Patent Publication Number: US-2023148480-A1

Title: Trailed Straw Biomass Granulator

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims the benefit and priority of China patent application No. 202111366585.5, filed on Nov. 18, 2021, disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
     TECHNICAL FIELD DISCLOSURE 
     The present disclosure relates to the field of agricultural machinery, in particular to a trailed straw biomass granulator. 
     BACKGROUND 
     With the popularization of agricultural production mechanization, most of agricultural planting has realized the mechanized operation. Due to the increase in environmental protection awareness, the incineration of straw after planting of crops has also been banned, and converted into recycling. After crops are harvested, the straw can be used as fuel, fertilizer or animal feed, with high utilization value. 
     Picking the straw for granulating directly is a high-yield straw processing method in the related art. After the separated straw is broken by a combine harvester or a special-purpose harvesting machinery, the straw can be made into granules by roller-type granulating, which is convenient for the subsequent processing for purpose of fuel, fertilizer and feed. By mixing other additives into the straw, the granulated straw can also be used as highly value-added fertilizer and feed, which greatly improves the utilization rate of the straw. 
     The utility patent with the patent number ZL.200720093578.1 provides a Tooth-type Granulator, “a tooth-type granulator that produces granules by extruding the material by a pair of meshed gears”. This structure and working principles are to “convey liquid by using change in working volume and movement between the pump body and the meshed gears and pressurize it” according to the working principle of the gear pump. There are three key elements in the working principle of the gear pump: (1) change in working volume; (2) “movement” of conveyed object; (3) conveyed object is “liquid”. According to involute mesh principle, we know: (1) When a pair of gears are meshed with each other, the force direction of the gear is along the normal direction of the involute; (2) Theoretically, the involute teeth mesh process is a pure rolling process. In the patent of the Tooth-type Granulator, the working principle of the change in volume of the gear pump is used for reference. By using “a tapered die hole inside the groove between the teeth of each gear, connected to the hollow of each gear”, it is impossible to make the conveyed “non-liquid” biomass material to “effectively move” towards the forming die hole; especially when it is used for the forming of fibroid biomass material, under the clamping action of the positive pressure on the mesh point (line) of the two tooth profiles, the material cannot move towards the forming hole at the bottom of the teeth, which will further cause increase of the power consumption, severe wear of key parts, and even device failure. The applicant has proved through experiments and practice that, when the biomass forming machine with this structure is working, die and biomass forming material heat up rapidly, and the equipment cannot work normally. 
     The invention patent with application number 201811328387.8 discloses the ring die structure of an external teeth double-ring-die double-roll granulator, comprising a driving double-roll ring die and a driven double-roll ring die with external teeth of double-roll external teeth ring die system, wherein the external teeth of the two double-roll ring dies mesh with each other; on the “two sides” of the tooth profile, there are forming die holes with a certain angle between the axis and the symmetry plane of the tooth profile; the forming die holes on the two sides of the tooth profile are staggered and arranged in an array in the axis direction of double-roll ring die; the center distance between the driving double-roll ring die and the driven double-roll ring die that are meshed with each other is adjustable. It has the advantages of simple structure, strong adaptability of raw materials, low energy consumption and high production efficiency. 
     However, because the straw is relatively loose, in the process that the crushed straw is extruded and shaped through the forming hole, if the path distance of the forming hole is too short and the straw is not fully maintained pressure and compressed, then the finished product will be fragile and easy to become loose, which cause inconvenience in transportation and packaging, and it is not easy to be added as a fuel. When the path of the forming hole is long, on the one hand, after the loose straw enters the forming hole, the forming hole needs to be completely filled at the beginning of extrusion, and this process has not yet effectively formed straw granules, which affects the production efficiency; on the other hand, the storage space formed between the two adjacent teeth is used to contain straw scraps, and the amount of granules that can be formed in a single mesh depends on the rotation speed and the capacity in the storage space; when the rotation speed is constant, the storage capacity of the storage space will determine the discharge speed of the granules. Because the crushed material is loose, the material is fed into the storage space in the granulating process when the gear rotates; however, due to extrusion of the gears, the loose material will be extruded and compacted, so that the material fed by the gears is much smaller than the material that can be actually contained in the storage space, which affects the granulating speed. In order to increase the discharge speed, the existing granulator has a larger gear design, so that the single feeding volume of the gear becomes larger. As a result, the overall size of the entire equipment is relatively large, the power of the power system is correspondingly large, and the energy consumption is relatively high, which is not conducive to miniaturization and intensiveness of the equipment. 
