Development and Testing of a Functional Model of Compaction Machine with Inverse Kinematics

Abstract

High-grade biofuel production is a suitable direction for the recovery of biomass and other energy wastes. One of the technologies that turns biomass into biofuels possessing the required properties is briquetting. There are three basic briquetting technologies - mechanical, hydraulic and screw pressing. Briquetting screw presses demonstrably create briquettes of the highest quality. An advantage of this type of briquetting is the fact that, unlike with other technologies, the briquette is formed in a continuous process. However, the current design of briquetting screw presses has several critical disadvantages. These disadvantages include the high wear and tear of the screw end, short service life of the axial bearing, transfer of the high torque through the small diameter of the screw shaft, the necessity to heat the rotating screw during the machine start-up, and its cooling during operation. Some of the specified shortcomings were addressed in previous papers. This concerns, for example, the material or geometrical optimisation of the screw [1], modular structure of the screw with a replaceable end piece [2], [8], elimination of excessive load on the axial bearing by back alignment of two screws [3], [4], [9]. Some of the shortcomings, such as excessive loading of the screw shaft, or its heating and cooling during rotation, cannot be eliminated in the case of standard screw press kinematics. The objective of the present paper is to describe the new briquetting screw press and verify the proposed principle on a functional model.