EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF A GRAIN FEED CRUSHING PLANT

Grinding is a well-known and important method of grain processing. In this process, the hard shell of the grain is destroyed, which accelerates digestion in the stomach of animals and ensures a more complete absorption of food energy in the feed. In agricultural enterprises, it is better to provide grain feed on its own feed base. For this purpose, small-sized crushing equipment (crushers) are used. Such installations are characterized by low metal and energy intensity, simple design, mobility and low cost. The purpose of the work is to evaluate the efficiency of the developed crusher in comparison with an analogue - grain crusher Farmer IZE-05M. To achieve this goal, a small-sized unit (crusher) with a disk was manufactured. Its distinctive feature is the presence of two disks with a diameter of 160 and 210 mm. The unit is designed in such a way that it has the ability to process seeds of grain crops with high humidity. During the research, the results of grain grinding, the degree of its grinding and energy intensity were obtained. The results showed that the developed unit is capable of providing fine grain grinding than its analogue. The optimal humidity for obtaining fine grinding on the analogue is 12.8%, and in our unit it is possible to work with a humidity of 13.1%. The difference in humidity is 0.3%. This means that the costs of preliminary grain drying will be reduced several times. Also, the grain grinding range is somewhat wider from 13.1% to 14.4% against 12.8%...13.9%. The energy consumption at a grain humidity of 9.8% of the developed installation was 5.1 J/kg, which is 0.8 J/kg lower than the analogue (5.9 J/kg). At increased grain humidity up to 14.4%, the energy intensity of the new installation decreased to 8.6 J/kg, while for the analogue it was 9.5 J/kg.