The illustration shows the manufacture of wood pellets – a material for heating buildings.
Overall, there are 3 stages in this man-made process, starting from the initial treatment, pellet formation, and ending with packaging. Additional equipment such as a sawmill, hammer mill, pellet machine, and vacuum are also necessary to support the manufacture.
Initially, a sawmill is essential in creating sawdust, a product from raw material (wood). After that, fibers of equivalent length are cultivated by running sawdust through a hammer mill. These fibers are later dampened with steam to be softened and formable before being forced through holes in the pellet machine and shaped into pellets.
These newly formed pellets are left to cool for a particular amount of time. Prior to this, loose dust is cleaned from the pellets by vacuum to get ready for the packaging procedure. Finally, the final product is packed into 18 kilos (40-pound bags) for commercial purposes.
