Innovativ utmatningsteknik
Mediumstor bulkförvaringslösning
This master thesis was done for a company called BRUKS which is active in woodprocessing,bio-energy and bulk material handling industry. The idea for the master thesis wasto develop a new reclaiming method for silos where wood chips are being stored. A mediumsegment of between 1000 ? 5000 m3was defined as the segment with the most sales potential.Two different concepts were produced, one for new constructions and one for rebuildingalready existing silos.In the beginning of the master thesis a lot of time was spent on visiting different BRUKSoffices and customers to get an overview of the industry and the product. This informationwas the basis when the idea generating phase began. Of 50 ideas the result after the selectionprocess was two concepts. The first idea combined a stoker and a rotating screw to create acost efficient and robust solution. The second idea was a new development of a stoker wherethe rate of reclaim and load bearing capabilities were improved.These concepts were developed with a CAD-program (Solid Edge), a calculations program(ANSYS Workbench 10.0) and with the help of BRUKS and different persons in the industry.When the concepts started to take shape they were evaluated by BRUKS. In this evaluationdifferent problems were discovered by more experienced personal. After the evaluation theconcepts were remade with respect to the highlighted problems which led to increasedfunctionality. This gave the participants a unique insight into the different problems that canoccur where only experience can help, wood chips is a very unpredictable material and a hardmaterial to make assumptions on.The concepts were never constructed in detail because BRUKS deemed it more important todevelop a systematic view over the concepts with fresh eyes would help them see theproblems and opportunities from new angles. That is why the development ended withfunctional problems being solved.Problems that occurred during the development originated often from the lack of experienceof the participants which made it hard to estimate forces and material behaviour. Because themaster thesis was done by distance it proved hard to get a hold of information and answerswere sometimes delayed because personal at BRUKS often were occupied with their ownwork.