Technical Report On Mini Turnplates By Will Klentzman & Tony Parris

History Iberia Sugar installed Mini Turnplates in the late ‘80’s when four roller mills and Donnelly Chutes were installed. The configuration of the mini turnbeam and turnplate caused the feed roller to be placed much higher than the top roller. This caused concern about proper drainage, due to the fact that the juice must flow over the feed roller to drain.

A decision was made to remove the mini turnplate and turnbeams in the early 90’s. The rollers were dropped so that the feed roller and front roller were in mesh.

After many years of mediocre extraction and the implementation of more aggressive welding on the feed roller which caused the roller to fuzz up. It was suggested that the mini turn plate be looked at again. In 2003 the old turn beams were looked at, but the idea of lifting the feed roller was discouraging. It was decided to change this idea and use a scraper plate instead of the old turnplate and turnbeam.

The New Arrangement The new arrangement used a 3” x 3” square bar to support a 1 1/4” scraper plate. The plate was grooved and had a slight angle so that it followed the contour of the top roller. Two arms were attached to tighten the scraper and an eccentric bearing arrangement was made to allow for some adjustment.

This was done only on the last mill. The main observations were that the feed roller remained clean throughout the grinding. The drainage was through the feed and front roller. And the cush-cush was substantially less. Even more impressive was that the bagasse moisture went from 56% to 53% and the extraction increased. Imbibition could be increased until the prior mill began to choke.

2004 Season In 2004 all of the mills were fitted with a mini scraper. The results were better because the imbibition was increased. With the increased imbibition our only limitations were the evaporators. This allowed for the better than average extraction, pol and bagasse moisture at Iberia last year.