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CASE STUDY – COURTESY OF GRAIN JOURNAL

Automated Delivery

OHIO COOPERATIVE ADDS COMPUWEIGH SYSTEM ALONG WITH SECOND TRUCK SCALE

Shortly after Sunrise Cooperative in 2016 acquired a 2.5-million-bushel elevator and rail terminal in Sidney, OH (937-492-5254), its managers did what many do after adding an existing elevator to its roster. The coop decided to add a second truck scale, a 72-foot Brechbuhler pit-type model, to separate inbound and outbound traffic.

Sunrise didn’t stop there, though. Along with the new scale serving inbound traffic, the coop decided to automate the entire grain receiving operation with a SmartTruck system from CompuWeigh Corp., Woodbury, CT (203-262-9400).

“This is something Sunrise has installed at other locations, including Clyde, Crestline, and Clarksfield (all Ohio),” says Location Manager Ethan Swepston, adding that he personally became familiar with SmartTruck at a previous position with Cargill in Indiana.  “Receiving had been our biggest choke point, when we acquired the elevator.”

During the installation in the summer of 2016, CompuWeigh sent out Vice President-Sales Kevin Dooley.  He did a site survey and figured out the best traffic flow for trucks. Then he oversaw the system setup, formatting a variety of color-coded computer screens designed for ease of use, and undertook employee training, a process that took about a week.

Area Energy & Electric, Sidney (937-498-4784), served as electrical contractor during the project. Everything was completed and SmartTruck up and running by the 2016 harvest.

The System
Today, incoming trucks are probed with a new InterSystems truck probe, then proceed to the new inbound scale for weighing.

After the sample is weighed, moisture-tested, and graded, the SmartTruck system’s SmartChoice feature determines where to send the load, and its SmartView digital display board directs the driver to one of three receiving pits.

After the load is deposited into the correct receiving pit, the driver returns to the facility’s older scale, now serving as an outbound scale, for tare weight.

A CompuWeigh printer adjacent to the outbound scale provides the driver with a scale ticket. During the entire process, the driver does not need to leave the truck and can return to the field as quickly as possible.

When Grain Journal visited the site in late October 2017, Swepston reported that the SmartTruck system continues to perform well during its second harvest.  Both employees and producers are
pleased with its performance.

“It’s easy in and out of the elevator, with less climbing in and out of the truck,” he says. “That means customers can spend more time in the field. Reduced processing time at the elevator helps get
them through the line more quickly.”

Sunrise reports that during the 2017 harvest to that point, drivers averaged 6.4 minutes from entering the property to leaving it.

Ed Zdrojewski, editor

CASE STUDY – COURTESY OF GRAIN JOURNAL

Railyard Opportunity

OHIO GRAIN HANDLER USES SITE FOR LOADING CONTAINERS, RAILCARS

One last overhead drag conveyor remained to be installed at the new Deerfield Ag Services rail terminal in Massillon, OH (330-584-4715), when Grain Journal visited in early November. But the elevator was already in operation, receiving grain and loading and shipping out containers (TEUs – 40-foot-equivalent units) of soybeans.

“We’ve loaded about 100 to 120 containers through our bulk weigh scale,” says Chief Operating Officer Nate Russo. “So far, it’s just been commercial soybeans, but we plan to load other  commodities, as well, including specialty items like soymeal and distillers grains. Mostly, they’re for export, but some will go to the southeastern states.”

Until recently, a rail terminal hadn’t been in Deerfield Ag’s near-term plans, but the opportunity arose at a 400-acre industrial site near State Highway 21 at Oberlin Avenue.

The location was the site of a huge steel mill operated by Republic Steel. That mill was shuttered around 2007 and torn down (although Republic Steel still has steel bar manufacturing operations elsewhere in Massillon). The property owner, RSL (Republic Short Line) Inc., still operates a short-line railroad that served the old mill and has been developing the property into an industrial park with rail connections to the Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation railroads.

“They’ll be doing all of our rail movement for us,” Russo says.

