Equipment Introduction

The hydraulic trough-type compost turner, also known as a hydraulic lifting trough-type compost turner or hydraulic trough-type turning machine, is a core automated piece of equipment for realizing the trough-type aerobic fermentation process in large-scale organic fertilizer production, livestock and poultry manure treatment, and municipal sludge resource utilization projects. Based on the traditional trough-type compost turner, this equipment introduces a fully hydraulic drive and control system. Relying on hydraulic transmission technology, it integrates the core advantages of strong power, efficient turning, stability, durability, and intelligent convenience, enabling all-round turning and oxygen supply of materials within the fermentation tank, significantly shortening the fermentation cycle. Unlike the inefficient operation mode relying on manual turning or small compost turners, the hydraulic trough-type compost turner can achieve continuous and deep turning operations within the fermentation tank. It can quickly replace oxygen in the pile, evaporate excess moisture, and crush and evenly mix materials. It is a key piece of equipment for the harmless treatment of livestock and poultry manure, kitchen waste, and agricultural waste. Its application marks a leap from “extensive manual labor” to “factory-scale intelligent control” in organic fertilizer fermentation.

Equipment Structure

The hydraulic trough-type compost turner consists of six core functional modules + an electrical control safety system + a matching moving trolley. Unlike ordinary models, its core component is an independent hydraulic lifting unit:

1. Power Transmission Device (Turning Drum Rotation Power)

Composed of dual main drive motors, a cycloidal pinwheel reducer, a transmission sprocket, heavy-duty bearing seats, and the drum main shaft; the reducer is filled with No. 50 special machine oil to provide stable rotational torque for the turning drum. The drum propeller blades synchronously complete the material crushing and horizontal pushing (single pushing distance 0.2~1m).

2. Track Walking Device

Composed of a walking motor, transmission chain, transmission shaft, track walking wheels, and a walking chassis frame; the equipment travels back and forth along concrete tracks on both sides of the fermentation tank. The tracks must be grounded to ensure electrical safety.

3. Hydraulic Lifting System (Core Differentiating Component of this Equipment) The entire hydraulic unit is independently equipped and consists of a hydraulic pump motor, high-pressure hydraulic pump station, electromagnetic reversing valve assembly, high-pressure oil-resistant hydraulic oil pipes, lifting hydraulic cylinders, and lifting support arms. The cylinder extension and retraction are controlled by an electronically controlled valve assembly, achieving overall lifting/lowering of the turning drum. No manual adjustment of the winch chain is required, and the lifting action is smooth and without jamming.
4. Turning Drum Assembly (Core Working Component) Composed of support arms, turning drum, and spirally arranged wear-resistant alloy shovels (rake teeth). The alloy shovels have high hardness, wear resistance, and corrosion resistance, effectively breaking up clumps of manure and turning the bottom anaerobic material to the surface for full air contact, simultaneously propelling the material towards the discharge end of the fermentation tank at a uniform speed.
5. Transfer Vehicle (Optional Equipment) Composed of an independent walking motor, transmission gears, and load-bearing wheels. It carries the turning machine laterally to other fermentation tanks, enabling multi-tank production with one machine and reducing overall equipment investment.
6. Electrical Control Safety System: Integrates a PLC centralized control cabinet, soft starter (reduces the impact load of motor starting), limit switches at both ends of the track, grounding protection circuit for the whole machine, and pressure protection valve for the hydraulic system; limit switches enable automatic reversing and stopping, hydraulic relief valve prevents cylinder overpressure damage, and multiple electrical protections prevent equipment derailment and overload failure.

Applications of the Equipment

The hydraulic trough-type compost turner is suitable for aerobic fermentation processes and has a wide range of applications: 1. Applicable Material Types: Livestock and poultry manure (chicken manure, pig manure, cow manure, sheep manure, etc.); municipal sludge and waste; sugar mill filter mud; lees and cakes; straw sawdust and other organic waste; kitchen waste; biogas residue 2. Applicable Industries and Locations: Organic fertilizer plants; compound fertilizer plants; sludge and waste treatment plants; horticultural farms; button mushroom cultivation plants; large-scale breeding farms; environmental protection enterprises The equipment can be used in conjunction with solar fermentation chambers, fermentation tanks, and transfer machines. When used with a transfer machine, it can achieve multi-tank functionality, allowing for both continuous and batch discharge from the fermentation tanks.

