I N C O R P O R AT I N G f i s h far m ing t e c h no l og y

September | October 2013 Grinding equipment for aquatic feed pellets

International Aquafeed is published six times a year by Perendale Publishers Ltd of the United Kingdom. All data is published in good faith, based on information received, and while every care is taken to prevent inaccuracies, the publishers accept no liability for any errors or omissions or for the consequences of action taken on the basis of information published. Copyright 2013 Perendale Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior permission of the copyright owner. Printed by Perendale Publishers Ltd. ISSN: 1464-0058

The International magazine for the aquaculture feed industry

Fatten up your bottom line. Bhler high-performance animal and aqua feed production systems are used by leading companies around the world. These producers know they can rely not just on the technology itself, but also on the support that accompanies it. A service combining local presence with global expertise both lowers feed mill operating costs and increases capacity utilization. To find out more, visit www.buhlergroup.com

Bhler AG, Feed & Biomass, CH-9240 Uzwil, Switzerland, T +41 71 955 11 11, F +41 71 955 28 96 fu.buz@buhlergroup.com, www.buhlergroup.com

Innovations for a better world.

FEATURE

Grinding equipment for aquatic feed pellets

by Joyce Li, customer service, Amisy Machinery, China quatic animals have various feeding habits and feed intakes. For example, fish swallow feeds so they need about 40 minutes to intake feeds. However, shrimps nibble feeds so they need three to six hours to intake feeds. The digestive tract of aquatic animals is relatively short so they have poor digestive ability. For example, fish have no salivary glands in the oropharyngeal cavity which helps seek, intake and swallow feeds. So the functions of tearing and grinding feeds degenerate. Fish dissolve and digest feeds from the feed surface so aquatic feeds with small particles are convenient for digestion and absorption. These characteristics mean that aquatic feed pellets should have good stability and water resistance; be easy to digest; and be the fineness specific growth stages. In order to produce ideal aquatic feed pellets, feed ingredients, processing technology and equipment especially the grinding process, should be carefully considered.

Starch is the most common carbohydrate used in aquatic feed pellets. To ensure the stability of feed pellets in water, the starch content of sinking feed pellets should be up to 10 percent and that of floating feed pellets should be about 20 percent. Coarse fat is a good source of high quality energy. The crude fat level includes the fat of feed ingredients and that of added fat. The added fat has great influence on the pelletizing effect but too much fat will make the feed pellet loose and influence the stability. For this reason, the content of added fat should not exceed 3 percent. Fishmeal is widely used in aquatic feed pellets. High quality fishmeal has good water resistance qualities. Similarly, rapeseed dregs contain high coarse fibre which is conducive to improving the water resistance of aquatic feed pellets. Among the commonly used feed ingredients cotton pulp, fishmeal and soybean meal, have good water resistance characteristics while the water tolerance of corn, bran and rice bran is poor.

Adding moderate binders can improve water resistance. There are two kinds of binders: natural substances such as sodium lignin sulphonate and align, and chemical substances such as carboxymethyl cellulose and sodium polyacrylate. So when designing feed formula the raw materials should be highly nutritious and have good water resistance properties.

Why is grinding so important?

The aquatic feed pellet has high requirements in terms of particle size and viscosity so the processing technology is important. In general, feed ingredients for aquatic feed pellet should be ground to 40 meshes. For special aquatic animals such as shrimps, turtles, eels and other small animals, the raw materials should be super-finely ground so as to pass through a 100 mesh screen. The fine crushing granularity can improve the utilization rate of aquatic feed pellet. Aquatic animals have simple digestive system and the residence time of feed in the gut is short so pellets containing large particles are

Nutrition sources for feed pellets

Raw materials for pellets should consider not only the nutritional values but also the need for good stability in water. Protein, which ensures the growth and reproduction of aquatic animals, is an essential of aquatic feed pellets. It accounts for 25-50 percent of the feed formula with wheat and wheat by-products as the main sources of protein. If the viscosity of protein is increased when heated, then the pelletizing performance is improved and the stability is good.

Table 1

10 | InternatIOnal AquAFeed | September-October 2013

THE SPECIAL WORLD OF

LEIBER YEAST...

Made Germanin y

REAL BRE WER S YEAST

For Leiber`s specialty yeast products, Made in Germany is a seal of quality.

