Peat Machine

a machine designed to prepare peat deposits for the extraction, drying, removal, loading, and transportation of peat.

Characteristic of peat machines are a small unit pressure on the soil surface, comparatively brief operating periods as a result of seasonal work conditions, and high maneuverability. Various machines are used for drying peat deposits, preparing deposits for processing, producing milled peat, extracting lump peat, loading, and transporting.

Extremely damp deposits undergo preliminary drying by machines consisting of a powered chassis on ribbed tires, a working element (such as a conical screw-type miller), a diesel engine, and a hydraulic transmission operating at a pressure of 0.1 kg-force/cm², or 10 kilonewtons/m². Peat drying is performed by peat excavators capable of turning 360°, tractor-drawn trenchers with conical disk-type millers, and tractor-drawn rotary trench clearers.

Peat deposits are prepared for working by diesel-electric machines, such as the MTP-43, designed to clear forests and equipped with a bagging attachment; tractor-drawn machines with bucket blades for deep-milling peat deposits that have inclusions of shrubs and woody material; trailer units, such as the MTP-26, equipped with a rotor mechanism for rooting out stumps; self-propelled machines for collecting and loading extracted stumps onto towed, caterpillar-tread dump trucks; machines with a sorter, separator, and delivery conveyor; and tractor-drawn contour-shaping units that use a continuous-screw element to grade and contour the surface of the peat deposit.

Machines used to produce crumblike peat by milling fall into three categories: tractor-drawn scrapers with hoppers; self-propelled, caterpillar-tread, pneumatic hopper combines equipped with a recirculating compressed-air system, a diesel engine, and a milling drum; and self-propelled harvester-trenchers. Peat deposits are milled by towed milling drums with sectional cutters that use tapered pegs as cutting elements; such machines are equipped with a transmission and a frame with supporting, towing, and control equipment. The drying of milled peat is accelerated by peat tedders. Peat windrowers are used in a number of extraction operations.

Machines that produce lump peat for nonindustrial use are complexes consisting of four towed harvesting machines equipped with disk millers and a continuous-screw processing unit together with a single gathering machine that uses a ribbed roller as a working element and that has an inclined conveyor and movable hopper for transporting and storing prepared peat. Peat is also mined by multiple-scoop excavators equipped with processing equipment (a grinder); then self-propelled peat spreaders spread the peat on a drying field, where it is turned over by general-purpose machines. The peat on the field is loaded by cranes and excavators capable of turning 360°. The peat is usually transported in metal cars running on narrow-gauge (750-mm) tracks. The tracks are laid and maintained by various types of track machines.