     SUMMARY DISCLOSURE 
     The present disclosure provides a trailed straw biomass granulator, which can solve the problem that the roller-type granulating is not conducive to miniaturization in the related art. 
     A trailed straw biomass granulator comprises a rack, a straw picking and processing device, a straw storage room, a straw conveying device, a trailing mechanism, a first drive device and a forming device, wherein the straw picking and processing device, the straw storage room, the straw conveying device, the first drive device and the forming device are all arranged on the rack; the trailing mechanism is used to drive the rack to move, characterized in that, the forming device comprises the driving gear and the forming gear; the first drive device is used to drive the driving gear to rotate; 
     The driving gear is evenly distributed with the involute drive teeth in the circumferential direction, the storage groove is formed between the two adjacent drive teeth, the driving gear is provided with an output hole in the axial direction, and a auger is arranged inside the output hole; the forming hole is arranged between the two adjacent drive teeth on the driving gear, and the forming hole penetrates into the output hole and the storage groove; 
     The forming gear comprises a base body, a plurality of involute sliding teeth and a plurality of reset springs, the sliding teeth are evenly distributed on the peripheral side of the base body in the circumferential direction, and the sliding teeth are slidably arranged on the base body; the base body is provided with a plurality of sliding grooves in the one-to-one correspondence with the sliding teeth, the sliding teeth are integrally formed with a slide block, the slide block is slidably arranged inside the sliding grooves, the reset springs are located inside the sliding grooves, one end of the reset spring is fixedly connected inside the sliding grooves, and the other end is fixedly connected to the slide block; 
     The driving gear meshes with the forming gear, and the sliding teeth have at least a first working state and a second working state: 
     Under the first working state, one side of the drive teeth contacts against one side of the sliding teeth, the reset springs extend, the sliding teeth deviate from the standard position, and the sliding teeth are used to push the material into the storage groove, wherein the standard position is the position where the sliding teeth are not subjected to external force; 
     Under the second working state, the two sides of the sliding teeth respectively mesh with the two adjacent drive teeth, and the sliding teeth are used to push the material inside the storage groove into the forming hole. 
     More preferably, the trailed straw biomass granulator further comprises a preload device and a second drive device, wherein the preload device comprises the base wheel and a plurality of preload rods, the number of the preload rods is greater than that of the drive teeth, the plurality of the preload rods are evenly distributed on the peripheral side of the base wheel in the circumferential direction, and the preload rods are rotatably mounted onto the base wheel through a torsion spring; when the base wheel rotates, the preload rods are driven to push the material into the storage groove; the preload rods cause an impact on the drive teeth upon rotating; the second drive device is used to drive the base wheel to rotate. 
     More preferably, the rotation speed of the base wheel is greater than that of the driving gear. 
     More preferably, the trailed straw biomass granulator further comprises a vacuum pump, wherein the base wheel is provided with a dehumidifying hole with an opening at one end, and the vacuum pump penetrates into the dehumidifying hole; the base wheel is provided with suction parts in the one-to-one correspondence with the positions of the preload rods in the radial direction, the preload rod is provided with a water-collecting hole inside, the water-collecting hole penetrates into the suction parts, the side wall of the preload rod is provided with a water-sucking hole, and the water-sucking hole penetrates into the water-collecting hole; when the vacuum pump is working, the water-sucking hole is driven to suck external water vapor. 
     More preferably, the water-sucking hole is arranged on one side of the preload rod in the rotation direction of the base wheel. 
     More preferably, the axial lead of the water-sucking hole is arranged obliquely, and the end of the water-sucking hole close to the water-collecting hole is away from the base wheel. 
     More preferably, the end of the sliding teeth away from the base body has an arc transition. 
