Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-12-04
Committee on Manufacture of
Sugar Has IlIuminatiye
Report Ready


the system of shredding the cane be
/ fore passing il through the mill in the
report on Manufacture of Sugar and
Utilization of By-Produets" made by
its committee to the Hawaiian Sugar
Planters Association. The commit
/ tee, headed by r. s. Norris, says in
the course of an illuminative report
Cane Shredding
1.-THE most notable item of interest
under the head of milling for the past
season has been the success that has
attended the return to the process OF
shredding cane. In last seasons re
port of this committee attention was
called to the trial that had been MADE
at the factory of the Hawaiian Com.
mercial & Sugar Company of new
form Of shredder invented by Super.
intendent Searby. The results were
promising, but could be considered as
only of an experimental nature. This
season shredders have been in opera
ton in five factories and the results
with them have on the whole been
very satisfactory We have the fol-
lowing reports on the results from
these several plantations:
aJannes Glib, Honolulu Plantation
Company: In regard to the advantage
OF shredding the cane before passing
It through the mills, would say that |
believe It is great improvement over
the old method of passing the cane
through the mills without shredding.
The advantages are these:
"C) 1t puts the cane in a better
condition for extracting the Juice from
the fiber. Shredder cane resembles
coarse bagasse.
"(2) 1t makes an evener feed.
"(S) 1t requires less power to run
the mills.
prom a test we made for day or
two without the shredder, We. esti-
mated that the shredder Increased
our extraction about 1 per cent.
"Our gain in extraction In 1916 over
1915 was E.6g. Our afefaee a2traes
ton for 1916 was 97.49 against $3.50
for 1915, which was our best previous
record. Part Of this increase was due
to other improvements in our mill
setting in 1916 over 1915. In 1915 we
put in Messchaert grooves In all our
trash rollers, while in 1915 we only
had the grooves in the feed rolls.
Then for 1916 we had new two
roll crusher with 1h.inch grooves In
place of an old crusher of the Fulton
Iron Works type Our first mill was
also changed from three grooves to
the inch to grooves of %-inch on all
three rolls. Two Ramsay conyeyors
with maceration scrapers were in
stalled.
1--WE also increased our dilution
from 35 to 5043 per cent
with all these changes, in addl-
ton to putting in the. shredder, you
will see that it is rather difficult to
determine what we actually gained
from the shredder alone, but, as De-
fore stated, while running without 1t
for one or two days we found a Ia
ference of from l to IL per cent.
"Our crushing plant now consists OF
two sets of revolving knives, shred
der, a crusher and nine-roiler mill.
On the whole, we believe the snreu-
der an ideal machine for preparing
the cane for crushing. We ran 1t all
this season. 1t gave no trouble after
II was properly adjusted. There is
cutie a little wear on the h2inmefs.
For the seasons run we used up
about two sets.
az. A. Alexander, Me5ryde Sugar
Company: In regard to the advantage
of shredding the cane before passing
it through the mills, would state
that for the past year our extraction
had been Increased fully 2 per cent.
We attribute most of this gain to the
swing hammer Searby shredder. For
most of the past year our shreide-
has been driven by a steam turbine
at 1900 revolutions per minute. We
have found that the power used to
run the turbine is balanced by The
power we are able to take Off the
mills.
aShredding the cane before it
passes through the mills gives US an
opportunity to discover any iron that
NAV be in the cane and thereby stop
ping the engine before the materials
reach the first mill.
The shredded cane seems to De
able to absorb all the dilution thai
our eyaporators can handle. OuI
average dilution this year was -
against S1.I last year
"In the fireroom We have had no
difficulties with the fine trash, IN
fact the combustion seems to pc
almost instantaneous and our Porcu-
nine boilers have always kept as Wen
supplied with steam.
ANDREW Adams, kahuku Plantation
Company: The advantage Of shred
ding cane before passing it through
the mills is, to my mind. very great,
and there is considerable increase IN
extraction because OF this shreddlne.
AT the present time l can give you
no data on this increased extraction
for the simple fact that our juices
last season, and especially toward the
end OF the season, were 50 much
lower in purity than the juices Of the
previous season. and We had snch 3
high percentage Of fiber in the cane,
that we did not attempt high extrae-
flor, We. xrorn q h1o Nrrrr<z1<r. - rrna