Multibiotic effect of Leiber yeast - vitality, health and performance for fish.
www.leibergmbh.de
Leiber GmbH Hafenstrae 24, 49565 Bramsche, Germany Tel +49 (0) 5461 9303-0 Fax +49 (0) 5461 9303-28 www.leibergmbh.de info@leibergmbh.de

FEATURE space between the coarse grains. This means that the contact area between particles is increased and the pelletizing performance is improved.

Choosing the appropriate grinding equipment is crucial

Controlling the grinding fineness has a direct influence on the stability of aquatic feed pellet and the production cost. The importance of cost should not be underestimated; electricity consumption during the grinding process accounts for 50-70 percent of the total power consumption. Choosing the appropriate grinding equipment is also critical. Different aquatic animals have different requirements in terms of particle size of feed ingredients which requires corresponding grinding equipment. Hammer mills are widely used in the feed industry and in aquatic feeds. The hammer mill consists of hammers, a rotor, the grinding surface and sieve. The hammer is the main working part whose shape, size, quantity and line speed has a great influence on the grinding efficiency and grinding fineness. When the linear velocity of hammer blade is slower, the grinding efficiency and production efficiency are low. A quicker line speed will improve grinding efficiency. However, too high a speed will make the material speed fast, reduce

Figure 1 not conducive to easy digestion. The finer the crushing granularity, the larger the surface area which contacts with the digestive enzyme thus the digestibility is increased. Raw materials come in different shapes and thicknesses. So if they are not ground before processing, the finished pellets can lack a balanced nutritional quality and have poor stability in water. Table 1 shows the relationship between the grinding fineness and stability in water. Feed pellets have little viscosity when ground to a large particle size. The crushing fineness also has an effect on the following processes such as mixing and steam modulating and the fineness of pulverization has great influence on stability. When the grain fineness is perfect, the raw materials can be fully mixed and the swelling property of materials converge making for good stability. Finer particle sizes will have a larger surface area which can be fully modulated, making better-formed pellets. Although finer particle size is conducive to producing feed pellets with good stability, the grain size should not be too fine otherwise the pelleted feeds are fragile. The proportions of coarse grain, medium grain and fine grain should be appropriate so that during the pelleting period the fine grain can fill the

Extruder OEE for the Production of Fish Feed

AMANDUS KAHL GmbH & Co. KG, Dieselstrasse 5-9, D-21465 Reinbek / Hamburg, Phone: +49 40 727 71 0, Fax: +49 40 727 71 100, info@amandus-kahl-group.de

www.akahl.de

September-October 2013 | InternatIOnal AquAFeed | 11

FEATURE the grinding efficiency, increase the power consumption and increase the energy consumption of products. The optimal line speed should consider factors such as the power consumption, grinding fineness, noise and production efficiency. The number of hammers has a great effect on the grinding fineness and crushing efficiency. Out simply, more hammers means faster and finer grinding. Fewer hammers results in a coarser product. Mesh screen and sieves are related to the grinding fineness. Figure 1 shows the relationship between grinding fineness of corn, bean pulp and the mesh screen diameter. The smaller the diameter of mesh screen, the finer the grinding fineness and the lower the output. In turn, when the diameter is big, the grinding fineness is coarse and the output is high. The size of mesh screen diameter is determined by the required size of the final pellet so in the context of meeting the grinding fineness of feed pellets a sieve with big diameter should be adopted so as to improve the crushing efficiency and reduce energy consumption. Studies show that when the sieve area is increased by 9 percent, the grinding efficiency can be improved by 35 percent and the electricity consumption can be reduced by 13 percent. So choosing the appropriate sieve area can improve the output. In addition, the thickness of sieve influences the sieving ability of materials. There is a corresponding and restrictive relationship between the sieve thickness and the diameter of mesh screen: sieve thickness is less than or equal to the diameter of mesh screen. The fineness requirement of ordinary aquatic feed pellet is 40-60 mesh. In order to achieve the ideal crushing fineness and avoid the super-fine grinding of materials, the grinding surface shape should be changed. A water drop grinding surface is widely adopted in producing the aquatic feed pellets. A water drop sieve shape can increase the effective sieve area, destroy the circulation layer of materials so as to change the material motor direction, increase the frequency of hammer grinding the materials and improve crushing efficiency. es between the two models are related to the power, grinding room width and hammer numbers. The AMS-ZW-80B model has more hammers, a wider grinding surface and greaterpower than that of the AMS-ZW-60B. This means that the output of AMS-ZW-80B is greater than that of AMS-ZW-60B. Both the series use the water drop design to ensure a larger space for grinding and to improve crushing efficiency. The crushing fineness differences between the two models mainly lie in the spindle speed, hammer numbers and grinding surface width.

