Yours [Bornhack] Plans include leaving a lemon on the patterns as an information display. You need to feed your squirrel feeder nuts only when the squirrel deserves it. As promised last week, there is a role for getting, feeding and moving bulk material.
Gates
Bulk material flow control is required. Easy to start, hard to stop.
All you need to do is dump the entire contents of the bin, a Dump gate Works – a trapdore with a brace. If you need to stop before emptying the bin, you can use a Slide valve – A flat piece of material in a box that slides in and out. The friction of the material on them creates a large open / close force. When closing the material can jam between the flap and the housing.
One variation is the clam shell gate – a part of a cylinder in the arm that is swaying to one side like a crane grab. They tend to leak, but with the weight of the material against the hinge pins, they are easy to close with a high force against them.
The Ascending bell The gate helps in the in-bin flow pattern and seals well. Open the outlet by pulling from the top or pushing from the bottom. The elements circulating around the gate work to improve the flow and they are better sealed as the lip material is on a curved surface. If it still has a leak problem, a flexible lip can cure it.
A cone, one suspended on a wire below the grasshopper’s outlet Downward bell. The bottom of the cable allows material to flow between the outlet rim and the bell. When the wire is raised, if a fault is stuck in one place, the bell moves to one side. Ceiling surface angles, so the material rolls off. The bin is shallow and there is no outlet pipe. This design ensures clearance so that large particles do not stick to the wall as soon as the bell is closed.
Any of these gates will be closed if not for the contents of the bin. Double gate This exploits. The main bin has a common gate and outlet. The outlet is much smaller under the lip, lower Control bin. When the control bin is full, the main bin closes. The control bin has a gate larger than the main bin. Closing the main gate as far as it will go reduces the flow through the control gate. The control gate can now be closed completely, which fills the control bin and blocks the main outlet.
You do not want to share the environment in the bin. Maybe someone has pressure, bad chemicals or hot gas. In that case, a rotating airlock gate is a paddle wheel device of a close fitting housing. The material is measured as it turns. A double gate also works (using blast furnace double bell). If you have to do a certain amount of meters, a sliding cavity works like a bulk bin in a grocery store. The same goes for rotating airlocks.
The locomotive sander system spreads sand over the rails to increase traction. The sand is gated with a “sand trap”. A pipe delivers sand to a ‘valve’ with a sharp upward U bend. Of course this block. A compressed air line from a valve in the cab feeds to the upward edge of the U bend. As long as the wind blows, the blockage is constantly cleared and the sand flows. It is collected and sent to the wheel.
Feeder
If you need a constant flow, independent of how much is in the bin, you need a feeder.
Rotary air lock can be a common feeder. A conveyor feeder is a belt under the bin. On one side there is a slight gap between the bin and the belt. Material gaps cover the belt as high as possible. A helical screw under a screw feeder hopper, which carries the material to the side. The screw needs a modified pitch, starts slowly and increases, so that it is gradually filled along the hopper. A vibrating feeder is a chute designed to make an arch, with a vibrator to make it flow anyway.
One of these may have a weak pattern of feeding from one place along the creek. The fins and inserts in the bin can help – a doctor’s blade to control how deep the first two-inch belt feeds, or an anti-rathol type insert to keep the mass flowing.
Carrier
Unlike a feeder, a carrier depends on what it is feeding to control the feed rate. Feeders to control feed rate. Conductor for moving luggage. A feeder will change its output if its speed changes. How much a conductor can change in each section (‘loading’) but the output speed is independent.
Screw conveyors should have a certain pitch and can be angled up to 45 degrees. The belts can be bent up to the resting angle of the material. These are made with a slight ‘V’ on the belt so that the material does not roll over. Side boards also work, but friction begins in the system as the components slide against them.
Do not ignore the skip – a bucket pulled up a turn. The front wheels run on a slightly narrower track than the rear wheels. Dip the inner tracks at the end to dump.
If the floors made of long strips work in the correct order, the pile of material will be removed. Illustrate the sequence as ‘123123123123’: suddenly shake 1 backwards, and the element above it will be with the mass, do 2 and 3, then slowly move all forward. They also move solid objects, so many trucks have such floors.
Finally, you can always dilute the material and blow it with air or water, then remove the liquid at the other end. Think old-fashioned logging, floating down the river with logs.
Hacking fun. We hope we have given you some options to deal with walnuts.