Apparatus for decorticating plant material

An apparatus for separating woody material from plant fibers, the apparatus comprising:

• first and second sets of roller assemblies with each set having overlapping upper and lower bending and pulling surfaces defining respective first and second woody material bending regions in which plant material is bent and gripped by the surfaces thereof;
• a drive for the roller assemblies for moving the upper and lower surfaces of the first roller assembly set through the first region at a first rate of speed and the upper and lower surfaces of the second roller assembly set through the second region at a second rate of speed,
• the first speed being slower than the second speed causing the plant material to be pulled from the first region to the second region by the faster moving surfaces of the second roller assembly set for stripping the woody material from the fibers as an incident of the gripping and pulling of the plant material with the first and second region upper and lower bending and pulling surfaces as they move in overlapping relation through their respective regions at different speeds;
• and
• a third roller assembly set having overlapping upper and lower bending and pulling surfaces defining a third woody material bending region through which plant material passes, the roller assembly drive moving the surfaces of the third roller assembly through the third region at a third speed that is greater than the second speed causing the bent plant material to be gripped by the slower moving surfaces of the second roller assembly set in the second region and pulled therefrom by the faster moving surfaces of the third roller assembly set in the third region for stripping the woody material from the plant fibers as an incident of the gripping and pulling of the plant material with the second and third region upper and lower bending and pulling surfaces as they move in overlapping relation through their respective regions at different speeds,
• wherein the first, second and third roller assemblies including their associated bending regions form a first plant material processing section, and there being additional processing sections identical to the first plant material processing section with plant material being successively fed to each of the processing sections.

A decorticating machine for stripping shive from flax straw, the machine comprising:

• bending assemblies defining successive bending regions with flax straw being bent in the bending regions to create areas of weakness in the shive;
• and
• at least one pulling assembly of the bending assemblies for pulling bent flax from an adjacent bending region to the bending region of said pulling assembly for stripping the weakened shive from the flax straw to leave long lengths of substantially unbroken fibers of the flax straw as output from the machine,
• wherein the bending assemblies include a first set of feed rollers, a second set of intermediate speed rollers, and a third set of high speed rollers with the flax being pulled from the feed rollers to the second set of intermediate speed rollers and from the second set of intermediate speed rollers to the third set of high speed rollers for stripping shive from the fibers, and
• the first, second and third sets of rollers form a first processing section for the flax straw, and there being additional processing sections identical to the first processing section with flax material being successively fed to each of the processing sections.