Building the Elevator
Gearing up to build a rail terminal was a natural for Deerfield Ag Services.  In addition to operating grain elevators, the company has its own construction division and is a dealer for GSI and Brock equipment. At Massillon, Deerfield Ag was its own general contractor and also did all of the engineering and most of the millwright work.

Also working on the project, M&M Builders, Inc., Bessemer, AL (205-428-7325), constructed the steel tanks, and Graff Electric, Toledo, OH (419-472-7800), was the electrical contractor.

CompuWeigh Corp., Woodbury, CT (203-262-9400), automated the entire facility, including a SmartTruck scale automation and truck routing system, and supplied a 50,000-bph bulkweigher

with CD-4000 automation controls.

Construction on the 520,000-bushel terminal began early in 2017 and was just finishing up in November 2017.

Facility Specs
Grain storage consists of two Brock flat-bottom and two Brock hopper tanks, one each for wet grain and grain ready for shipping.

The flat-bottom tanks stand 60 feet in diameter, 88 feet tall at the eaves, and 104 feet tall at the peaks and hold 222,000 bushels each. They are equipped with outside stiffeners, GSI X-Series zero-entry sweep augers, and BinMaster laser-type level monitors, but no grain temperature systems. A pair of Brock 10-hp centrifugal fans provide 1/7 cfm per bushel of aeration through in-floor ducting in a double-H pattern.

The hopper tanks, holding 40,000 bushels each, stand 30 feet in diameter, 76 feet tall at the eaves, 84 feet tall at the peaks, and 40-degree steel hoppers.

Steve Ramseyer, western region grain manager, notes that these tanks are engineered to handle difficult materials such as distillers grains or soy meal, though they’ve handled primarily soybeans so far.

Incoming trucks are routed to a Gamet Apollo truck probe, where they are sampled and the grain delivered to a dickey-JOHN GAC2500 moisture meter in an adjacent two-story scalehouse for testing. From there, they continue onto a 72-foor Brechbuhler pit-type inbound scale for weighing. Trucks continue to a 1,000-bushel mechanical receiving pit to deposit grain, then move on to a second Brechbuhler outbound scale for tare weight and automatically printed scale ticket.

A 20,000-bph GSI drag conveyor carries grain beneath a driveway to a 174-foot-tall 25,000-bph GSI leg equipped with two rows of Maxi-Lift TIGER-TUFF orange 14×8 buckets mounted on a 30-inch belt.

The leg lifts grain to a seven-hole InterSystems SwingFlow triple distributor.

The distributor sends grain to storage via gravity spout into the hopper tanks or 20,000-bph GSI overhead drag conveyors to the flat-bottom tanks.  The storage tanks empty grain onto a series of GSI 20,000-bph reclaim conveyors running back to the receiving leg and distributor.

One distributor outlet sends the grain via 50,000-bph overhead GSI enclosed belt conveyor to a 50,000-bph CompuWeigh bulkweigher with a CD-4000 controller. There is no cleaner atop the bulkweigher, though there is space to add one if needed, but the bulkweigher spout is equipped with a Gamet sampler for grain inspection. The bulk weigh scale so far has been used to load containers via a portable auger. The ability to generate accurate origin weights helps with this process, since the containers must be loaded to within 500 pounds of maximum rated capacity.

Russo says the facility is expected to begin loading unit trains on the NS and CSX early in 2018. He adds that the current facility is only the beginning in Massillon. The site has enough space to build up to 4 million bushels worth of steel storage.

Ed Zdrojewski, editor

CASE STUDY – COURTESY OF GRAIN JOURNAL

Reaching More Destinations

MFA OPENS NEW RAIL TERMINAL ON UNION PACIFIC, MAJOR FOUR-LANE HIGHWAYS

Prior to the opening of MFA’s new rail terminal five miles east of Hamilton, MO in June (816-465-4000), producers in north central and northwest Missouri delivered grain mainly to local markets or terminal elevators in the Kansas City area.

Located on a north-south Union Pacific (UP) main line, the new terminal, with more than 2 million bushels of upright storage and another 1.5 million bushels of temporary storage, offers producers access to markets across the U.S. southwest and Mexico, as well as export terminals on the Gulf Coast.

