AGGREGATED COMPLEXES FOR RICE GRAIN PROCESSING

The paper considers various designs of aggregated complexes for the processing of rice grain. Their technological schemes were built and analyzed, and a breakdown into modules was performed. This allowed us to group the various designs of units and summarize their technological capabilities. The general reduced technological scheme of rice grain processing is considered. The noted variations are as far as practical applications with and without a grain cleaning module. Various schemes of hulling of grain and selection of hulled grain from unlulled are presented. The technological schemes with various hulling machines are analyzed (the Engleberg hulling machine, with rubberized rolls, centrifugal action), which have their own characteristics. The differences in the use of paddy machines and trimers for sorting grain after hulling are considered. The cylindrical trieurs used to select the rice kernel have an original technological scheme (company Yanmar). This allows you to simplify technological communications and make the unit more compact. The units use more compact paddy machines (reduced size, number of tiers, etc.), which, of course, affects their performance. The most common combined machine with a single-pass technological scheme (which was named after the first inventor and manufacturer, a hulling machine from Satake) is considered. In addition to laboratory equipment, centrifugal hulling machines are used in grain processing units, which gives additional advantages (a more compact scheme, due to the combination of several technological operations, hulling, transporting the grain stream, and air separation. For the majority of broken and unbroken grains sieve separators are used for simple circuits. Separators with vertical rotation axis, that allows to transport the rice to a predetermined height. This makes it possible to link this separator, for example with electronic scales.

Substanion of the design and technological parameters of the rotary cultivator for the soil tillage in the orchard round-of-stem and inter stem belts

The purpose of our researches was to increase the efficiency and quality of the soil tillage in the intense orchard round – of stem and inter stem belts and to decrease the process energy intensity by means of the improvement of the technology and technological means of carrying out this operation. The authors analyzed the existing technologies and technical means of the soil management in the orchard – of – stem and inter stem belts, presented the main drawback of the existing rotary cultivators with the vertical rotation axis that makes it impossible to manage inter stem belts in sensed intense orchards and chosen the investigations direction. The major above mentioned rotary cultivator parameters were substantiated for the soil management in the above named orchard belts. The program of the laboratory and field explorations was developed as well as the methods of conducting them and design documentation. The novelty and design peculiarity of the rotary cultivator construction were substantiated as well as the designation and principle of the action of its working tools. The cultivator experimental sample was made. The requirements to carrying out its testing were elaborated, the principal duality indicators determined as well as of its work efficiency. The cultivator laboratory and field testing was conducted. Its design scheme was presented as well as the total air in the operation. The main technical and technological indices of the rotary cultivator work were established as a result of the timekeeping observations. The preliminary calculations showed that the labour productivity when the above mentioned belts tilling with the studied cultivator increased by 1,2-2 times as compared to the hand – operated cultivation. The rotary cultivator work reliability was evaluated. After the extensive checking up under the productional conditions and corresponding additional works the cultivator may be recommended to be introduced into production.

Aerodynamic Research of the Experimental Prototype of the Variable Geometry Wind Turbine

The aim of this research is to develop a vertical rotation axis variable geometry wind turbine (WT). The experimental prototype is being manufactured with the help of CAM (Computer-aided manufacturing) technologies – computer-based preparation of the product manufacturing process. The Institute of Aeronautics of Riga Technical University is using CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machines for manufacturing the innovative WT and its components. The aerodynamic research has been done in T-4 wind tunnel at an air flow rate from 5 m/s to 30 m/s. The power increase of the variable geometry WT is a topical issue. Installation of such WTs in wind farms is possible and is subject to further research.

Diffraction microcomputed tomography of an Al-matrix SiC-monofilament composite

The structure of an SiC-monofilament-reinforced Al-matrix composite was reconstructed using diffraction rings from these two phases. A 65 keV X-ray beam with 15 µm width (horizontal) and 150 µm length (vertical) was scanned across the specimen in 15 µm steps. A 2° rotation about the vertical rotation axis was used between projections, and filtered back projection reconstructions were created with 15 × 15 µm in-plane and 150 µm out-of-plane volume elements (voxels). The integrated intensities of the 11.0, 10.1 and 10.2 SiC and the 111, 200 and 220 Al diffraction rings were used to produce six independent reconstructions. The transmitted-intensity reconstruction agreed with that of higher resolution, absorption-contrast synchrotron microcomputed tomography. The Al reconstructions showed the effect of large grains, and the SiC reconstructions revealed the two microstructural zones in the fibers.