FLAXMILL MACHINERY

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8346, 5 February 1913, Page 2

FLAXMILL MACHINERY

A NEW STRIPPER. Within recent years the flaxmilliug industry has been revolutionised to a very great extent by tho introduction of new and improved mechanical contrivances that have lowered the cost of production and improved the quality of the finished article, but the limit of perfection in dressing tho raw material has not been reached yet. Notwithstanding tho improvements already shown, tho present method of milling hemp leaves much to be desired, especially with regard to the extraction of the fibre. Tho vital part of the process is tho stripping, and here it is that improvement is most desired, as most of tho newer mechanical appliances deal mainly with the after processes. Tho present method of stripping, by means of a hardseating process, reduces the strength of the fibre, is not thoroughly effective in design, and produces a large amount of waste material. This weakness has been represented to tho Government, with the result that a bonus of £12,000 has been offered, wholly or in part, for an improved design ot stripper. A machine that is expected to show good results has recently been tested by the inventor, Mr Claydon, of Christchurch. It is constructed very much on the same lines as tho ordinary stripper, but different in an all-important essential, in that it is a true scrapingmachine rather than a beating one. Not only . does it effectively scrape off the vegetable covering of the fibre without any traces of injury, but it can deal with much more fibre than the ordinary stripper, and this witlf considerably less power. The resultant fibre is in no way bruised, being a, free continuous thread, while it is clean and unaffected by dye and gum, which the present process •beats into tho fibre. As a; result of this clean scraping, there should not be the same lime required to bleach the fibre as with tho present method. A thorough washing will probably be all that will be required to ensure a good colour. Another advantage is that the Work is reduced to a minimum. The patentee claims—and judging from the work done, in several tests it is a fair estimate—that the machine will turn out one ton of fibre to 6 tons lewt of green leaf. "The above impressions were gained from witnessing trials conducted under distinctly crude conditions, says a southern paper. A> the effect was so with a rough model, temporarily •"ft up, tha results under proper conditions should be very satisfactory. The languishing feature between the Clay-iion-Maude Scraper and the stripper in vogue is that with the former the leaf is fed into and between two drums, on each of which blunt pieces of steel on end—Jin thick and Jin high, and set diagonally on the drums as with a 'stripper—alternate with flat pieces of steel, 2Jin wide and Jin deep, laid in the same direction. Both sides of the blade are scraped at the same time, the upright piece of steel on the one drum striking the fiat piece on the other, and vice versa. In testing the machino 1 led in from eight to thirteen blades at tho one lime, and even with tho latter quantity the effect was good. There was no bruising, though some 'ribs' were in evidence owing to no 'ribber' being provided in the machine. This with very poor engine—an old 8 h.p. engine carrying 501 b of steam, and drawing direct from its fly-wheel to the pulley of the snipper with an old 4in belt."