In addition, producers throughout the region are benefiting from the terminal’s location on four-lane U.S. Highway 36 not far from Interstate 35.

The MFA Hamilton Rail Facility, a joint venture between MFA Inc., a grain handling and farm supply cooperative, and MFA Oil Co., a farmer-owned energy supply cooperative, also includes a 14,000-foot loop track for loading 110-car shuttles, 60,000 bph in receiving capacity, 50,000 bph in loadout capacity, and 4,750 bph of drying capacity.

“Our new Hamilton shuttle loader positions us to hit new markets that were not economically feasible before due to freight costs and volume shipment requirements,” Mitch Dawson, MFA Inc. director of grain operations, during a facility open house June 20-21. “It shows that MFA is in the grain business for the long haul.”

Added Adam McIntyre, regional manager for MFA locations in the area, “There is a lot of grain produced in north central and northwest Missouri, and harvest is a critical time for farmers. During high-volume periods, we can move grain from smaller elevators to the shuttle loader to keep local storage capacity available.”

The Project
Construction on the Hamilton terminal broke ground in May 2016.  After taking bids, MFA awarded the construction contract for an undisclosed sum to Quad County Ag Service, Paton, IA (515-968-4180), which served both as general contractor and as millwright. Terminal Manager David Jones, who joined MFA a year ago from Cargill, commented that with the constant loading and unloading of grain, concrete would hold up to the stress better than steel.

The four jumpform concrete grain storage silos on site were constructed by Hoffmann Inc., Muscatine, IA (563-263-4733). It wasn’t the easiest ground on which to build – before construction on the silos began, a total of 172 concrete piers 36 inches in diameter were socketed 50 inches deep into the rock.

Hoffmann used a total of 8,000 cubic yards of concrete and 2 million pounds of steel rebar on the silos.

Capital Rail Contracting, Inc., Columbia, MO (573-474-3588), built more than 14,000 feet of track for the facility, enough space on the main loop for three engines and 114 jumbo covered hopper cars. A total of 684,000 cubic yards of material had to be moved to build the track to UP standards, with the deepest cut 42 feet.

Grain Storage
Most of the grain storage on site is in four Hoffmann jumpform concrete silos. Three of the four silos, holding 550,000 bushels each, are dedicated to dry grain ready to ship. They stand 80 feet in diameter and 128 feet tall. Each jumpform silo is outfitted with flat floors, sidedraw spouts, Daay paddle sweeps, 14-cable Tri-States Grain Conditioning grain temperature monitoring systems, and BinMaster level indicators.

A total of eight Caldwell 40-hp aeration fans per tank supply 1/5 cfm per bushel of aeration through flush-floor grating.

The other Hoffmann concrete silo is dedicated to wet grain. It stands 60 feet in diameter and 128 feet tall, holding 316,000 bushels. Otherwise, it is outfitted similarly to the dry silos.

The facility also includes three 30,000-bushel Chief screenings tanks. They are 30 feet in diameter with 48-foot sidewalls and hopper bottoms.

The center air tower ground pile, custom built by Quad County Ag Service is 320 feet in diameter, with 4-foot sidewalls, four 60-hp Caldwell centrifugal fans on an Allstate tower, and lime floor. It is filled directly from a gravity spout in the main elevator or from a 40,000-bph Hi Roller enclosed belt conveyor from dry tank No. 3. It is emptied using front-end loaders and a portable auger.

Grain Routing

Incoming grain trucks are routed through the facility using an automated CompuWeigh SmartTruck system complete with RF tag readers providing the identity of individual trucks.

After being sampled with a Gamet Apollo truck probe, drivers continue onto a 12-foot-x-80-foot inbound Rice Lake Survivor pitless truck scale for weighing. Then the SmartTruck system routes them to one of two 1,500-bushel mechamical receiving pits. After depositing their loads, drivers continue to another 12-x-80-foot outbound scale for tare weight and scale tickets from an adjacent printer.

