CASE STUDY – COURTESY OF GRAIN JOURNAL

EDIBLE DRY BEAN SHIPPER USES PROCESS SCALE TO LOAD RAILCARS

New CompuWeigh process hopper scale is used to generate accurate rates for loading railcars at Larson Grain Co.’s dry edible bean processing plant in Englevale, ND. Photos by Ed Zdrojewski.

With  a  commodity  as  valuable  as dry edible beans, getting accurate weights is critical. But accuracy wasn’t happening at privately-held Larson Grain Co.’s bean plant in Englevale, ND   (701-683-5246).

Of Larson Grain’s six elevators around southeastern North Dakota, Englevale is the only one handling dry beans – pinto, black, and small red. The company loads dry beans onto  a single covered hopper car at a time on the Red River Valley & Western Railroad and ships them to customers throughout the United States and for export.

“We had been loading beans using an older-style mechanical hopper scale,” says General Manager Nick Shockman, who has been with Larson Grain for 12 years. “Our weights had never been 100% accurate,” he says. “We’ve had to pay for a third party or a railroad to weigh cars. If you underload a car, you have an angry customer. If you overload a car, you’re giving away free product.”

General Manager Nick Shockman with the new CompuWeigh process hopper scale.

Process Hopper Scale
The company decided to look into a means of generating accurate origin weights. “We went on the Internet and found CompuWeigh Corp., Woodbury, CT; 203-262-9400),” Shockman says. “Tim Ciucci (senior vice president of sales and marketing) came out and showed us their process hopper scale.”

Larson Grain’s employees liked what they saw and purchased the scale in fall 2016 immediately after harvest.

The pneumatically-powered scale, using air supplied by Larson Grain, is located at a warm, indoor location well away from the elements. However, Larson Grain mounted the device on caster wheels, in order to make it portable.

Dry edible beans destined for rail shipment are fed into the scale’s upper garner at a rate of 35,000 lbs. (350 cwt.) per hour. The operator utilizes a CompuWeigh DWC-400 Weight Controller to operate the machine.

A keypad allows the operator to type in customer name, order number, product, total weight, and draft weight.

Beans are deposited directly into the upper garner from a fixed overhead spout centered over the device at approximately 35,000 lbs. per hour. With a density for dry edible beans calculated at 48 lbs. per cubic foot and a 10-cubic-foot weigh hopper, each draft totals a 480 lbs.

That may seem very small by today’s high-speed grain handling capacities, but dry edible beans are relatively fragile, and customers demand strict limits on broken kernels. Larson Grain loads a single railcar at a time adjacent to the building.

After weighing, beans discharge directly onto a drag conveyor leading to a leg and spout that loads beans onto the railcar or
alternatively tote bags.

Larson Grain added a tape printer next to the unit allowing scale tickets to be printed. The setup allows weights to be
certified by an independent third party.

Shockman says that using the new process hopper scale, it takes approximately five hours to load a railcar.