     The present disclosure provides a trailed straw biomass granulator. By setting the sliding teeth to be slidable, when the material is piled up, the sliding teeth will offset under the extrusion of the material, thereby increasing the spacing between the sliding teeth and the drive teeth, so that the sliding teeth enable more material to be fed when the sliding gear rotates. Moreover, the material will be pre-extruded due to the action of the reset springs, during the process that the sliding teeth extrude the material. The present disclosure can increase the actual amount of the material fed in a single time by compacting the fed material once, without increasing the gear, thereby effectively improving the production efficiency, which is beneficial to the miniaturized design of the gear, and can reduce requirements for equipment power. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS 
         FIG.  1    is a structure diagram of the self-propelled combine harvester; 
         FIG.  2    is a structure diagram of a trailed straw biomass granulator provided by the present disclosure; 
         FIG.  3    is a partially enlarged diagram of A in  FIG.  2   ; 
         FIG.  4    is a partially enlarged diagram of B in  FIG.  2   ; 
         FIG.  5    is a partially enlarged diagram of C in  FIG.  2   ; 
         FIG.  6    is a partially enlarged diagram of D-D in  FIG.  3   ; 
         FIG.  7    is a working diagram of a standard gear mesh state. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING SIGNS 
       10  Forming gear;  101  Sliding groove;  11  Sliding teeth;  111  Arc angle;  112  Slide block;  12  Reset springs;  20  Driving gear;  21  Drive teeth;  22  Forming hole;  30  Auger;  40  Preload device;  41  Base wheel;  42  Preload rod;  421  Water-sucking hole;  422  Water-collecting hole;  43  Dehumidifying hole;  431  Suction parts;  50  Straw picking and processing device;  60  Straw storage room. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS 
     A specific embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings, but it should be understood that the protection scope of the present disclosure is not limited by the specific embodiments. 
     Embodiment 1 
     As shown in  FIG.  1   ,  FIG.  1    is an overall structure diagram. It moves by a trailing mechanism. A straw picking and processing device  50  on the front end is used to pick and crush the straw. A straw storage room  60  and a straw conveying device are arranged onto the rack. The crushed straw is conveyed to the straw storage room by the conveying device in the related art. The straw conveying device conveys the straw into the forming device. The straw storage room can be equipped with a dust remover according to actual needs to remove dust. It&#39;s worth noting that the content in this part is related art, and its principle is to use the straw picking and crushing machine on the market. 
     As shown in  FIG.  2   , an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a trailed straw biomass granulator. The double-roller granulator comprises a casing, wherein the casing has a feed inlet, the feed inlet corresponds to the feed outlet of the above-mentioned crush device; the double-roller granulator comprises a first drive device and a forming device, wherein the first drive device can be an independently-set internal combustion engine or an electric motor, or can be a trailing mechanism which can input power through the transmission mechanism. This part is the related art, which will not be repeated herein. The forming device comprises the driving gear  20  and the forming gear  10 . The first drive device is used to drive the driving gear  20  to rotate. The driving gear  20  meshes with the forming gear  10 ; 
     The driving gear  20  is evenly distributed with the involute drive teeth  21  in the circumferential direction, the storage groove is formed between the two adjacent drive teeth  21 , the driving gear  20  is provided with the output hole in the axial direction, and a auger  30  is arranged inside the output hole, the auger  30  is driven by the power device to rotate; when the material is extruded from the forming, the auger  30  rotates to cut the rod-shaped extrudate into granules and conveys the granules to the outside; as shown in  FIG.  2    and  FIG.  3   , a forming hole  22  is arranged between the two adjacent drive teeth  21  on the driving gear  20 , and the forming hole  22  penetrates into the output hole and the storage groove. 
     The forming gear  10  comprises a base body, a plurality of involute sliding teeth  11  and a plurality of reset springs  12 , as shown in  FIG.  3   , wherein the sliding teeth  11  are evenly distributed on the peripheral side of the base body in the circumferential direction, and the sliding teeth  11  are slidably arranged on the base body; the base body is provided with a plurality of sliding grooves  101  in the one-to-one correspondence with the sliding teeth  11 , the sliding teeth  11  are integrally formed with a slide block  112 , the slide block  112  is slidably arranged inside the sliding grooves  101 , as shown in  FIG.  6   , wherein the slide block  112  is preferably a T-shaped slide block  112 , and the cross section of the sliding groove  101  is also T-shaped; the reset springs  12  are located inside the sliding grooves  101 , one end of the reset spring  12  is fixedly connected inside the sliding grooves  101 , and the other end is fixedly connected to the slide block  112 ; when the sliding teeth  11  extrude the straw, it can produce glide; when there is no straw, and the sliding teeth  11  restore to the standard position under the action of the return springs  12 . 
     The driving gear  20  meshes with the forming gear  10 , and the sliding teeth  11  have at least a first working state and a second working state: 
     Under the first working state, as shown in  FIG.  3   , one side of the drive teeth  21  contacts against one side of the sliding teeth  11 , the reset springs  12  extend, the sliding teeth  11  deviate from the standard position, and the sliding teeth  11  are used to push the material into the storage groove, wherein the standard position is the position where the sliding teeth  11  are not subjected to external force, that is, the appearance of standard gear; 
     Under the second working state, the two sides of the sliding teeth  11  respectively mesh with the two adjacent drive teeth  21 , and the sliding teeth  11  are used to push the material inside the storage groove into the forming hole  22 . 