Adjacent to the receiving pits, the facility is serviced by an AIRLANCO Series 45 Model 420RLP12 reverse low pressure dust collector designed to handle 46,800 cfm of grain dust.

The pits feed a pair of Schlagel 30,000-bph receiving legs outfitted with a single row of Maxi-Lift 28×10 Tiger-CC Orange elevator buckets mounted on a 30-inch Goodyear belt.

The legs deposit grain into a Schlagel 12-hole double rotary distributor with 30-inch spouts. From there, 60,000-bph overhead Hi Roller Hi Life enclosed belt conveyors carry grain out to storage.
Dry storage Hoffmann concrete silos are emptied onto above-ground 60,000-bph Hi Life belts via a combination of sidedraws and silo augers. These run to a 60,000-bph Schlagel shipping leg equipped with two rows of Maxi-Lift 24×10 Tiger-CC Orange elevator buckets on a 50-inch Goodyear belt.

The operator has the option of running grain through a 40,000-bph InterSystems gravity screener before it is deposited into a CompuWeigh 60,000-bph bulkweigher run by a CD4000 automated controller.

Workers atop railcars during rail loading operations are protected by a 360-foot trolley-type unit from Fall Protection Systems. The entire system can load 110-car trains in eight hours or less.  The facility also includes a propane-fired Zimmerman tower dryer rated at 4,750-bph at five points of moisture removal. MFA Oil supplies propane to the Hamilton site.

Ed Zdrojewski, editor

CASE STUDY – COURTESY OF GRAIN JOURNAL

GRAIN HANDLER CONTROLS TRAFFIC TO THREE RECEIVING PITS AROUND TOWN

If your goal is to increase truck receiving throughput at your grain elevator, one way to do it is to run more trucks through your receiving system faster.

That was a challenge, however, at Finley Farmers Grain & Elevator Co. in Finley, ND  (701-524-1500).  The 300-member cooperative operates three separate elevators in the town of 445 – the “office elevator” at 503 Broadway, the so-called “dryer elevator” immediately south of the office elevator, and “north elevator” about a mile to the north on Broadway.

Each elevator had its own dump-through truck scale. With trucks going every which way through town and employees scrambling to keep up with weights, grades, and scale tickets at three locations, it was a recipe for near-chaos.

Order from Chaos

General Manager Todd Erickson came to Finley Farmers in 2015 and had some ideas on what it might take to improve the situation in town. Prior to that, Erickson worked as a certified public accountant for 30 years strictly with grain elevator clients, where he saw a lot of things that worked or didn’t work.

At Finley Farmers, he turned to CompuWeigh Corp., Woodbury, CT (203-262-9400), to plan a solution. “In my accounting practice, I saw a lot of what CompuWeigh was putting in. They had a card reader that could read cards clipped on a truck’s visor – I liked that a lot.”

Together, they designed a citywide truck routing system revolving around CompuWeigh’s SmartChoice software module.

Finley Farmers purchased land about a quarter mile south of the dryer elevator along State Highway 32 and hired Verwest Contracting, Argusville, ND (701-524-1500), to construct a two-story truck receiving building, with an adjacent InterSystems probe and 120-foot Rice Lake pitless truck scale.

All incoming trucks are routed to the new probe house, where a CompuWeigh SmartTruck RFID card reader, SmartTalk intercom, and SmartView message board begin the transaction.

 

After commodity weights and grades are determined, SmartChoice automatically compares the commodity and grade against current pit rules, and the SmartTruck system at the new inbound scale automatically routes the truck to one of the receiving pits or to a new temporary storage complex east of town. As each truck arrives at the assigned dump pit, the elevator attendant can view the commodity, grade factors on a CompuWeigh Dump Pit Workstation and route the grain to the correct bin.

After unloading the grain, the driver then proceeds to a new Rice Lake 120-foot pitless outbound scale located at the far north end of town. This scale also is equipped with a SmartTalk RFID card reader which automatically identifies the truck and prints a ticket on the OTP-4700 Outdoor Ticket Printer.

“We started up the new system with dry bean harvest and had everything fully integrated by Oct. 7,” Erickson says. “CompuWeigh had a team out here for two weeks to train our personnel. The farmers were very patient, while we got everything up to speed.”

