PNEUMOTHERMAL METHOD OF OBTAINING CONIFEROUS NEEDLES FOR PRODUCTION OF TEXTILE FIBERS

Modern forestry and environmental requirements determine the need to use more advanced technologies and equipment for complete processing of coniferous tree crowns. In particular, needles are used for the production of pine extract and essential oil, feed, organic fertilizers, pulp and biofuel. It is promising to obtain natural fibrous materials from wood raw materials, in particular, obtaining textile fiber from needles. High-quality raw materials are required to obtain textile fiber from needles. The available methods of obtaining needles have significant disadvantages in view of the possibility of their further use for the production of textile fibers and are energy-consuming. Known methods of obtaining needles according to the principle of action can be divided as following: mechanical; pneumomechanical; electrohydraulic; high-frequency field; cryogenic. The harvesting of needles for the production of textile fibers is inextricably linked with the harvesting of coniferous trees. The method of morphological analysis was used to synthesize variants of the technological process of obtaining needles. In the technological process of harvesting coniferous trees, characteristic functional morphological features are highlighted: felling of trees; tree drifting; clearing of trees; destruction of connections between needles and branches; separation of needles from branches and their transportation to the needle collector. For each of the morphological features, the most complete list of possible options for technical solutions has been compiled. The following equipment for collecting needles is offered: a stacking and packaging machine, a forwarder, a processor and a mobile unit for separating needles, which consists of a drying chamber, a vacuum pneumatic transport system and a needle collector. Further research on the improvement of the pneumothermal method of obtaining needles should be carried out in the direction of theoretical and experimental substantiation of the modes of operation of the mobile unit for the separation of needles.