Pellet Mill

Let the sawdust flow right after you start it up. A few minutes of rejects won't hurt, and somebodys hand on the feed reostat will give you a 'Go' point.

Preheat the die

.

Do you have the right dies for the product that you are trying to pelletize? Did you ask the manufacturer of the pellet mill for advise?

The machines are designed from the beginning for a particular product and never believe what an auctionier will tell you. They just want to get rid of the machine.

Are you pelletizing wood sawdust or some other biomass? What is the moisture content of the raw material? Target is normaly 15% Wet material will produce very high pressure and result in high temperatures which can block the die.

I worked a pellet mill in a feed factory for 3 years. You could have the wheels inside too tight. I guess you have 2 wheels inside? and the big die wheel with the holes in it rotate round them? The meal going in was preheated. Meal also went better with calcined magnacite. (it worked as lubricant) and fat also worked as a lubricant. Molasses worked to lubricate too. Anyway, your wheels are either too tight, too loose or you have too much or too little lubrication.

Dies are made very differently too. Are you using the right one? It could be too high compression.

If you screw up a die at the start of its life, you got to punch out all the holes and start again. It is hell!

Probably someone with experience in a pellet mill could visit your factory and give you the fix in 15 or 20 minutes.

I have been looking for a small pellet mill myself. Would you be willing to share your supplier?

Thanks,

CPM/Rosskamp, Merrimack, NH

worked in a grain elevator for a number of years and the pellet mill operator used to ask for a wheelbarrow of oats [whole] every AM to start the pellet plant with. I do not know what the difference is between grain screenings pellets and wood pellets are.

when oats were not available, he asked for canola [rapeseed] screenings which has a very high oil content. when the dies plugged up he said it was a hammer and punch for a few hours to clear the die. yes there were also numerous fires started there.

ps, the pellet mill consumed huge amounts of high temp/hpressure steam which was injected into the process/mass just before die entry. Is steam used for wood pell also?

good luck

I hope they are listening to us! It is very important to get the heat, lubrication, and die compression and die tightness just right. The speed is really important too. You get a feel for it after a while and find an optimum speed. Do not let your operator run all materials at the same speed. Thats a sign of a lazy opperator. And do not force him to run it really fast either. That gives more "chokes" shorter die life and lots of time punching out the burnt material out of the holes which does not improve production!

I believe in one wood pellet plant, steam is used, also they said something about using paraffin as a lubicant.

Whole oats, I meant whole "tame oats [white] in husk.