Ed Zdrojewski, editor

New Terminal for New Markets

GROWMARK AFFILIATE BUILDS A LOOP TRACK SHUTTLE LOADER IN WESTERN ILLINOIS

Rushville, IL • 217-322-3306 Founded: 2008
Storage capacity: 24 million bushels at 17 locations
Annual volume: 50-60 million bushels
Number of employees: 51
Crops handled: Corn, soybeans, soft red winter wheat
Key personnel:
• Gordon Miller, general manager
• Terry Rouse, shuttle location mgr.
• Debbie Thompson, grain originato
• Brian Turner, operations lead
Supplier List
Aeration fans ………… Chief Agri Industrial Division
Aeration system …. Safe-Grain Inc.
Bin sweeps …….. Springland Mfg., Sudenga Industries Inc.
Bucket elevators …………… Union Iron Works
Bulk weigh scale …. CompuWeigh
Catwalks …. LeMar Industries Inc.
Concrete supplier ……… Mulford Concrete Inc.
Concrete tanks …. Hoffmann Inc.
Conveyors (belt) ………. Hi Roller
Conveyors (drag) …………… UIW
Distributors …………………… UIW
Dust collection system ………….. AIRLANCO
Electrical contractor ……….. KDJ Sales & Service Inc
Elevator buckets …….. Tapco Inc.
Grain dryer ………….. Zimmerman
Manlift …………………………… PMI
Millwright ……. TCR Systems Inc.
Rail construction ……. Ameritrack Railroad Contractors Inc.
Sampler …………. Gamet Mfg. Co.
Scalper ………. Baasch & Sons Inc.
Steel storage ………………….. Chief
Tower support system …… LeMar
Truck probe …… Gamet Mfg. Co.
Truck scales ….. Rice Lake Weighing Systems via Walz Scale

Western Grain Marketing LLC’s new 4.6-million bushel rail terminal north of Adair, IL, is designed to load 110-car shuttle trains on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe. Aerial photos by B&M Studio of Photography, Pekin, IL.

As with many very large projects, Western Grain Marketing LLC’s new 4.6-mil-lion-bushel rail loading terminal near Adair, IL (309-653-2650), was the result of a business study.

The study was initiated by several GROWMARK-affiliated member cooperatives in western Illinois. Their trade territory includes a productive agricultural area between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, with their primary market being the Illinois River for export

“We were seeing a lot of changes coming to our markets,” says Gordon Miller, then grain department manager for Two Rivers FS, now general manager of Western Grain Marketing. “We had a number of proposed ethanol plants being talked about at Beardstown, Griggsville, Quincy, and one actually under construction at Canton, IL that possibly would source a lot of grain from our customers. Most of those markets failed to materialize, but we continued to pursue a proactive strategy in finding new markets for our customers’ grain to make them less dependent on any one market.”

Under the circumstances, the best strategy appeared to be finding additional markets for member producers. Rail, particularly the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) could provide access to feed keting.

High-altitude view of the Western Grain Marketing property showing a 7,690-foot loop track for continuous rail loading without decoupling.

The goal was to build a rail markets in the Southwest, as well as terminal with a loop track for load-the Pacific Northwest, southern Cali-ing shuttle trains, plus handling all fornia, and Mexico. merchandising from a central office

In 2008, the grain operation of Two in Rushville (217-322-3306). Rivers FS joined with its parent, The addition of a rail terminal al-GROWMARK, and the grain depart-lows the new operation access to river, ments of two other affiliated coopera-rail, and truck-to-processor markets, tives – Riverland FS and West Cen-whatever works out the best for memtral FS – to form Western Grain Mar-ber producers.

The New Terminal

Western Grain Marketing purchased a 150-acre site near the center of its grain origination territory, at the intersection of U.S Highway 136 and State Highway 41, two miles north of Adair. The site offers access to a BNSF main line, and Miller notes that the proposed extension of the State Highway 336 four-lane between Quincy, IL and Peoria, IL will have an interchange 2-1/2 miles north of the facility.

CompuWeigh bulk weigh loadout scale is designed to load a shuttle train, under normal conditions, in less than 10 hours.
Ground level photos by Ed Zdrojewski.

LP-gas Zimmerman tower dryer has the capacity to dry 5,000 bph of grain at five points of moisture removal.

• Cross Country Construction, El-bow Lake, MN (218-770-2290), constructed the facility’s steel storage, including three huge Chief Titan 1.1-million-bushel tanks.

• Mulford Concrete, Hampton, IA (641-456-5200), constructed concrete foundations.

Construction began in the summer of 2008. The facility was expected to begin loading trains in September 2009.

Storage Mix

From left, dual enclosed mechanical receiving pits, two Hoffmann jumpform concrete tanks holding 500,000 bushels each, and between the tanks, two 20,000-bph Union Iron legs feeding two Union iron rotary distributors.

