One of Holland s leading suppliers of animal feed, O. Bouman B.V. of Andel experienced major cost benefits when they switched to a Control Techniques AC drive for one of its two hammermills.
The ability to be able to accurately control the mills has improved product quality and the considerable time savings in stopping and restarting the high inertia machine achieved with a Control Techniques regeneration unit has cut downtime considerably as well as giving payback from reduced energy costs.
The hammermills are used to reduce the size of particles in each animal feed recipe to a specified size. Such is the service and flexibility offered by Bouman that an individual farmer can order feed tailor-made to his own operation.
Up to 26 ingredients are used peas, soya, malt, maize, tapioca, soya milk and coconut husk being just a few and these arrive daily from around the globe. After a mix is made, fines are separated out and particles larger than specification are fed in batches to a hammermill. Each mill has eight rows of 22 hammers, which are rotated at up to 3,000 rpm typically for four minutes for a 2,000 kg. batch. Meshes of between 3 mm and 12 mm fitted around the diameter determine final particle size. 400 varieties of processed feed is then extruded to the required pellet or nut size needed for chickens, pigs, cattle, horses etc.
"With direct on line power, even with soft starters, we have experienced several problems," explains Johan Van Tilburg, Electrical Engineer at the plant.
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