AA Biomasse, the intelligent rake silo for wood-fired heating systems
AA Biomasse, the intelligent rake silo for wood-fired heating systems: An article in Bioénergie Magazine - Frederic Douard
After an interlude of more than two centuries, wood-fired heating systems are making a comeback in European industry, local authorities and agriculture. Not to mention the many economic and environmental reasons behind this success, it is above all the automation of boiler loading that has made this possible. On this issue, while many technological difficulties have already been entirely overcome, such as fire safety, one major question remains open: what technical means should be chosen to draw fuel from the reserve? Not that we lack solutions, quite the contrary, but many of them, while working very well, sometimes generate significant investment and even maintenance costs. The rake silo was developed to address these two issues, cost and reliability.
A wealth of advantages
The toploader silo is a flat silo unloaded from the top of the pile. A rake slides over the surface of the pile and gently carries the fuel towards the conveyor at the bottom of the silo. This system, which admittedly takes up a bit of space, has three major advantages: it requires light and therefore inexpensive civil engineering; it can accommodate several large lorries, up to six per bay; and its desilting system is simple, inexpensive, very accessible and therefore very easy and very quickly maintainable.
AA-Biomasse the French toploader
Designed and manufactured entirely in France, the desilting system from Nantes-based AA-Biomasse is a fully automated solution for desilting forestry chips, shredded wood A and B, solid recovered fuels and a wide range of fuels from the agricultural and agri-food industries. It is installed in less than a week, once the civil engineering has been completed, by a dedicated team of installers, who also provide after-sales service and maintenance, both in the field and remotely by hotline.
The rake silo allows you to store a large volume with very few constraints. It is installed between two parallel walls, usually 6 metres apart and joined by a concrete floor. Operating over silo lengths of 18 to 50 metres, the rake tirelessly brings the product back to the conveyor, levelling and raising the pile to a height of around 4 metres, and freeing up space for subsequent deliveries. This system ensures optimum access for moving floor lorries, with no constraints and rapid unloading times. It can store up to 600 m3 per bay, with a throughput rate of 60 m3/h per bay.
The solution is entirely modular, so it can be adapted to any size or type of site. Length, width and height are fully adaptable, with a modular conveyor that can take on any shape to feed the process whatever its position.
An intelligent, robust carriage
The AA-Biomasse rake feeder is equipped with a top-of-the-range, extremely robust motorised travel carriage. Its brushless geared motor ensures a constant pulling force, whatever the load. Its design prevents any crabbing or misalignment. Its travel power is just 2.5 kW, and its lifting power 3.3 kW.
The truck is chain-driven and features multidirectional guidance on wheels coated with top-of-the-range polyurethane. A total of twelve guide points ensure that the truck is perfectly stable and smooth in operation. The tracks are self-cleaning with scrapers that remove wood dust with each pass. Mass-machined sprockets and high-resistance chains transform the rotation of the brushless geared motor into a translational movement, enabling the trolley to move at a maximum speed of 20 metres per minute.
Its rake, adjustable in arm length and angle of attack, optimises storage capacity for each type of material. The AA Biomass toploader incorporates a host of tricks and innovations to ensure smooth operation and optimum stability in all situations and environments:
• Brushless technology traction motor,
• Position, speed and level sensors,
• Ultrasound, lasers and encoders,
• On-board Siemens PLC,
• Perfect reading of the shape of the biomass pile.
The product is conveyed onto a rigid, welded, self-adjusting ramp made of galvanised sheet metal. The product then tilts onto a plate that joins it to the conveyor and is integrated into the ramp. The top-of-the-range electro-galvanised metal belt conveyor is self-supporting, fully enclosed and modular. These belts are assembled from standard modules to produce any desired shape or size. They are designed and manufactured by AL-Industrie at Chantelle in the Allier region.
For more information: contact@aa-biomasse.com -
Frédéric Douard
The toploader silo is a flat silo unloaded from the top of the pile. A rake slides over the surface of the pile and gently carries the fuel to the conveyor at the bottom of the silo. This system, which admittedly requires a bit of space, has three major advantages: it requires light civil engineering and is therefore inexpensive; it can accommodate several large lorries, up to six per bay; and its desilting system is simple, inexpensive, very accessible and therefore very easy and quick to maintain.
The AA-Biomasse rake feeder is equipped with a top-of-the-range, extremely robust motorised travel carriage. Its brushless geared motor ensures a constant pulling force, whatever the load. Its design prevents any crabbing or misalignment. Its travel power is just 2.5 kW, and its lifting power 3.3 kW.
The truck is chain-driven and features multidirectional guidance on wheels coated with top-of-the-range polyurethane. A total of twelve guide points ensure that the truck is perfectly stable and smooth in operation. The tracks are self-cleaning with scrapers that remove wood dust with each pass. Mass-machined sprockets and high-resistance chains transform the rotation of the brushless geared motor into a translational movement, enabling the trolley to move at a maximum speed of 20 metres per minute.
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