Studies on Hay Conditioning by a Pair of Rollers (II)

Comparison between Crimper and Crusher Type Rollers

Abstract

In the previous report, the effects of the set of rollers design and material in a hay conditioning process was investigated in laboratory scale tests. In this paper, the crimping rollers and the crushing rollers in the previous roller mechanism was compared in the practical condition. The loading force of the rollers was 25-75kg while the speed was 250-850rpm.
Materials were fed into the conditioning rollers in practical condition
The drying tests of the samples through the conditioning rollers were the same as the previous way. Freshly cut Orchard grass, Red clover and Alfalfa were used in the tests.
The results were as follows;
1) The drying curve of the grass from the initial to a given moisture level was expressed by a variant exponential equation (Ae^-kθ) in the same as the previous report. After this moisture level the drying rate changed slowly.
The larger the drying constant (K) the faster the drying rate of grass. The drying constants of the treated grass by the rollers were larger than that of untreated grass.
2) The drying constants of the grass and the untreated grass were as in Table 2.
The crimping rollers provided a higher drying rate than that of the crushing rollers for Orchard grass (first and second cut) and Red clover, while the crushing rollers provided a higher drying rate for Alfalfa.
3) The drying rates of treated grass were not affected by the feeding rate of grass through the rollers. The drying rate were only slightly affected by the loading force of the rollers in crushing rollers and by the speed of the rollers in crimping rollers.
4) The crimping rollers had a higher clipping in Orchard grass and Alfalfa than the crushing rollers, while the crushing rollers had a higher clipping than the crimping rollers in Red clover.
The clipping of Alfalfa was higher than the other forage crops in the both types of rollers.