode consists of two parts: the stepwise start algorithm (bringing the system into the search zone) and the search algorithm for the optimal granulation mode. It is proposed to use the SMART-INDIVIDUAL system, which is equipped with a module with a regulation for monitoring parameters of equipment according to passport characteristics. At the same time, the system maintains an archive and controls the timing of maintenance.