Applicable Raw Materials

This equipment can process all high-organic-matter industrial, agricultural, livestock, and municipal organic waste. The pretreatment standards for raw materials are as follows: moisture content adjusted to 50%~65%, carbon-to-nitrogen ratio adjusted to 20~30:1 before fermentation:

1. Livestock and poultry manure: pig manure, cow manure, chicken manure, sheep manure, duck manure;
2. Agricultural and forestry straw: corn stalks, wheat straw, sawdust, wood chips, rice husks, peanut shells;
3. Industrial organic waste residue: sugar factory filter mud, baijiu/huangjiu lees, vinegar residue, medicinal herb residue, rapeseed cake, cottonseed cake;
4. Municipal organic solid waste: dewatered sludge from sewage treatment plants, fallen leaves and branches from gardens, sorted organic slurry from kitchen waste;
5. Edible fungi waste: waste mushroom substrate, edible fungi cultivation substrate.

Working Principle of the Equipment

The core working principle of the hydraulic trough-type compost turner lies in “hydraulic drive + synergistic turning”:

1. Basic Workflow

Organic materials are piled in the fermentation trough, and the turner moves along the trough via a walking mechanism. During operation, the equipment moves at a constant speed along the track laid on the side wall of the fermentation trough, while a high-power hydraulic motor drives the turning rotor to rotate at high speed.

2. Turning and Oxygenation Process

The spirally arranged alloy stirring teeth (or staggered wear-resistant alloy steel rake teeth) on the rotor cut into the deep layers of the material, breaking up and throwing up the hardened material, allowing it to fully contact the air. The material is turned over and stirred, moving backward 0.2-1 meter. The turning trolley turns laterally to one side and stops after touching the limit switch. After the entire machine travels longitudinally for 3-5 seconds (approximately 250-300 mm), the turning trolley begins to turn laterally to the other side, repeating this back-and-forth operation to achieve the effects of turning and oxygenation.

3. Hydraulic System Working Principle

The high-pressure hydraulic pump serves as the power source, transmitting power through hydraulic oil to drive the turning gear shaft and the traveling mechanism in coordinated operation. The hydraulic system boasts high torque and rapid response, with a turning force typically 1.5-2 times that of ordinary models. During operation, the high-pressure hydraulic pump drives the turning gear shaft and the traveling mechanism in coordinated operation.

4. Deep Turning Effect

The hydraulic lifting device can adjust the rotor position in real time according to the pile height, ensuring consistent turning depth. This deep turning mode brings the oxygen-deficient “cold material” to the surface, burying the dry “hot material” at the surface. Combined with the ventilation system at the bottom of the trough, the pile temperature rapidly rises to over 70°C within 48 hours, thoroughly killing pathogens, insect eggs, and weed seeds.

Common Equipment Problems and Solutions

Application of the Equipment in the Production Line

The hydraulic trough compost turner is a widely used piece of equipment in organic fertilizer production lines. Located between solid-liquid separation and aging screening, it is the “main battlefield” for biochemical reactions.

1. Positioning in the Production Line

In the entire organic fertilizer production line, the hydraulic trough compost turner plays a core role in turning and disposing of materials. The equipment adopts a modular structure design, making installation convenient and allowing for rapid integration into large-scale organic fertilizer production lines. It can seamlessly connect to equipment such as crushers, mixers, and granulators, achieving integrated operations of organic raw material crushing, mixing, turning, and composting.

2. One Machine, Multiple Troughs Operation

With the aid of a transfer vehicle (shifting machine), “one machine, multiple troughs” can be operated in rotation, greatly improving equipment utilization and saving on infrastructure and equipment investment costs. For organic fertilizer projects with an annual production capacity of tens of thousands of tons or more, multiple troughs can be connected in parallel with one compost turner to achieve continuous feeding and discharging, significantly improving site utilization and production continuity.

3. Value in the Production Process: Stable turning and turning quality provides high-quality raw materials with suitable moisture content and uniform fineness for subsequent crushing and granulation processes, significantly reducing recycle rate and energy consumption. The equipment often integrates a biological deodorizing spray system, simultaneously spraying deodorizing bacteria during the turning and turning process to inhibit the volatilization of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide at the source, improving the factory environment.

