Application of granulators
The use of balanced feed in the cultivation of animals and birds is one of the main factors of successful animal husbandry. Therefore, many farms purchase ready-made feeds with the necessary cooking recipes or produce them locally with the help of appropriate equipment.
One of these organizations is CJSC Luch, which acquired a granulator last year. The unit is designed to produce granular feed for agricultural and domestic animals, birds, and fish. The granulator allows you to get a balanced feed that can maintain its properties for a long time.
Sergey Nikolaevich, Chief Engineer of Luch CJSC, tells about the peculiarities of its production and products.
- Sergey Nikolaevich, tell our readers about the company where you work, what products do you produce?
- Our organization is engaged in the sale of veterinary drugs and feed additives. In addition, the company produces various animal and bird feeds. Our production volumes depend on seasonality – in summer the volumes are higher (0.35 t/hour), and in winter less (0.25 t/hour). We sell finished products in our own store, sometimes sales are carried out directly to farms.
- Why did the question arise about the need to purchase a granulator and how did the decision to cooperate arise?
- The fact is that before purchasing the granulator, we produced and sold loose feed. Recently, they have ceased to be in demand as before and sales have declined. Increasingly, our consumers began to ask for granular feed for their farms. We began to study what are the advantages of granular feed over others and how promising it is. It turned out that loose feeds have disadvantages that negatively affect their quality during storage and transportation. These are hygroscopicity, low volume mass and a tendency to delamination during transportation. And for granular feeds, the composition of each pellet is the same, so the animals get a more balanced feed. Also, the loss of granular feed is minimal, because they are more convenient for transportation. Therefore, it was decided to purchase equipment for granulating feed. The company's granulator was a perfect match for us in terms of performance and price.
- How was the commissioning of the granulator?
- From our experience, we know that the process of launching equipment is very important for further successful work. Therefore, after the purchase of the unit, the commissioning of the granulator was carried out by a specialist from the company's service center. He set up the unit for the product, told about the features of its operation and maintenance, so there were no problems with further operation.
- Tell us about the operation of the unit itself, how is the production process of granular feed organized at your enterprise?
- The supply of raw materials at our enterprise is organized as follows: a 20-liter hopper is installed above the granulator, into which the feed is filled. Pre-addition of oil and humidification up to 16-18% occurs during the production of feed in a vertical mixer.
- Many enterprises, buying equipment and operating it, forget or do not pay attention to the maintenance of their units, which leads to premature breakdowns and equipment failure. How are things going at your company?
- We value our production very much and understand that care and caring attitude are needed everywhere. Therefore, we regularly carry out maintenance of our equipment. After all, its suitability and service life directly depend on this. After each change of operation of the granulator, we clean and preserve the matrix (with a mixture of sawdust, sand and oil). We use this mixture for 3-4 months, then we change it. The entire unit is lubricated once a week according to the passport.
- We are very glad that our equipment is working successfully at your enterprise, and the products manufactured on it are pleasing to consumers.
- We are also pleased with the cooperation with the company, and the characteristics and indicators of the purchased granulator are completely satisfied with us.
