A dedicated extrusion granulation production line has been successfully put into operation in Colombia, enabling high-efficiency granulation through steel structures!
In May 2025, Zhengzhou Huaqiang Heavy Industry Technology Co., Ltd. completed the installation and commissioning of a steel-structured extrusion granulation production line tailored for a Colombian client, officially entering the stage of large-scale production. This production line, with its steel structure plant layout as its core adaptation, integrates the entire chain of processes including mixing, lifting, feeding, granulation, screening, and packaging. With its robust configuration of two 3.0-type extrusion granulators, compact and efficient space utilization, and stable and reliable operation, it has become another benchmark project for Chinese granulation equipment in the South American market, providing local fertilizer producers with a highly adaptable and cost-effective mass production solution.
Production Line Configuration and Core Equipment Analysis
The entire steel-structured extrusion granulation production line is built around a closed-loop logic of “precise pretreatment – efficient granulation – quality control – finished product output.” Equipment selection is closely matched to the load-bearing capacity and spatial layout of the steel-structured plant, with each unit seamlessly integrated. This ensures production efficiency while maximizing plant space utilization, fully meeting the large-scale production needs of Columbia’s clients.
Raw Material Pretreatment and Conveying Unit: Laying a Solid Foundation for Uniform Granulation
Efficient Mixing Process: The production line uses a 2000-type disc mixer as the core of raw material pretreatment. This equipment features a large-diameter disc design with a mixing diameter of 2.0 meters, providing ample volume for batch mixing of multi-component raw materials. The mixing blades adopt a spiral layout, coupled with a variable frequency speed control system (speed range 10-25 r/min), which can flexibly adjust the mixing intensity according to the raw material moisture and ratio, ensuring sufficient convection and shearing of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium main raw materials and trace elements. The mixing uniformity error is ≤2%, providing a uniform raw material foundation for subsequent granulation. The equipment features wear-resistant lining plates to extend its service life and is equipped with an automatic unloading device to ensure continuous production.
Stable Lifting and Feeding: The mixed raw materials are vertically conveyed to subsequent stages via a 315-type bucket elevator (10 meters). This elevator is optimized for the vertical space of steel structure plants, with a small footprint and high load-bearing capacity. It uses a plate chain drive structure, ensuring smooth and noiseless operation, with a conveying efficiency of 6 tons/hour. Its excellent sealing effectively prevents the raw materials from becoming damp, contaminated, or generating dust during lifting. The lifted raw materials then enter a 2000-type disc feeder. The feeder uses frequency conversion control and automatic material level monitoring technology to precisely regulate the feed rate, ensuring uniform feeding to the two extrusion granulators. This avoids fluctuations in granulation quality or equipment overload caused by uneven feeding, achieving precise matching between raw material supply and granulation rhythm.
Core Granulation Unit: Dual-Machine Parallel Operation Enhances Efficiency
The core equipment of the production line consists of two 3.0-type extrusion granulators. This model is a mature product developed by Huaqiang Heavy Industry for medium to large-scale production capacity needs. It is specifically optimized for the load-bearing standards of steel-structured plants, featuring a compact structure and reasonable weight distribution, perfectly adapting to the load-bearing limitations of the plant. The granulator adopts a high-strength double-roller extrusion design with a roll diameter of 300mm and a roll width of 250mm. The extrusion pressure (6-18MPa) is precisely controlled through a hydraulic pressurization system, adapting to the granulation needs of organic fertilizer and compound fertilizer raw materials with different moisture content (28%-35%) and different compositions.
The granulator rollers are made of high-chromium alloy, with a hardness exceeding HRC62 after quenching. This results in three times the wear resistance compared to ordinary materials, extending the service life to over 10,000 hours. The roller surface features a customized anti-slip texture design, enhancing material gripping force and effectively preventing slippage. The granulation rate remains consistently above 93%, with uniform particle size controlled at 3-5mm and a compressive strength of 2.7MPa. The granules are not prone to pulverization, fully meeting the needs of Colombian agriculture for fertilization and long-distance transportation. Two granulators can operate in parallel, each with a capacity of 2.5 tons per hour. Combined operation achieves a total capacity of 5 tons per hour and a daily capacity of 120 tons, significantly improving customer production efficiency.