Shuttle Location Manager Terry Rouse explains that Western Grain Marketing deliberately chose a mix of concrete and steel storage. With the projected loading of 90 trains per year, concrete was the choice for short- term storage, since it would have the strength to stand up to that many turns. For long-term storage with fewer turns, cost per bushel became the determining factor, so the company went with the largest steel tanks that were practical for the site.

The two 500,000-bushel Hoffmann jumpform concrete tanks are 74 feet in diameter and 154 feet tall. These tanks have no sweep augers but are equipped with Bobcat doors for cleanout. Grain temperature is not monitored, but the tanks are aerated at 1/10 cfm per bushel with a pair of 40-hp Chicago Blower centrifugal fans per tank.

The Chief Titan corrugated steel tanks, holding 1.1 million bushels each, stand 155 feet in diameter, 53 feet tall at the eaves, and 95 feet tall at the peaks. These flat-bottom tanks are outfitted with outside stiffeners and 16-inch Springland sweep augers. These also are aerated at 1/10 cfm per bushel, with six 20-hp Caldwell centrifugal fans per tank.

Grain Handling Incoming truckers stop at a kiosk about 300 feet ahead of the scale to untarp and enter their truck information using an RFID tag reader. Following that, truckloads are sampled with a Gamet Apollo truck probe. While the sample is tested, the truck is weighed on an inbound 70foot pitless Rice Lake scale from Walz Scale located adjacent to the office building.

After weighing, the driver proceeds to one of two side-by-side enclosed 1,000-bushel mechanical receiving pits. After dumping the load, the driver pulls onto an outbound scale and receives a scale ticket from a cab-high printer located next to the scale.

The pits feed a pair of 20,000-bph Union Iron legs, which are outfitted with 20×8 Tapco CCHD heavy-duty buckets mounted on 22inch belts from All-States Industries.

Each leg feeds a Union Iron eight-hole, 360-degree, double-inlet rotary distributor, which provides flexibility for each leg to deliver grain to either concrete storage, steel storage, loadout, or the drying complex. The operator has the option of running grain through a 40,000-bph Intersystems gravity cleaner.Then, overhead 35,000-bph Union Iron drag conveyors carry grain to its destination around the facility.

The steel tanks empty onto below-ground 20,000-bph Hi Roller enclosed belt conveyors, which in turn, feed another 20,000-bph Hi Roller belt running back to the receiving pit area. From there, grain can be routed back into one of the receiving legs or a 50,000-bph Union Iron loadout leg.

The concrete tanks empty onto 50,000-bph Hi Roller belt conveyors that provide the same options for routing grain

From left, dual enclosed mechanical receiving pits, two Hoffmann jumpform concrete tanks holding 500,000 bushels each, and between the tanks, two 20,000-bph Union Iron legs feeding two Union iron rotary distributors.

The loadout leg is outfitted with three rows of 18×8 Tapco CCHD heavy-duty buckets on a 60-inch belt. This leg also has twin 200-hp WEG motors with Dodge drives, allowing the leg to continue operating at reduced speed, if one of the motors is down for maintenance or repair. Train loading is accomplished with a 50,000-bph CompuWeigh bulk weigh loadout scale under the control of that company’s fully-automated GMS-SMART controls and RFID rail- car system. The bulkweigher also has a Gamet sampler for origin grades. The operator can run grain through a Baasch & Sons scalper prior to loadout to meet end user specifications. When completed, the loadout area will have a TCR Systems trol-ley-type lanyard system running approximately five railcar lengths.

Dryer Complex

Wet grain can be routed to a 55-foot-diameter, 170,000-bushel Chief wet tank adjacent to an LP-fired 5,000-bph Zimmerman tower dryer. One of the two concrete tanks also can double as a wet tank.

The dryer is served by 20,000-bph Union Iron wet and dry legs, which provides enough capacity to add a second dryer, if needed.

Rouse says one person can operate the entire elevator from one of three locations – adjacent to the receiving pits, the loadout shed, and the main office.

