The bale opener (Figure 1) includes the “To” two-section horizontal conveyor on which the greasy wool bales are loaded; the bales pass from one sector to the following one and are turned upside down and are partially divided into big tufts of wool.

Fig. 1 – Bale opener

The “To” conveyor conveys the fibre mass very slowly towards the “Ti” slant apron; it is covered with large-diameter spikes which are bent in the direction of the feeding material, and the apron moves faster.
The wool, supported by the spikes of the “Ti” slant apron, is brought upwards; the bigger tufts of material are driven back or their dimension is reduced thanks to the action of the spikes of a leveller or overflow roll (“R”) which rotates anticlockwise. The position of the “R” cylinder can be automatically adjusted to calibrate the opening and the evenness of the fibre mass.
The “S” cleaning roll rotates clockwise and its spikes knock back (on the horizontal conveyor) the lumps of wool left between the spikes of the leveller roll, which is therefore always kept clean and efficient.
The combined action of the “leveller” and the “cleaner”, besides adjusting the quantity of material, opens the greasy wool with adjustable intensity and prepares it for efficient beating.

After the leveller, the wool slips off the spikes of the slant apron (which are now bent downwards) helped by the spikes of the “Sc” beater roller, which turns clockwise a lot faster than the “Ti” roller.
A small quantity of waste is also separated from wool at the picking points.

Fig. 2 - Automatic feeder

The available working widths are 1,000, 1,600 and 2,000 mm; the average output with a 2,000 mm width is approx. 1,500 kg/h for finer wools.
The feeder described on (Figure 2) can be used successfully when the material fed into the machine is mainly composed of already opened or loose fibres. The feeder, besides ensuring more delicate fibre handling, does not force the fibres onto the cleaner roller. In this case, in fact, the cleaner is no longer needed since the leveller is replaced by an oscillating comb (“P”) which prevents fibre winding and which, like a leveller, knocks back the wool lumps conveyed without touching the spikes of the slant apron, thus making the dimension of lumps as uniform as possible.
The operating width and the output are similar to the bale opener.

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