Grading and Finished Product Output Unit: Strict Quality Control and Efficient Delivery
Precise Screening and Recycled Material Utilization: Granulated particles are transported via a conveyor system to a 1.2×4.0 meter drum screen. This equipment is optimized for the lateral space of steel structure plants, maximizing floor space and screening efficiency. The screen uses a single-layer high-precision screen design, with screen apertures customizable to customer needs. Grading and screening are achieved through uniform drum rotation (18 r/min). Qualified particles (3-5 mm diameter) achieve a 98% pass rate, while substandard particles (too coarse or too fine) are returned to the raw material mixing front end via a 5-meter return conveyor belt, re-entering the granulation process. Material utilization reaches 99%, effectively reducing production costs. The screen is equipped with an automatic screen cleaning device, which cleans material adhering to the screen surface in real time, preventing screen blockage and ensuring stable screening efficiency. The equipment features a sealed enclosure design, reducing dust pollution and meeting local environmental protection requirements.
Finished Product Storage and Automated Packaging: Qualified granules are conveyed to the finished product warehouse via a 7-meter belt conveyor for temporary storage. The warehouse is a custom-designed steel-structure plant with a sealed structure and a dehumidification and ventilation system to effectively prevent fertilizer from absorbing moisture and clumping, ensuring product storage stability. The warehouse capacity can meet the storage needs of 5 consecutive hours of full-load production. Material level sensors are installed inside the warehouse to provide real-time inventory feedback, facilitating customers to rationally plan their shipments. The packaging process utilizes an automatic packaging scale that supports rapid switching between various packaging sizes such as 25kg and 50kg. Employing gravity-based metering principles and high-precision sensors, the metering error is ≤±0.2kg, with a packaging speed of up to 80 bags/hour. This enables rapid, quantitative packaging of finished products, and, in conjunction with the subsequent transfer system, efficiently completes finished product warehousing and shipping.
Core Advantages of the Production Line and its Compatibility with Steel Structures
Exclusive Optimized Design for Steel Structures: All equipment in the production line is customized and optimized for the spatial dimensions, load-bearing standards, and ventilation conditions of steel structure workshops. The equipment layout is compact and rational, requiring only 450 square meters of space, saving 25% compared to traditional production lines. Simultaneously, optimized equipment maintenance access adapts to the maintenance needs of steel structure workshops, ensuring convenient and efficient operation and maintenance.
Stable, Reliable, and Highly Adaptable: Core equipment uses high-temperature, wear-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials, adapting to the tropical climate of Colombia and effectively resisting the impact of high temperature and humidity. The 3.0-type extrusion granulator can flexibly adapt to various materials such as organic fertilizer, compound fertilizer, and bio-organic fertilizer, supporting rapid switching between different formulations to meet the diverse agricultural fertilization needs of the region.
High Efficiency, Energy Saving, and Cost-Effectiveness: The entire production line uses energy-saving motors and optimized process design, reducing energy consumption by 13% compared to conventional production lines with the same capacity. The equipment has a high degree of modularity, short installation cycle, and standardized design for key components. Wear parts are highly interchangeable. The company provides comprehensive spare parts supply and overseas technical guidance services, significantly reducing customers’ subsequent operation and maintenance costs. The successful commissioning of the Colombian steel extrusion pelletizing production line not only demonstrates Huaqiang Heavy Industry’s comprehensive strength in high-end pelletizing equipment R&D, customized steel structure design, and overseas project implementation, but also provides efficient and stable equipment support for the modernization of agriculture in South America. In the future, Huaqiang Heavy Industry will continue to focus on the production conditions and needs of different regions, optimize product performance and service solutions, and provide global customers with more competitive customized solutions, allowing “Made in China” to shine even brighter in the international market.
Expert Application of Dry Granulation Technology
This successful Colombian project showcases the practical application of a specialized extrusion granulation line, expertly engineered for a steel structure environment. It is a prime example of a specific fertilizer granulation technology being deployed to meet localized production needs efficiently.
The core of this line is the fertilizer compactor performing fertilizer granules compaction, which falls under the category of dry granulation processes. This method is one of several fertilizer granulation processes available to manufacturers. In the broader context of the npk manufacturing process, producers can choose between different types of fertilizer processing machine technologies. For dry compaction, a roller press granulator production line is typically used. For wet granulation, a rotary drum granulator would be the appropriate choice. Each technology represents a different pathway within the overall suite of fertilizer granulation technology, allowing producers to select the optimal method based on raw material properties and final product requirements. this project underscores the importance of matching the right granulation technology to the specific physical, chemical, and economic constraints of the production site, ensuring both operational efficiency and product quality.
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