An investigation of mill feeding has identified fundamental bagasse parameters thought
to influence mill feeding. Factory trials were performed on different cane varieties, at
different levels of preparation and different juice drainage rates. Mill feeding was found
by dimensional analysis to be related to the pern1eability of the feed blanket, the shear
strength of the feed blanket and the rate of juice extraction achieved by the mill. This.
paper presents an original relationship between quantified characteristics of the feed
material and measured factory feeding performance for a two-roll mill.