     Upon working, the crushed straw enters from the feed inlet, and is piled between the driving gear  20  and the forming gear  10 . When the driving gear  20  rotates, the forming gear  10  is driven to rotate. When the forming gear  10  rotates, the straw is pushed and extruded. The sliding teeth  11  glide due to reaction force of the straw, and deviate from the standard position, which can increase the spacing between the sliding teeth  11  and the drive teeth  21 . Moreover, due to the action of the reset springs  12 , the sliding teeth  11  will continue to exert pressure on the straw, thereby preloading the straw; as shown in  FIG.  3   , the dotted line is the state when the gear is in the standard position. It can be seen from the figure that when the straw is present, the spacing between the sliding teeth  11  and the drive teeth  21  on the lower side is greater than that between the sliding teeth  11  at the standard position and the drive teeth  21 ; when the sliding teeth  11  rotate to the position of the storage groove approximately; the interference occurs between the sliding teeth  11  and the drive teeth  21  on the upper side (At the standard position, no interference occurs; at the standard position, the drive teeth  21  is in the rolling contact with the sliding teeth  11 ); at this time, the drive teeth  21  will force the sliding teeth  11  to move towards the standard position, thereby further extruding the straw; with the movement of the sliding teeth  11 , it gradually moves towards the storage groove, thereby further extruding the straw inside the storage groove, so that the material inside the storage groove is extruded out of the forming hole  22 , and cut by the auger  30  into granules. 
     Embodiment 2 
     Due to pre-extrusion of the material caused by offset of the sliding teeth  11  and limited conveying capacity of the material, the loose straw is extruded in advance to form a dense structure, which can effectively increase the actual feeding amount per time. Therefore, on the basis of Embodiment 1, the Embodiment 2 further comprises a preload device  40  and a second drive device, as shown in  FIG.  2    and  FIG.  4   . The preload device  40  comprises a base wheel  41  and a plurality of preload rods  42 . The number of the preload rods  42  is greater than that of the drive teeth  21 . The plurality of preload rods  42  are evenly distributed on the peripheral side of the base wheel  41  in the circumferential direction. The preload rods  42  are rotatably mounted onto the base wheel  41  through the torsion spring. Specifically, the preload rods  42  have a plate-shaped structure, and its two ends are rotatably mounted onto the base wheel  41  through the torsion spring. When the base wheel  41  rotates, the preload rods  42  are driven to push the material towards the storage groove. The rotation of the preload rods  42  can cause an impact on the drive teeth  21 , as shown in  FIG.  3   . When the preload rods  42  rotate, the material is pushed into the storage groove on the driving gear  20 , and the excess straw is conveyed into between the driving gear  20  and the forming gear; the second drive device is used to drive the base wheel  41  to rotate. The second drive device can be an independently-set internal combustion engine or an electric motor, or can be an external power equipment which can input power through the transmission mechanism. 
     Further, the rotation speed of the base wheel  41  is greater than that of the driving gear  20 . 
     Upon working, the second drive device drives the base wheel  41  to rotate, the rotating base wheel  41  drives the preload rods  42  to push the straw into the storage groove from the feed inlet, which can prefill a portion of straw into the storage groove, and push the excess straw into between the driving gear  20  and the forming gear  10  through the preload rods  42 ; when the preload rods  42  rotate, the speed is faster than that of the driving gear  20 , so the preload rods  42  will cause an impact on the drive teeth  21  upon rotating. When there is the straw between the two, the preload rods  42  will cause an impact on the straw, which can make the straw compact and increase the actual feeding amount per time. The rotatable preload rods  42  will offset when being impacted, thereby avoiding interference with the drive teeth  21 . 
     Embodiment 3 
     When the green straw is recycled, the water content in the straw is relatively high, and the straw will generate a lot of heat due to gear mesh and the rapid impact and friction of the preload rods  42 . The heat will evaporate the water, and more water vapor will increase the distance between the molecules, thereby affecting the heat transfer and reducing the bonding force of the straw. Due to limited internal space of the granulator, the water vapor cannot be discharged timely, and the evaporated water vapor forms a high pressure, and thereby lead to the volume expansion, which can increase the occupied space to cause phenomenon of “vapor blockage”, even “blasting” in the serious case that the raw material is quickly ejected from the forming hole  22 . 