Ed Zdrojewski, editor

POWDER/BULK SOLIDS

Technical Feature
In-Process Weigh Scale Yields Efficiency, Safety, Information Gains

Background

15 Tonne/Hr. In-Process Scale Installation

Two global leaders in the production of plastic products wished to increase the efficiency and safety of their operations in the plastic regrind area, and to increase the amount and timeliness of information available to them on the overall process yield. The manufacturers are suppliers of some 14,000 consumer, institutional and industrial products, including trash bags, food bags and wrap, poly-sheeting and specialty products.

For the past 5 years, these companies have selected CompuWeigh Corporation of Woodbury, Connecticut, USA as the exclusive supplier of all bulk scales for their in-process weighing applications.

Description of Problem
The companies experienced similar difficulties in efficiency, safety, and information collection.

Efficiency
Efficiency suffered, because at each facility a dedicated operator was required to:

• Monitor the filling of drums (approximately 50 Kg. each) from the single-screw regrind extruder. These drums would fill at varying rates, requiring from 5 to approximately 20 minutes to fill, the operator was therefore required to be on-station and attentive at all times. Once a drum filled with extrudate, the operator would:
• Manually lift the drums onto a forklift truck
• Drive the forklift truck carrying the filled drum to a larger “gaylord” of approximately 500 Kg. capacity, and dump the drum. When the gaylord was filled to capacity, the operator would:
• Move the filled gaylords by forklift to a platform scale for weighing, then finally
• Move the filled gaylords yet again from the platform scale to large collection bins where the polymer was stored for later processing.

The expense of the dedicated operator to move the filled drums, and the potential for injury to the operator were considered unacceptably high.

Safety
Safety was a problem, as forklift trucks were required to move the drums and gaylords over long distances. Since the drums would sometimes fill as frequently as every five minutes, forklift traffic was found to be a significant hazard. Also, the potential for injury to the operator was high, as this labor-intensive procedure would sometimes cause back injuries as the operators manipulated the filled drums on and off the forklifts.

Weigh Hopper with Covered Removed

Information

Finally, because the forklift operators were forced to wait for a full gaylord before moving and weighing, yield information was available only when the filled gaylord was moved to the platform scale. Since the operators had to wait at least 45 minutes, and sometimes several hours, between weighing the filled gaylords, the lag in yield information feedback was unacceptable.
In addition to improvements to the procedures described above, the companies were also searching for a simple solution to monitor inventory levels without stopping operation, and without relying on bin level controls, which monitor inventory by level, not by weigh. If a product could be found which addressed all these needs at once, so much the better.

Search for a Solution

Of prime concern was the desire to reduce the amount of operator involvement and to increase the overall safety of the process by eliminating the need for filled drums altogether. Of secondary concern was monitoring inventory levels by weight (to calculate yields) in “real-time”.

The companies researched a number of possible solutions to the weighing problem including installation of load cells on collection bins, drum scales, forklift scales, and platform scales. These approaches were considered and rejected for one or more of the following reasons:

• High purchase price or installation cost
• Continued inefficiency
• Unacceptable safety
• Unacceptable accuracy
• Inventory not well tracked
• High ongoing maintenance costs

The Solution

The Process Hopper Scale and Scale Controller from CompuWeigh was found to offer the best combination of high accuracy (0.1% by weight), short cycle time, high throughput, low price, easy installation, near-zero maintenance requirements, and immediate access to data.

CompuWeigh‘s Process Hopper Scales are low-cost, self-contained scales designed to handle a range of dry bulk-materials. With short cycle times, the scale allows high throughput (from 0.5 – 90 TPH) while maintaining 0.1% accuracy. Gates and weigh hoppers are fabricated of stainless steel. The stand-alone scale is shipped fully assembled, wired, piped and pre-tested. Installation at the plant site involves connecting 115/230 VAC power and a 90PSI (630 KPa) air supply. The low-profile design (weigh hopper height is 2.5 ft. (0.7 m) – 3.5 ft (1.0 m)) and small footprint allows easy installation, typically accomplished in one 8-hour shift.