Producing fine feeds

As mentioned previously, aquatic animals such as shrimps, eels and turtles require fine feeds. For these animals, grinding fineness must be up to 80 mesh. Ordinary hammer mills cannot reach this fineness so ultra fine feed grinding equipment is necessary. To achieve the required small particle size, ingredients should be crushed twice. An initial coarsely grinding can be done by a hammer mill with a second grind on an ultra fine mill. Ultra fine grinding equipment uses the blade type. The grinding chamber and grading room of Amisys AMSSWFL42, AMSSWFL75, AMSSWFL102 and AMSSWFL128 models are located in the same machine body so that crushing, grading and separation can be completed simultaneously. The main differences between the three models lie in feeding motor power, sieving motor power, rotor diameter and rotor speed. When the rotor speed is faster the grinding fineness is finer but the grinding efficiency and output are accordingly reduced. Compared with other feed hammer mills, the ultra fine feed crushing mill has a lower output because the rotor speed is faster. The main index to evaluate the working efficiency of feed grinding equipment is the grinding fineness, output and power consumption. Grinding fineness has great influence on the feed utilization, production properties of aquatic animals, feed pellet quality and production cost. Considering factors such as the mesh screen, hammer quantity, spindle speed, grinding surface size and choosing the appropriate power based on the composite factors, grinding can produce homogenous pellets, improve output and reduce the electricity consumption and production costs.

Grinding machine options

Machine for fine grinding have a higher spindle speed, more hammers numbers and a wider grinding surface than models for coarse grinding. The Amisy series of AMS-ZW-29C, AMS-ZW-38C and AMS-ZW-50C hammer mills can be used for coarse grinding of feed ingredients. The main differences of the three models are the grinding room width, hammer blade quantity, power. The wider the grinding room, the higher the crushing efficiency. More hammers will produce finer products though of course the higher power means the more output. The Amisy series of AMS-ZW60B and AMS-ZW80B hammer mills are O&J Hjtryk A/S mainly used rnevej 1, DK-6705 for fine grindEsbjerg ing. The outCVR.: 73 66 86 11 put differenc-

Die and roll re-working machines

www.oj-hojtryk.dk
Phone: +45 75 14 22 55 Fax: +45 82 28 91 41 mail: info@oj-hojtryk.dk

More InforMatIon:
Email: service@feed-pellet-mill.com Website: www.feed-pellet-mill.com

12 | InternatIOnal AquAFeed | September-October 2013

AD_o&j.indd 1 21/11/2012 15:08

FEATURE

THE BEST WAY TO PREDICT THE FUTURE IS TO CREATE IT.

Peter F. Drucker

Why retire a workhorse thats still doing the job?

Simply put, your old dryer may be costing you a bundle. In fact, todays Wenger dryer could save you enough in operating efficiency alone to cover the replacement of your old dryer. Additionally, our new advanced dryer designs give you less potential for cross-contamination and bacteria build-up; feature new direct drive spreaders for level product bed and uniformity of final product moisture; and afford quicker, easier inspection and cleaning. Contact us now. With new concepts and fresh initiatives, were ready to help you develop the product possibilities of the future.

Turning ideas into opportunities. PROGRESSIVE AQUAFEED PROCESSING

What will tomorrow bring

wenger.com
BElGIUm TAIWAN BRASIl CHINA TURkEY INDIA

Wenger12_AQ_210x147mm.indd 1

September-October 2013 | InternatIOnal AquAFeed | 13

8/8/12 12:01 PM

LINKS
This digital re-print is part of the September | October 2013 edition of International Aquafeed magazine. Content from the magazine is available to view free-of-charge, both as a full online magazine on our website, and as an archive of individual features on the docstoc website. Please click here to view our other publications on www.docstoc.com.
I N C O R P O R AT I N G f I s h fA R m I N G T e C h N O l O G y

See the full issue

The potential of microalgae meals

Visit the International Aquafeed website Contact the International Aquafeed Team Subscribe to International Aquafeed

in compound feeds for aquaculture

Understanding ammonia in aquaculture ponds AquaNor event review EXPERT TOPIC

Salmon

Vo l u m e 1 6 I s s u e 5 2 0 1 3 -

s e P T e m B e R | o C To B e R

To purchase a paper copy of the magazine, or to subscribe to the paper edition please contact our Circulation and Subscriptions Manager on the link above.

INFORMATION FOR ADVERTISERS - CLICK HERE

www.aquafeed.co.uk