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Page 10
The old and cumbersome methods of crushing oil seeds by mechanical
means have during the last few years undergone a complete revolution.
By the old process, the seed, having been flattened between a pair of
stones, was afterward ground by edge stones, weighing in some cases as
much as 20 tons, and working at about eighteen revolutions per minute.
Having been sufficiently ground, the seed was taken to a kettle or
steam jacketed vessel, where it was heated, and thence drawn--in
quantities sufficient for a cake--in woollen bags, which were placed
in a hydraulic press. From four to six bags was the utmost that could
be got into the press at one time, and the cakes were pressed between
wrappers of horsehair on similar material. All this involved a good
deal of manual labor, a cumberstone plant, and a considerable expense
in the frequent replacing of the horsehair wrappers, each of which
involved a cost of about �4. The modern requirements of trade have in
every branch of industry ruthlessly compelled the abandonment of the
slow, easy-going methods which satisfied the times when competition
was less keen. Automatic mechanical arrangements, almost at every
turn, more effectually and at greatly increased speed, complete
manufacturing operations previously performed by hand, and oil-seed
crushing machinery has been no exception to the general rule. The
illustrations we give represent the latest developments in improved
oil-mill machinery introduced by Rose, Downs & Thompson, named the
"Colonial" mill, and recently we had an opportunity of inspecting the
machinery complete before shipment to Calcutta, where it is being sent
for the approaching exhibition. As compared with the old system of
oil-seed crushing, Messrs. Rose, Downs & Thompson claim for their
method, among other advantages, a great saving in driving power,
economy of space, a more perfect extraction of the oil, an improved
branding of the cakes, a saving of 50 per cent. in the labor employed
in the press-room, with also a great saving in wear and tear, while
the process is equally applicable to linseed, cottonseed, rapeseed, or
similar seeds. In addition to these improvements in the system, the
"Colonial" mill has been specially designed in structural arrangement
to meet the requirements of exporters. The machinery and engine are
self-contained on an iron foundation, so that there is no need of
skilled mechanics to erect the mill, nor of expensive stone
foundations, while the building covering the mill can, if desired, be
of the lightest possible description, as no wall support is required.
The mill consists of the following machinery: A vertical steel boiler,
3 ft. 7 in. diameter, 8 ft. 1� in. high, with three cross tubes 7� in.
diameter, shell 5/16 in. thick, crown 3/8 in. thick, uptake 9 in.
diameter, with all necessary fittings, and where wood fuel is used
extra grate area can be provided. This boiler supplies the steam not
only for the engine, but also for heating and damping the seed in the
kettle. The engine is vertical, with 8 in. cylinder and 12 in. stroke,
with high speed governors, and stands on the cast iron bed-plate of
the mill. This bed-plate, which is in three sections, is about 30 ft.
long, and is planed and shaped to receive the various machines, which,
when the top is leveled, can be fixed in their respective places by
any intelligent man, and when the machines are in position they form a
support for the shafting. The seed to be crushed is stored in a wooden
bin, placed above and behind the roll frame hopper. The roll frame has
four chilled cast iron rolls, 15 in. face, 12 in. diameter, so
arranged as to subject the seed to three rollings, with patent
pressure giving apparatus. These rolls are driven by fast and loose
pulleys by the shaft above. After the last rolling the seed falls
through an opening in the foundation plate in a screen driven from the
bottom roll shaft by a belt. This conveys the seed in a trough to a
set of elevators, which supply it continuously to the kettle. This
kettle, which is 3 ft. 6 in. internal diameter and 20 in. deep, is
made of cast iron and of specially strong construction. There is only
one steam joint in it, and to reduce the liability of leakage this
joint is faced in a lathe. The inside furnishings of the kettle are a
damping apparatus with perforated boss, upright shaft, stirrer, and
delivery plate, and patent slide. The kettle body is fitted with a
wood frame and covered with felt, which is inclosed within iron
sheeting. The crushed seed is heated in the kettle to the required
temperature by steam from the boiler, and it is also damped by a jet
of steam which is regulated by a wheel valve with indicating plate.
When the required temperature has been obtained, the seed is withdrawn
by a measuring box through a self-acting shuttle in the kettle bottom,
and evenly distributed over a strip of bagging supported on a steel
tray in a Virtue patent moulding machine, where it undergoes a
compression sufficient to reduce it to the size that can be taken in
by the presses, but not sufficient to cause any extraction of the oil.
The seed leaves the moulding machine in the form of a thick cake from
nine to eleven pounds in weight, and each press is constructed to take
in twelve of these cakes at once. The press cylinders are 12 in.
diameter and are of crucible cast steel. To insure strength of
construction and even distribution of strain throughout the press, all
the columns, cylinders, rams, and heads are planed and turned
accurately to gauges, and the pockets that take the columns, in the
place of being cast, as is sometimes usual, with fitting strips top
and bottom, are solid throughout, and are planed or slotted out of the
solid to gauges. The pressure is given by a set of hydraulic pumps
made of crucible cast steel and bored out of the solid. One of the
pump rams is 2� in. diameter, and has a stroke of 7 in. This ram gives
only a limited pressure, and the arrangements are such as to obtain
this pressure upon each press in about fourteen seconds. This pump
then automatically ceases running, and the work is taken up by a
second plunger, having a ram 1 in. diameter and stroke of 7 in., the
second pump continuing its work until a gross pressure of two tons per
square inch is attained, which is the maximum, and is arrived at in
less than two minutes. For shutting off the communication between the
presses, the stop valves are so arranged that either press may be let
down, or set to work without in the smallest degree affecting the
other. The oil from the presses is caught in an oil tank behind, from
which an oil pump, worked by an eccentric, forces it in any desired
direction. The cakes, on being withdrawn from the press, are stripped
of the bagging and cut to size in a specially arranged paring machine,
which is placed off the bed-plate behind the kettle, and is driven by
the pulley shown on the main shaft. The paring machine is also fitted
with an arrangement for reducing the parings to meal, which is
returned to the kettle, and again made up into cakes. The presses
shown have corrugated press plates of Messrs. Rose, Downs & Thompson's
latest type, but the cakes produced by this process can have any
desired name or brand in block letters put upon them. The edges on the
upper plate, it may be added, are found of great use in crushing some
classes of green or moist seed. The plant, of which we give
illustrations opposite, is constructed to crush about four tons of
seed per day of eleven hours, and the manual labor has been so reduced
to a minimum that it is intended to be worked by one man, who moulds
and puts the twenty-four cakes into the presses, and while they are
under pressure is engaged paring the cakes that have been previously
pressed. In crushing castor-oil seed, a decorticating machine or
separator can be combined with the mill, but in such a case the engine
and boiler would require to be made larger.--_The Engineer_.
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