Results

In-Process scale including Upper Garner, Weigh Hopper, Lower Garner

The scales have been in place for as long as 5 years, operating from 16 to 24 hours per day. Both producers are as well satisfied with the improvements in efficiency and labor costs, and improved safety. Back injures and forklift traffic have been cut dramatically, as there is no longer a need to roll, lift, or transport filled drums – they’ve been eliminated from the process flow. The producers estimate savings in excess of US $20,000 per scale per year. As a side benefit, they are now able to monitor regrind inventory on an ongoing basis. One of the producers is also discussing complete facility automation with CompuWeigh, including inventory, temperature level monitoring, gate proportioning and man-machine interface.

CompuWeigh Corporation is the largest producer of bulk weighing scale controllers in the United States, manufacturing “legal-for-trade” computerized bulk weighing equipment since 1978. Accuracy of 0.1% by weight is standard. Scale fabrication is available, with capacities ranging from 0.5 tonnes/hour to 90 tonnes/hour for in-process applications to over 3000 tonnes/hour for receiving and load-out applications of bulk and powdered materials including grains, plastics, flour, coffee beans, edible oils, rice, chemicals and others.

Mini Bulk Weigher

Continuous Weighing Key to Soybean Processing Operation

Grain elevator managers are thoroughly familiar with the concept of bulk weigh loadout scales. These devices provide origin weights through a continuous weighing process as grain is loaded into a truck, railcar, barge, or ship hold at volumes of 40,000 bph or more.

The same principle holds, although on a smaller scale, when you take grain and oilseeds to the next step beyond the elevator, to processing. Many grain and oilseed processing operation rely on continuous weighing for the control of the entire process downstream.

That certainly was the case for American Soy Products in Saline, MI (313-429-2910), which uses approximately 3,000 bushels per week of locally-grown, certified organic soybeans to produce a variety of soybean-based beverages, including soy milk.

Continuous weighing works into the system after soybeans are cleaned and before they continue on to a proprietary grinding and decanting process, says Jim Fox, vice president – operations for American Soy. “We weigh soybeans in 55-lb. increments on the in-process scale, and our in-plant computerized automation system uses the data to track soybean usage and yields,” he says.

Expanded Capacity
American Soy had an opportunity to upgrade its in-process scales, when the company added a second production line, doubling its capacity. The new line would need a scale, while the scale on the original line required frequent maintenance and emitted an unacceptable amount of dust.

On the advice of the contractor installing the new production line, Fox contracted CompuWeigh Corp., Woodbury, CT (203-262-9400), a supplier of in-process scale systems to the grain industry. American Soy ordered a pair of in-process scales, each with a capacity of roughly 60 tph, for the two production lines. The two scales interface with American Soy’s in-house PLC Controls.

At the start of a weighing cycle, the feed gate is opened on command by a stainless steel pneumatic cylinder. The soybeans fill the weigh hopper to a preset amount, and the feed gate closes. The weight of the soybeans in the weigh hopper is recorded and stored in computer memory, and the weight hopper gate opens. The soybeans are discharged, and the weigh hopper gate closes. The empty or tare weight of the weigh hopper is recorded, and the weigh cycle repeats.

The manufacturer notes that the process hopper scale offers accuracy to within 0.1% and is NTEP – approved. The weigh hopper and gates are fabricated from stainless steel, while the housing and access doors are fabricated from 12-gauge mild steel. The feed gate has a manually adjusted flow limiter, so it can be set to help regulate the flow rate of soybeans downstream in the process as needed.

“The scales have been real reliable, and they’re maintenance-free,” reports Fox. “They’re very attractive, clean units. They’re totally enclosed, which means there’s less dust. And there are no slide gates or external cylinders, which could be hazardous to workers.”