DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A RAMMING MACHINE FOR PELLETS PRODUCTION

This study was carried out to develop and evaluate a pelleting machine o overcome the separation of the fodder components during the pelleting process a .d to increase the machine productivity. The machine modification was accomplished at private workshop in Kafrelsheikh governorate. The experiments was carried out during the year of 2011 in Rice Mechanization Center, Meet El-Deeba village, Kafrelsheikh governorate, Egypt. The effect of fodder types (Berseem hay and Cottonseed), raw materials moisture content (22.83, 27.61 and 32.58% w.b.), crank arm speeds (45, 70, 90 and 120rpm) and die hole diameters (3, 6, 9 and 12mm) on machine productivity, energy consumed and pelleting cost. Also, the effect of tested parameters on pellet quality such as durability, stiffness and pellet bulk density were taken into consideration. The results showed that, the optimum operating conditions of the developed pelleting machine was at raw materials moisture content of 22.83%(w.b.), crank arm speed of 120rpm and die hole diameter of 12mm. Where, it gave machine productivity of 0,248 and 0.255Mg/h, energy consumed of 4.90 and 5.13kW.h/Mg and operating cost of 46.42 and 45.23LE/Mg for Berseem hay and Cottonseed fodders, respectively. Moreover, the optimum operating conditions gave the best pellets quality as well as pellets durability of 95.64 and 93.66%, bulk density of about 2,22 and 2.18g/cm³, and stiffness of 175.6 and 172.7N for Berseem hay and Cottonseed fodders, respectively.