     Therefore, on the basis of the Embodiment 2, the Embodiment 3 further comprises a vacuum pump, as shown in  FIG.  4   ., wherein the base wheel  41  is provided with a dehumidifying hole  43  with an opening at one end, and the vacuum pump penetrates into the dehumidifying hole  43 ; the base wheel  41  is provided with suction parts  431  in the one-to-one correspondence with the positions of the preload rods  42  in the radial direction, the preload rod  42  is provided with a water-collecting hole  422  inside, the water-collecting hole  422  penetrates into the suction parts  431 , the side wall of the preload rod  42  is provided with a water-sucking hole  421 , and the water-sucking hole  421  penetrates into the water-collecting hole  422 ; when the vacuum pump is working, the water-sucking hole  421  is driven to suck external water vapor. 
     Further, the water-sucking hole  421  is arranged on one side of the preload rod  42  in the rotation direction of the base wheel  41 . 
     Further, the axial lead of the water-sucking hole  421  is arranged obliquely, and the end of the water-sucking hole  421  close to the water-collecting hole  422  is away from the base wheel  41 . 
     Since the rotating preload rods  42  will cause an impact on the straw, the moisture in the straw will be extruded out under the impact force. When the vacuum pump sucks, this portion of the water vapor is pumped to the outside. In the process of extruding the straw, the water vapor is similarly sucked to the outside through the water-sucking hole  421 . As shown in  FIG.  4   , the aperture can be enlarged at the end of the water-collecting hole  422  close to the base wheel  41 , so that the dehumidifying hole  43 , the suction parts  431  and the water-collecting hole  422  can be effectively penetrated when the preload rods  42  offset under force. The obliquely-set water-sucking hole  421  is inclined towards the water-collecting hole  422  and away from the dehumidifying hole  43 ; therefore, the straw is difficult to enter the water-collecting hole  422 , and a portion of the remaining straw will be thrown out by the centrifugal force during the rotation of the preload rods  42 . In order to further prevent the water-sucking hole  421  from being blocked, a strainer can be set at the position of the water-sucking hole  421 . 
     Embodiment 4 
     As shown in  FIG.  5    and  FIG.  7   , when the sliding teeth  11  are the standard gear, the sliding will cause interference with the drive teeth  21 . Since the standard gear is processed, the chamfers are generally performed. After the sliding teeth  11  move, the contact between the sliding teeth  11  and the drive teeth  21  is converted into the sliding contact from the rolling contact in case of standard mesh. There is a sharp part in the chamfer, which can destroy the tooth surface structure of the drive teeth  21  upon sliding. In case of the standard mesh, the sliding teeth  11  are in the rolling contact with the drive teeth  21 . The straw is only extruded without sliding; therefore, more material cannot be effectively pushed into the storage groove. On the basis of the Embodiment 3, in the Embodiment 4, the end of the sliding teeth  11  away from the base body has an arc transition, that is, on the basis of the original standard tooth shape, an arc angle  111  is formed by rounding off the two sides of the tooth shape end. The arc transition ensures that the contact between the sliding teeth  11  and the drive teeth  21  will not destroy the tooth surface structure of the drive teeth  21 . Since the sliding teeth  11  form more space for the standard tooth after rounding off, the sliding friction is formed between the sliding teeth  11  and the drive teeth  21 , which can effectively drive the straw to form a “flowing” state. Moreover, the straw can be extruded from the forming hole  22  with a smaller driving force, which can reduce the power requirement of the granulator. 
     It&#39;s worth noting that, more preferably, the above-mentioned trailed straw biomass granulator further comprises a water spraying device, which is arranged on the casing for spraying water to the feed inlet, and can adjust the moisture content according to the moisture content of the straw material; a straw storage device, which is arranged on the casing, and can be used to store the crushed straw conveyed by the picking device, and is provided with the dust removal hole below, which is used to remove dust inside the straw; and a straw conveying device, which can convey the straw in the storage device to the forming device. 
     More preferably, the granulator further comprises a device for spreading fertilizer and other granule materials, which can spread fertilizer and other granule materials into the auger of the straw conveying device; 
     More preferably, the granulator further comprises a device for spraying bactericide and other liquid materials, which can spray bactericide and other liquid materials into the auger of the straw conveying device. 
     The above disclosures are only specific embodiments of the present disclosure, but the embodiments of the present disclosure is not limited thereto. Any changes that can be easily imagined by those skilled in the art shall fall within the protection scope of the present disclosure.