Ed Zdrojewski, editor

 Site Before Truck Routing Automation

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 Site After CompuWeigh SmartTruck System

CASE STUDY – COURTESY OF GRAIN JOURNAL

EDIBLE DRY BEAN SHIPPER USES PROCESS SCALE TO LOAD RAILCARS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.”

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

CASE STUDY – COURTESY OF GRAIN JOURNAL

NORTH DAKOTA GRAIN HANDLER’S NEW FACILITY IS ITS THIRD RAIL-LOADER

Since 110-car-loading grain terminals began being built in earnest in the 1990s in North Dakota, a common rule of thumb for grain handlers is that the heavilyfarmed state could produce enough crops to support a rail terminal every 20 miles in every direction.

One of the gaps in coverage across the state was near Pillsbury, ND, about 60 miles northwest of Fargo. The Arthur Companies, a family owned grain operation currently celebrating its 110th year in business opened a 2-millionbushel, all-steel terminal there (701-945-9503), along a Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) main line, in 2016.

“There was space for it,” says Terminal Manager Justin Knott, who has spent his career with the company. “It’s our third rail-loading location. We also operate a terminal at Ayr on the BNSF and at Harvey on the Canadian Pacific.”

In addition to the terminal elevator, the site includes a 10,000-ton fertilizer plant and an 11,000-foot loop track.

To build the entire $XX million project, Arthur Companies selected EEE Inc., Page, ND (701-668-2258), as general contractor and millwright. Knott comments that EEE has been the company’s sole general contractor for many years, and “they have a good track record with us.”

Also having roles on the project:

• W Design Associates, McCook, NE (308-345-2370), performed design and engineering work on the terminal.

• Hope Electric, Hope, ND (701945-2460), served as electrical contractor and supplied PC-based control systems.

• CompuWeigh Corp., Woodbury, CT (203-262-9400), provided a SmartTruck system for moving truck traffic through the site and a GMS system for controlling the bulk weigh loadout system for rail. Knott says the Pillsbury site is the first to receive a server-based control system from CompuWeigh, which allows the entire system to be operated from any of the supplier’s workstation around the terminal. “Before, if one part of the system went down, say an inbound scale, the entire system shut down.”

• R&R Contracting, Grand Forks, ND (701-772-7667), built the loop track. According to Knott, it’s the first loop track at a grain facility in North Dakota to utilize high-carbon steel ties. “This type of track requires less ballast, and gauge problems are eliminated, because the tie is stapled directly to the rail,” he says.

The fertilizer plant was the first part of the facility to be built, with construction starting in August 2014 and finished in March 2015. That month, work began on the grain elevator, which went operational in May 2016.

Two Rows of Tanks

Storage at Pillsbury consists of two east-west rows of steel tanks: six GSI 72-foot-diameter flat-bottom corrugated steel tanks holding 360,000 bushels of dry grain each, and six GSI 21,000-bushel hopper tanks for wet storage or segregation.

The big tanks stand 80 feet tall at the eaves and come equipped with outside stiffeners, 12-inch GSI X-Series sweep augers, 12-cable Rolfes@Boone grain temperature monitoring systems, and Monitor Technologies radar-type level indicators. A pair of 50-hp GSI centrifugal fans provide 1/10 cfm per bushel of aeration through in-floor ducting.

The hopper tanks stand 24 feet in diameter and 62 feet tall at the eaves, with 45-degree steel hoppers. Because they are intended for short-term storage, they each are equipped with 10-hp GSI axial fans but no grain temperature monitoring.

One-Way Routing

Truck traffic through the facility is routed on a single one-way path for fast receiving and to avoid truck lines as much as possible utilizing CompuWeigh’s SmartTruck RFID system.

Incoming trucks are routed past an InterSystems truck probe adjacent to the office building, then onto a 110-foot Rice Lake pit-type scale. After being weighed in automatically based on that truck’s unique RFID tag, a CompuWeigh SmartView digital display automatically routes drivers to one of two 800-bushel enclosed mechanical receiving pits based on the commodity and grade factor requirements saved in the CompuWeigh system.

