Debaling Agricultural Materials

The goal of the project is to withstand the demands of debaling baled agricultural materials.

=Problem Definition= With the rise of precision agriculture based feedstocks for biofuels and bio-based products there is a need for debaling a variety of materials. SO, the question then becomes how can we efficiently and effectively turn baled agricultural material into a loose consistent, density flow?

Deliverables
We desired to use premade components and implement them in new ways. That way, if something were to fail it would be easy to procure the part and fix the machine. Conveyor chains with attachments, stump grinder teeth, sprockets, bearings, etc. Anything that can be bought will be.

Specifications
1- Mechanical device to pull apart and fluff agricultural materials

2- Produce less unusable particles, or fines, than a traditional hammer mill

3- Consistent outfeed of material; less than 15% change of mass flow rate

4- Easily transportable by a semi trailer

5- Prototype and Proof of concept to withstand 100 lb bales

6- Full scale device to withstand 2,000 lb bales

7- Conveyor like infeed system

8- Conveyor outfeed

=Design Considerations= The design that was decided on was what we believed closely emulated human hands pulling a bale apart. When hands pull apart a bale they move linearly not rotating like a shaft. Our design pulls teeth linearly through the face of the bale in an effort to reduce the amount of shear forces generated.

=Project Learning= Looking at conventional debalering machines they are basically the same. One rotating shaft with either teeth or hammers attached. Those designs all pose the same problem to our client. They induce shear forces onto the product stands and cause fines (smaller than ⅛”) to be produced. With this in mind a new way of debaling needed to be designed.

=Final Design=

=Validation=



=Team Members=

=Additional Documentation=

Project Schedule



Meeting Minutes



Presentations



Client Interview