Micro Maple Syrup Cooker

Well looks like it has been several months since my last post. Have been enjoying log cabin #6 and the treehouse. Interesting to see the scenery changes from the treehouse as it goes from summer to fall to winter. Also have been learning 3D printing and making some parts for use with KidWind teams.

Although it is a bit early to be thinking about making maple syrup this project has been on my mind for a while to build a smaller version of the sap cooker I have used in the past to make maple syrup.   

You can see what I used in the past. That this unit is about 4' by 4' and made of several parts requiring assembly. For boiling off 400 gallons of sap to make 10 gallons of syrup (requiring 100 gallons of propane) this set up fit the bill. Then you have to consider tapping 25 trees, placing 50 sap bags and collecting 400 gallons of sap over a week or two and it becomes a job. Not worth the time and effort to just make a gallon or two. Where my idea now is just to have some fun and make a little syrup and be done. 

Enter the MMSC (Micro Maple Syrup Cooker) A friend and fellow maple syrup maker got some equipment from me a few years ago to give making syrup a try. When I saw his set up using a turkey cooker I got this idea. Menards had a sale on turkey cookers so I bought one for $100. Here you can see the turkey cooker set up on it's stand. To the right is the sap feeding system connected by a pipe to the cook pot. The sap feeding system is a metal box with a stock tank float in it. The green hose connected to the stock tank float goes up to the sap supply resevoir. The float is set so that the level of sap in the cooking pot will be about two inches deep. Keep in mind that a deep liquid requires a lot of heat an time to boil. The best boiling takes place when the liquid level is about 2 inches deep. To do this manually you would have to stay by the cooker and add a gallon of sap every 15 minutes. My friend can tell you what happens if you let the level get to low and the pan burn. Yeks! With my system as the level of sap boils off and goes down in the cook pot the float sinks, opening the valve allowing sap to flow from the reservoir keeping the level of sap in the cooker at 2" at all times. With a 30 gallon reservoir supply of sap you are good to go for several hours. Just light 'er up and let it boil. But don't let the reservoir run dry!

Here is a picture of the sap feeding system. In the connections between the cooker and feeding system is a shut off gate valve and union fitting 

(behind the green hose). The valve will stop valuable finished maple syrup (it take 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup) from coming out when the union is disconnected so the pot, with the finished maple syrup in it can be lifted up and dumped out for filtering and canning. Right now the system is sitting on a temporary base set up. A better more secure platform with a base will be made in the near future.

A look below the cooking pot shows the heat that is produced. First test run looks like I will be able to boil off about 6" of sap per hour of burn. Will be doing some more testing before the sap run this spring and work up some times and propane usage to share in a post then.

In the meantime I am just going to enjoy some nice home made maple syrup from last season on an egg pancake and think about the spring sap flow to come and using my MMSC to make some.
 

LOTO 101 for KidWind Turbines

 

To many LOTO may mean something that has to do with a weekly drawing where you buy a ticket to win money. My goal here is to change that for KidWind students to mean Lock Out Tag Out. A system of safety measures (locks and tags) that wind turbine technicians use when working on turbines to prevent anyone from turning on the power while work (mechanical, electrical, hydraulic etc.) is being done. To that end I have constructed a working model of a 2MW Vestas turbine. While the model does not produce electricity it has all the major parts and each of them can be locked out to duplicate LOTO procedures that a service technician needs to preform using the actual locks and tags of the trade.

Left to right we start out with the Rotor. This holds the three blades and the mechanisms that pitch the blades which in turn control the speed of rotations for different wind velocities. Next is the main drive shaft that connects the Rotor to the Gearbox where the low rpms of the Rotor (16 rpm) are sped up to over 1,200 rpm to turn the shaft of the electric generator ( black component at the end ) to produce 2MW's of electricity. 

Between the Gearbox and the Generator is a Disc Brake that is used as a fail-safe. Also in this close up you can see the four Yaw motors that control the rotation of the Nacelle on the top of the tower to keep the Rotor blades pointed into the wind at all times.

Here you can see two pins in the Nacelle have been pushed down so they go through two eye bolts, on the tower. One has been secured with a nut and the other has been tagged and locked out with a special padlock. The technician performing the work will fill out the tag with all of the necessary information. The padlock has only one key and it will remain with the operator. This way only the operator can remove the lock and allow the Nacelle to Yaw when the work has been done.

 Another point that may need to be controlled is the rotation of the Rotor. This is done from the back side of the Rotor inside of the Nacelle.

So now we have gone around to the back side of the Rotor. Here you can see two pins. Like for the Yaw these two pins are pushed into holes in the Rotor to keep it from rotating. Notice the numbers. Each of the three blades can be locked out so that they are in the horizontal position. Believe it or not the blades are hollow and technicians need to get inside for inspections. Also to get into the nose of the Rotor they have to squeeze through the small semi-circle openings shown. Again a tag and lock can be placed safely locking the Rotor when necessary.

Here we are back out front looking into the Rotor where the three blades are attached. Each blade has to be able to change pitch as the velocity of the wind changes. This is done with double acting hydraulic cylinders through linkage to the blade mounting plate. The bearings for the blades have an inner and outer race with bearings between them to handle the extremely high load forces. You can see the ball bearings for blade #2 in the picture. To lock the blades the hydraulics are shut off and two pins are screwed in from the outer race to eye screws mounted in the inner race plates. Notice the hole in the inner race. This is where the technician would crawl through to get inside the blade for inspections.

Tagging and locking these two screws in this model requires the use of a special String Lock Out. The flexible nylon string is threaded through the two nuts welded at the end of each locking screw and then back through the handle where it is clamped and locked with a padlock. This way the screws cannot be turned until the work is done and technician safe.

Finally we come to the Disc-brake. Rich, from Oneota Cycles in Decorah, IA had just what I need for this in his scrap bin. The disc brake provides some control of the Rotor between the time the turbine is shut off and the two pins are place into the rotor for a more positive and secure lock to prevent the Rotor from spinning.

So how is this hands on LOTO training model going to be used with students? There will be a series of toggle switches like this in a control panel. Each will be labeled for the different turbine components with LED's. The Red LED's when lit will indicate a live circuit condition and a Green LED indicating safe to work on. Think of it like a fuse box in your home. You turn the circuit breaker off for the circuit that you are going to be working on. In this case the Green LED would light up showing that you have de-energized that part of the wind turbine. After you tag and lock it out it will be safe to work on.

So ask yourself if you were the technician and your job was to repair the following turbine problems what would you tag out? Why and how?

Service Rotor grease traps.

Replace fan on hydraulic oil cooling system.

Replace hydraulic accumulator in Rotor nose cone.

Replace relay that controls Yaw drive motors.

Replace Yaw drive motor.

Replace Rotor blade.

Replace gearbox.

Modify LPS (Lightening Protection System) cables in blade.

Replace aviation light beacon.

LOTO an OSHA requirement that all wind turbine technicians must know and follow.