After depositing their grain, drivers continue onto another 110-foot Rice Lake outbound scale with a CompuWeigh OTP-4700 outdoor ticket printer to provide scale receipts.

The receiving pits feed a pair of GSI 30,000-bph legs with two rows each of 20×11 Maxi-Lift HD buckets mounted on 44-inch Goodyear belts. These legs are enclosed in a Warrior 20-foot-x-60-foot-x-180 foot main receiving tower, along with the loadout leg.

The legs deposit grain into an eight-duct Schlagel rotary double distributor. From there, grain travels via a series of 30,000-bph GSI drag conveyors out to storage. Two of the three drag conveyors are supported on a 240-foot, 11-foot-wide Warrior box bridge; the other by a 240-foot, 7-foot-wide handrail truss. A 200foot, 6-foot-wide Warrior catwalk supports the drag conveyor over the row of hopper tanks.

The hopper tanks empty onto an above-ground 30,000-bph GSI drag, while the big tanks empty onto 60,000bph GSI enclosed belt conveyors. All lead to a 60,000-bph GSI loadout leg equipped with three rows of 20×11 Maxi-Lift HD buckets on a 64-inch Goodyear belt.

Prior to loadout, the operator has the option of running grain through one of two InterSystems gravity screeners, one rated at 35,000 bph and the other at 50,000 bph.

Rail loading is handled by an 80,000-bph Warrior bulkweigher fully integrated with a support structure, hydraulic spout, control room, Gamet sampler, and a CompuWeigh GMS failsafe control system. Workers atop railcars are protected by a 500-foot trolley-type fall protection system fabricated by Warrior. Knott says 110-car shuttle trains have been loaded as quickly as eight hours.

Additional Equipment

The facility also includes a 7,000bph propane-fired Zimmerman grain dryer. Propane is run through a heavyduty vaporizer before being introduced to the burners. The dryer is fed by a 15,000-bph GSI wet leg supported by a Warrior 12-foot-x-12-foot-x-140-foot support tower.

The entire property is lit by energy efficient LED lights.

Ed Zdrojewski, editor

CASE STUDY – COURTESY OF GRAIN JOURNAL

TENNESSEE RAIL TERMINAL HANDLES SKYROCKETING GRAIN PRODUCTION

In the last decade, grain production has increased gradually across the MidSouth, as cotton acres have been on the decline.

In 2012, The Andersons Inc. acquired a group of five grain elevators located across western Tennessee. A combination of larger, more efficient harvesting equipment and increasing production made it hard for The Andersons’ Trenton, TN facility (731-855-3971) to keep pace. The 2.5-million-bushel Trenton facility is landlocked in town sandwiched between the town and wetlands with minimal space for growth. The facility also needed a number of upgrades.

“After a lengthy evaluation process, we decided to go outside of town and start a new site that provides room for future growth,” says Alan Vanasdale, The Andersons Tennessee area manager. “We looked at approximately 10 different sites across the area and realized the best opportunity was to be centered near Trenton.”

The new facility at Humboldt, TN (731-784-3212) is located seven miles south of Trenton and four miles north of Humboldt. The Trenton facility will remain in operation and work in conjucntion with the new 2.9-million-bushel steel rail terminal at Humboldt, which went into operation in June 2016. Vanasdale comments that the new location was ideal for an elevator, with quick access to the four-lane U.S. Highway 45W.

This location also is served by the West Tennessee Railroad (WTNN), the same short-line that serves the Trenton facility.
Brock tower dryer is fired by natural gas and rated at 4,700 bph at five points of moisture removal.

The Andersons loads unit trains on the WTNN, with connections to the CSX, Norfolk Southern, Kansas City Southern, and Canadian National Class I railroads.

To construct the facility, The Andersons hired Custom Agri Builders, LLC, Washington, IN (812-257-1115), as general contractor and millwright on the project. The contractor’s sister operation, Custom Agri Systems Inc., Napoleon, OH (419-599-5180), provided electrical and automation systems on the project. Both divisions are veterans of a variety of projects for The Andersons in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. Site work was performed by Delta Contracting Co., LLC, Humboldt (731-784-3053).

