Blocking screw silo wood pellets

[Chaboum]

Hello everyone,
after a heating season, stop my boiler this summer (okofen), restart this early autumn: problem.
Verdict: bottom silo screw locked !!! The technician Okofen tried to move it to the key: nothing to do. He just left, without really knowing what to tell me because I'm in the ..... !!!!!
If the silo was almost empty yet, but it is block !! 7 tons around ....
So I'm told about moisture, so drunk screw (I think it's average, I do not see where the moisture can come from home) so that comes from where ??? A foreign body? what? Everything is closed

bricked silo: 2 sides are in 50 cm thick wall, 2 other sides in roughcast blocks. the interior is lined with 22 agglo panels.

who will be able to empty the silo without losing the 7 tons ?????
I do not see too much, I will try to call my supplier Cogra (can they do me something?)

if not ???? call to your ideas !!!! 7 tons it does not empty and does not store like that!

Another track: I empty it on the whole year by feeding the boiler manually.

Otherwise, in case it is humidity, water damage? can my insurance cover? but we will not know if it's water damage once the silo is empty!

thank you for your ideas and reactions.

PS: what can block this damn screw ???? apart from humidity? excessive dust ??? foreign body ? but what ???

[Did67]

The cow !!!

Foreign body ??? Weak porosity: the 7 tons were blown, not ??? From then on a foreign body which would have passed by the pipe of the delivery truck, etc ... and which now blocks the screw! I doubt. We can not exclude, but ...

Humidity ? Indeed, with what you describe: walls, breeze blocks + chipboard inside ... We can not exclude (neither the cinderblock nor the agglo are waterproof, but ????

Nothing in the ceiling, who could get off ???

Nothing left in the silo, an extension or what? a key or a screwdriver ??? Do you miss anything?

Empty ???

I do not know how much is a "mole" ??? You must be able to empty with it. See :

http://www.schellinger-kg.de/sonnenpell ... 4-set.html (click on the link "maulwurf-prospekt")

[Christophe]

Uh ... suggestion: a cat, a big rat, a little dog ... a piece of beautiful mom?

Without laughing: he tried to unblock how? With which lever arm? A key of 15 cm is not the same thing as a key of 80 ...
It really does not move at all? You have access to the bearings (at least 1 2?)?

And if it was dust that agglomerated for a reason X or Y? Moisture yes but to block a screw ...

What torque does the motor drive?

[Alain G]

Hello chaboum!

I do not have this kind of system but too high humidity can swell the granule and block your screw, more highly compressed granule has a tendency to relax.

The solution over the next year would be to install a hatch over the screw or to operate it at all 2 weeks with a timer.

[manitou22]

hi chaboum,
if you are in the field, try to find a peasant who has a grain auger and a trailer, by plunging it into your silo, you empty in the trailer, once repaired, you do the opposite.
Be careful, the screws are often three-phase.
A + kenavo

[Chaboum]

Thank you for your encouragement,
thank you Did67, again you !! you are definitely on the front and you give ideas !!
Following your idea, I found also the system of mole on the Pelleti from Sopro Energies (and it is okofen neither more nor less) they feed it either by screw, or by mole.
So I called my technician okofen to tell him about it: he knows the Sopro system, but he knows that Okofen does not want to hear about it: no mole at home! 15 minutes later he reminds me, he had Okofen Chambery (Samuel I think) they have a mole they send to my technician to try the installation and help me out: feed the boiler with the mole for this season until you can reach the screw to see where the problem is and unlock.
I do not know how it will happen, because it is true that my silo is full block !!! to pass the mole ... it will be necessary to sneak it I will start to remove the first board of the door of the silo, recover if I can what falls, because behind the door: it's full! we'll see. I'm not proud .. but my technician Okofen does everything to find a solution and get me out of the ..... hope that it will work, without much loss of pellets.

[Did67]

Good, pretty good news (for the circumstances).

You will probably have to "pilot" the mole a little (move it from time to time, check that it is in the correct position ...), but this has nothing to do with emptying the silo with a shovel! !!

Apèrs, yes, some small damage: cut a board or two (jigsaw or chainsaw) to access, pick up the pellets that will flow ... Again, nothing like a dump by hand ...

And see you in a year for diagnosis ??? It intrigues!

[Did67]

What torque does the motor drive?

The motor drives a reduction gear. It's already a pretty powerful engine x reduction !!! See the photos I put somewhere to illustrate my "bike computer" ....

I think if you go a lot harder, you screw your screw and she will die defibitively. All I would try is backtracking. I guess the convenience store tried ...

[Did67]

And if it was dust that agglomerated for a reason X or Y? Moisture yes but to block a screw ...

On pads, there are known cases (I know one in Obernai, on a "medium power" boiler - a school): fairly dry pads, condensation in the silo (or infiltration), the pads swell in the sleeve and block the screw, or even explode the sheath in which the screw operates ... A "classic" blow.

Do not forget that before the explosives, we used dry wood piles introduced into holes, then we poured water to "explode" the stone blocks in the quarries !!!

[Chaboum]

Thank you for your clarification ...

I wonder how we will spend this damn mole ... I have too much pellets! I'll have to empty a little .... but in what store ???? I have 2 plastic barrels of 200 L, I will not go far.

store it in plastic bags ??? in rubbish bags ?? (big bag?) in canvas bags ??? because they will stay there one or two months can be !!! so, it will not be damaged ?? if it's stored inside ??

then to empty a little silo, it will be necessary to aim the weather !!! because the door is on the outside !!



the pellets reach the lintel normally ...


if not, another track: on the end of my silo, above the screw and the motor: if I pierce a hole in the parpains, then in the inner cladding, that I slip a 100 pvc, is can I get something out of it? (because there I am safe) it will not weaken my wall blocks? is it going to stuff in pvc? ... see attached picture (the red circle to pierce ???)



I'm in a hell of a lot .....

Then, where are we going to pass this mole? the door ? a hole above the screw ????