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- Operation of a Air Screen Grain Cleaner
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- What is Ergot?
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New to the Industry
Posted by Sheldon Ball Mar 07, 2012
As a new employee at Flaman Sales, and a new resident to Saskatchewan, I’m excited to be starting a new career in the grain cleaning industry. With a background in the field of computer technology, I’m definitely starting from square one. Being new to the field is a little daunting, but I hope my “fresh” perspective can provide valuable insights and new ideas.
With the problem of ergot across the prairies over the last few years, there has been an ever increasing demand for efficient and effective grain cleaning. Ergot is a fungus which is toxic. It can cause infertility in humans and animals in fairly small doses and can cause a host of other health issues including death. Color sorters have been proven to be excellent tools to engage this problem with.
They are capable of removing almost all of the ergot from contaminated loads of grain. Since the tolerance level of ergot in the market (for wheat) ranges from about 0.04% to 0.01% depending on the spec, these machines are very necessary in sorting grain to a saleable product.
This is where I fit in. I have been hired as the new color sorter field technician. Basically, these machines are designed to separate “good” grain from “unwanted” grain. These machines are full of electronic, mechanical, and pneumatic components. The high flow machines are capable of sorting up to 25 tonnes of grain per hour. Flaman primarily sells two models; the Alphascan II and the Evolution. The Alphascan II is a monochromatic machine which is excellent for sorting high volumes of product with color differences in one light spectrum. These are the work horses for dealing with ergot. The Evolution is a full color sorting machine which is best utilized for sorting product with many different colored defects.
From what I’ve seen, both of these machines are phenomenal sorters and I’m excited to be a part of the industry which is providing better, cleaner products to the world’s markets. I’ll be traveling all over the prairies this year making sure these machines are in tip top shape and making their owners (our customers) money. I’m looking forward to meeting all existing customers and hopefully some new ones as well.
-Sheldon
Posted in Division News | Tagged with Grain Cleaning and Handling Colour Sorter Ergot Operation of a Air Screen Grain Cleaner
Posted by Roy Ritchie Jan 27, 2012
Operation of an Air and Screen
As the name implies, air screen machines use a combination of suction air that is drawn through the curtain of grain as it falls from the hopper onto a series of screens. The screens then size the product by width of the kernel, and a final air suction process is used.
With an air screen, the grain is fed onto the screens by either a vibrating feed system or by using a metered feed roll. In either case a feed gate controls the flow and an even flow is given to the machine. Making sure there is an even flow is critical to the quality of the job to be done.
As the grain falls from the feed system onto the screens, there is a process by which air is drawn through the curtain of grain. By doing so, light grain, chaff and dirt are drawn off the product before the grain touches the screens. The air mixed with dirt etc. is drawn into an expansion chamber where the chaff etc. separate and the heavy material is augured out. This process is the first thing that happens and it is also the last process as the grain leaves the machine. Increasing or decreasing the air volume allows the operator to decide how much product he wishes to remove.
Screens size the kernels by width. A system of screens removes any product that is wider than the kernel chosen [scalping], or narrower than the product chosen [sifting]. Screens are generally measured in 64ths of an inch, For example a 5.5 round would be a sifting screen for flax and would be 5 and ½ /64ths of an inch in diameter.
There are several types of screens available in perforated steel. Round hole, slotted hole, and triangular hole are the ones generally used for grain cleaning. There are also a variety of wire mesh screens available for special use. The type of grain dictates the type of screen.
We at Flaman have over 100 years of combined experience in screens, over 55 sizes of screen material in stock, and are dedicated to offering our customers top notch service.
This is one man’s point of view…