In addition, ASM Engineering & Consultants LLC, Andover, KS (316260-5895), performed engineering work on the project.

Construction on the elevator began in August 2015. The project was budgeted at $20 million, but the final figure will not be known before September.

Extra Sturdy Storage

The terminal consists of seven Brock corrugated steel tanks – four large 690,000-bushel long-term tanks, a 100,000-bushel wet tank, and two 20,000-bushel hopper tanks, one for screenings and one for general blending. Vanasdale notes that the big tanks had to be designed for seismic events due to western Tennessee’s proximity to the potentially volatile New Madrid fault directly across the Mississippi River. “We were limited to 32 rings tall, although we would have preferred to go up 35 rings,” he says.

As it is, the four big tanks are plenty large enough standing 105 feet in diameter, 86-1/2 feet tall at the eaves, and 114 feet tall the the peaks. They have flat concrete floors, outside stiffeners, 10-foot-x-10-foot Bobcat doors to admit skid steer loaders for unloading, and 24-cable OPI-Integris digital temperature monitoring systems.

A set of four Brock 50-hp centrifugal fans provide aeration through in-floor ducting in a quad-F pattern.

The wet tank stands 48 feet in diameter and 64 feet tall at the eaves. It is outfitted with outside stiffeners, an OPI-Integris digital grain temperature monitoring system, a Daay bin paddle sweep, and a pair of Brock 15-hp centrifugal fans providing aeration.

Grain Routing

Incoming grain arriving by truck is routed onto a single Rice Lake 70-foot inbound/outbound pitless scale adjacent to a single-story office building containing a grain laboratory. An InterSystems probe adjacent to the scale samples trucks.

From there, trucks are routed to one of two enclosed 900-bushel mechanical pits. A third pit handles trucks or railcars.

The pits feed a pair of InterSystems 20,000-bph legs equipped with 20×8 Tapco CC-HD buckets mounted on 22-inch belts.

The legs empty into six-duct Hayes & Stolz rotary distributors, which in turn, send grain via 20,000-bph overhead InterSystems drag conveyors out to storage.

The big tanks empty onto a series of Hi Roller enclosed belt conveyors in below-ground tunnels. These run back to the receiving legs.

The wet tanks empty into an InterSystems reclaim drag conveyor that feeds multiple InterSystems legs to take the grain to the desired location. The wet bins also can feed a 4,700-bph, natural gas-fired Brock tower dryer.

The dryer, in turn, empties into an InterSystems reclaim drag conveyor and feeds into an InterSystems dry leg. Other than some test firings, the dryer has not yet seen use.

The two receiving legs and the dry leg also can be used simultaneously to send grain out to rail loadout via an overhead Hi Roller enclosed belt conveyor.

Automation equipment for the PLC system is by Allen-Bradley

Railcars are loaded with a bulk weigh loadout scale and automation system. Workers atop railcars during train loading operations attach harnesses to a Fall Protection Systems trolley unit running the length of three to four railcars.

Ed Zdrojewski, editor

CASE STUDY – COURTESY OF GRAIN JOURNAL

ILLINOIS RAIL LOADER TAKES THE GUESSWORK OUT OF ORIGIN WEIGHTS

Farmers Grain Co. of Central Illinois in the village of Chestnut isn’t the largest rail loader on the Canadian National (CN/formerly Illinois Central) system. The 3.9-million-bushel elevator situated between State Highway 54 and a CN branch line has enough rail siding available to load up to 25 covered hopper cars at a time.

Nevertheless, improvements could be made, even at a relatively small rail operation. The biggest improvement sought at Chestnut was accurate weights on railcars headed for major livestock feeders in the southwestern states.

“It was all guesswork,” says General Manager Ryan Edwards. “We had some idea of the weight we were putting on railcars headed south, but just in the first half of 2015, we were hit twice with penalties for overloads at the CN pull-over in Centreville (IL). We didn’t have any underloads, but you get penalized for those, too. We didn’t want to do that again.”

