The jute industry · Chapter 11FIG. 8 BALE OPENER By permission of Messrs. Urquhart, Lindsay & Co., Ltd
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The layers of heads are often beaten with a heavy sledge hammer in hand batching, but for machine batching a bale opener is used, and this operation constitutes the preliminary opening. As already indicated, the heads of jute are fed into the machine from the left in Fig. 8, each head being laid on a travelling feed cloth which carries the heads of jute successively between a pair of feed rollers from which they are delivered to two pairs of very deeply-fluted crushing rollers or breakers. The last pair of deep-fluted rollers is seen clearly on the right in the figure. These two pairs of heavy rollers crush and bend the compressed heads of jute and deliver them in a much softer condition to the delivery sheet on the right. The delivery sheet is an endless cloth which has a continuous motion, and thus the softened heads are carried to the extreme right, at which position they are taken from the sheet by the operatives. The upper rollers in the machine may rise in their bearings against the downward pressure of the volute springs on the bearings; this provision is essential because of the thick and thin places of the heads.
A different type of bale opener, made by Messrs. Charles Parker, Sons, & Co., Dundee, and designed from the Butchart patent is illustrated in Fig. 9. It differs mainly from the machine illustrated in Fig. 8 in the shape of the crushing or opening rollers.
It will be seen on referring to the illustration that there are three crushing rollers, one large central roller on the top and situated between two lower but smaller rollers. Each roller has a series of knobs projecting from a number of parallel rings. The knobs are so arranged that they force themselves into the hard layers of jute, and, in addition to this action, the heads of jute have to bend partially round the larger roller as they are passing between the rollers. This double action naturally aids in opening up the material, and the machine, which is both novel and effective, gives excellent results in practice. The degree of pressure provided for the top roller may be varied to suit different conditions of heads of jute by the number of weights which are shown clearly in the highest part of the machine in the form of two sets of heavy discs.