Innovativ utmatningsteknik

Sammanfattning

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 was

to develop a new reclaiming method for silos where wood chips are being stored. A medium

segment of between 1000 ? 5000 m

3was defined as the segment with the most sales potential.

Two different concepts were produced, one for new constructions and one for rebuilding

already existing silos.

In the beginning of the master thesis a lot of time was spent on visiting different BRUKS

offices and customers to get an overview of the industry and the product. This information

was the basis when the idea generating phase began. Of 50 ideas the result after the selection

process was two concepts. The first idea combined a stoker and a rotating screw to create a

cost efficient and robust solution. The second idea was a new development of a stoker where

the 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 evaluation

different problems were discovered by more experienced personal. After the evaluation the

concepts were remade with respect to the highlighted problems which led to increased

functionality. This gave the participants a unique insight into the different problems that can

occur where only experience can help, wood chips is a very unpredictable material and a hard

material to make assumptions on.

The concepts were never constructed in detail because BRUKS deemed it more important to

develop a systematic view over the concepts with fresh eyes would help them see the

problems and opportunities from new angles. That is why the development ended with

functional problems being solved.

Problems that occurred during the development originated often from the lack of experience

of the participants which made it hard to estimate forces and material behaviour. Because the

master thesis was done by distance it proved hard to get a hold of information and answers

were sometimes delayed because personal at BRUKS often were occupied with their own

work.