Complete Hydraulic Trench Aerobic High-Temperature Fermentation Process

1) Complete Fermentation Process Flow Organic raw material collection → Solid-liquid dehydration pretreatment (optional for high-moisture manure) → Straw auxiliary material crushing → Ingredient mixing (manure + straw + fermentation agent, adjusting moisture content to 50%~65%, carbon-nitrogen ratio to 20~30:1) → Uniform distribution in the fermentation tank → Segmented timed turning and fermentation using FPY hydraulic trough turner → Discharge of matured material → Crushing and screening/granulation deep processing → Packaging of finished organic fertilizer. 2) Staged Fermentation Process Parameters (Adapted to the Advantages of Hydraulic Lifting and Multi-Depth Adjustment) Total fermentation cycle: 15-25 days, managed in three stages, utilizing the stepless lifting function of the hydraulic turner to match the turning depth at each stage:

1. Heating Stage (Days 1-5 of Fermentation)

Process Objective: Rapidly raise the temperature to above 55℃, quickly eliminate odor; Hydraulic Turning Parameters: Shallow turning with rollers (0.5-0.8m depth), turning once every 1-2 days; Process Effect: Shallow turning quickly breaks up material clumps, introduces air to activate microorganisms, raises the pile temperature to above 50℃ in 16 hours, and completely eliminates the foul odor from the pile in 3-5 days.

2. High-Temperature Decomposition Stage (Days 6-15 of Fermentation) Process Objective: Maintain a high temperature of 55-70℃ for at least 7 days to completely kill insect eggs, pathogens, and weed seeds. Hydraulic Turning Parameters: Deep turning with rollers (1.2-1.8m depth), turning once every 2-3 days. Process Function: Deep hydraulic turning completely brings the bottom anaerobic material to the surface for heat dissipation, stabilizes the high-temperature range of the pile, and ensures sufficient aeration of the deep material, achieving simultaneous decomposition and harmless maturation of the entire pile.
3. Cooling and Stabilization Stage (Days 16-25 of Fermentation) Process Objective: The pile temperature gradually drops below 40℃, organic matter is completely degraded, and the material is dehydrated and stabilized. Hydraulic Turning Parameters: Precise turning at a depth of 0.8-1.2m in the drum, once every 3-5 days. Process Function: Precise height-controlled turning accelerates moisture evaporation from the pile, ensures uniform material maturation, and enriches humus, providing high-quality raw materials for subsequent granulation and powdered organic fertilizer processing.

3) Core Technological Value of Hydraulic Compost Turners in Fermentation Processes

1. Full-cycle Adaptability to Turning Depth: Unlike ordinary models with fixed heights, hydraulic lifting allows for real-time adjustment of the turning depth according to the fermentation stage, shortening the fermentation cycle by 3-7 days and improving workshop turnover efficiency;
2. Flexible Heavy-duty Adaptability to Complex Materials: Under conditions of high-resistance materials such as high-moisture, viscous pig manure and sludge, the hydraulic system buffers and depressurizes the equipment, resulting in a failure rate far lower than mechanical transmission models, ensuring continuous fermentation production without interruption;
3. Improved Quality of Finished Organic Fertilizer: Uniform and deep turning ensures consistent material maturity, resulting in finished organic fertilizer with consistently meeting national organic fertilizer standards for organic matter, effective viable bacteria count, and humic content, making it more competitive in the market.

Equipment Parameters

Summary of Equipment Advantages

Compared to traditional mechanical compost turners, hydraulic trough turners offer the following significant advantages:

1. Powerful Performance: The hydraulic system boasts high torque and rapid response, delivering 1.5-2 times the turning force of ordinary models, easily crushing high-moisture, high-viscosity, and large-lump organic materials.
2. Flexible Adjustment: The hydraulic system enables stepless lifting of the drum and smooth adjustment of the travel speed.
3. Deep Turning: Turning depth can reach up to 2.5 meters, eliminating dead zones.
4. High Automation: Equipped with a PLC control cabinet or wireless remote control, enabling fully automatic cyclic operation.
5. Energy Efficient: Energy consumption per ton is 20% lower than traditional equipment, and the fermentation cycle is shortened by more than 30%.
6. Strong Adaptability: One machine can operate in multiple troughs, significantly improving equipment utilization.
7. Robust and Durable: Key components are made of wear-resistant alloy materials, with a service life 2-3 times that of ordinary turning teeth.