Durafibre Inc.

Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute

David H Kelly

Mark A Stratton

Leslie G Hill

Philip J Leduc

Michael Yaholnitsky

Philip J LeDuc

A system for processing plant material is provided which separates plant fibers from the woody portions of the material to produce a commercially desirable length of fiber and to grind the shorter woody portions that have been separated from the longer fibers to a desirable size which has found use in certain commercial applications. The current system is well suited to process the tough fibers of the North American strain of flax straw, and will also find utility in processing other bast fibers, such as jute, hemp, ramie, and kenaf.

Plant material processing system

A method for separating woody material from plant fibers is disclosed which includes the provision of a plurality of woody material bending regions with the plant material being fed to a first and then a second one of the bending regions as bending and pulling surfaces are moved through the bending regions. The bending and pulling surfaces move through the regions at different operating speeds so that the bending and pulling surfaces in adjacent bending regions will pull on the plant material to separate the fibers from the woody material. As the bending and pulling surfaces primarily impart a pulling or stripping force on the fiber along its length where the fiber has its most strength, the woody material can be dislodged and stripped away lengthwise with minimal damage or breakage of the fiber. The step of providing bending regions can include the step of providing first and second sets of fluted rollers having bending and pulling radially extending flute surfaces. The plant material is fed to the first bending region between the first set of fluted rollers and then the second bending region between the second set of fluted rollers. Preferably, a third bending region is also provided and the bending and pulling flutes are caused to move through the first, second and third regions at progressively increasing operating speeds.

Apparatus for decorticating plant material

Method for decorticating plant material

Growing community of inventors

Humboldt, Canada

David H Kelly