MECHANICAL FIBER EXTRACTION MACHINE AND PROCESS

摘要

This invention relates to an essentially fully automated mechanical fiber extraction machine and method for continuously extracting fibers from stalks of a fiber- containing vegetable raw material, preferably abaca. The machine and process comprise the extraction of the fibers from the leaf sheaths from the complete stalk in a single process line without requiring a previous separation of the leaf sheaths. The mechanical fiber extraction machine and process of the invention extracts, in a continuous process, the fibers from the complete stalks by a number of consecutive mechanical treatment steps. The throughput using the fiber extraction machine and process of the invention is about 80 to 40 times higher than currently existing methods. The fiber extraction machine comprises a feeding device for the stalks, a cutter device for separating the stalks into plural segments in the longitudinal direction, a crusher device for applying crushing pressure onto the stalk segments to break up the cells of the material, a spreader device for two-dimensionally spreading and flattening the stalk segments, a cleaning device, and a rotatable cleaning and brushing roll arranged so as to pass the flattened stalk segments between its outer periphery and the shearing edge and simultaneously brush out pulpy stalk material from the vegetable fibers. A retarding device for retarding the transport of the flattened stalk segments is provided upstream of the cleaning device, and an output device is provided for receiving the fibers downstream of the cleaning device and guiding the fibers out of the machine.