The solution was to install a bulk weigh loadout scale capable of providing origin weights. Farmers Grain looked at two different bulkweighers popular in the industry before settling on a 30,000-bph model manufactured by CompuWeigh Corp., Woodbury, CT (203-262-9400), under the control of the company’s GMS-4000 bulk weigh scale control system.

The bulkweigher was installed in July 2015 and empties onto an existing 30,000-bph overhead belt conveyor running out to a two-story, trackside loadout tower. The upper story houses the CompuWeigh controls through which the operator can load railcars using a two-way spout. Grain inspectors can use the lower level to determine origin grades.

All in the Software Edwards says Farmers Grain made its selection based on the GMS automation system. “The physical bulkweigher isn’t all that much different from one brand to another,” he comments. “The CompuWeigh software had a few more features that we liked.”

In particular, Edwards was impressed with the CompuWeigh SmartLoad system. This software module allows the bulkweigher to run while the next railcar is brought into position by preloading the weigh hopper and the lower garner. “That allows us to fill the bulkweigher on the fly and speeds up the loading processh” he says.

The company opted not to install an RF tag reader. Edwards says he didn’t think it was necessary loading only 25 cars at a time.

However, he likes the GMS-4000 access to a national railcar database maintained by the Association of American Railroads, which is updated coninually with load capacity information on each railcar.

Edwards says that with the new bulkweigher, it takes about four hours to load a 25-car train. The CN allows 24 hours starting from the midnight after placement to load a train before applying demurrage.

Ed Zdrojewski, editor

CASE STUDY – COURTESY OF GRAIN JOURNAL

Truck Management System

SCALE CONSOLIDATION PROJECT PULLS ORDER FROM CHAOS IN NEBRASKA PANHANDLE

The summer wheat harvest season used to be a time of chaos around Farmers Coop Elevator Co. in Hemingford, NE (308-487-3325).  With more than 3 million bushels of storage, the cooperative’s headquarters elevator at Hemingford is one of the largest grain facilities in the Nebraska Panhandle and draws winter and spring wheat from many miles around, as well as corn, millet, oats, and barley.

The facility also had three different sets of inbound and outbound truck scales, installed over the years as the elevator expanded both in terms of capacity and volume, says Grain Division Manager Bart Moseman, who came to Hemingford in 2006 from a northeast Nebraska cooperative.  Those three sets of scales caused a logistical nightmare at the height of wheat harvest, far and away the largest crop brought to the elevator.  Semi trucks would be moving in every which way, causing monumental traffic tie-ups and long waits.

Each set of scales required personnel to operate. Grain samples were coming in from every direction into a single grading laboratory. Truckers were having to get out of their cabs to get directions to the appropriate receiving pit. The potential for routing, grading, and settlement errors was huge.

The Solution: Consolidation
In the spring of 2009, Farmers Coop Elevator implemented a solution by consolidating three sets of truck scales into a single pair of inbound and outbound Sooner Scales.  The side-by-side 90-foot pitless scales were installed adjacent to the elevator’s receiving shed.  And the entire system of receiving grain now is automated using the SmartTruck automation system from CompuWeigh Corp., Woodbury, CT (203-262-9400).

“We knew about CompuWeigh from its installations in several of the ethanol plants not far from here,” Moseman says. “My brother is a truck driver, and one day, I rode with him on a grain delivery to one of those plants, so I saw how the system works first-hand. Also, CompuWeigh is a reputable company, and we have one of their bulk weigh loadout scales here at Hemingford, so we have some experience with their quality.”

The Delivery Process
The two new truck scales and probe now are under the control of CompuWeigh’s SmartTruck automation system.  Incoming grain trucks first stop at a probe station 400 feet ahead of the scales, where their RFID tags are read by SmartTruck, and the most recent trips by that truck are shown on the inspector’s computer screen. Located next to the driver is a SmartTalk highfidelity intercom, with noise suppression, so the driver can talk clearly to the inspector.  A new Gamet truck probe collects a representative sample, with the assistance of a video camera. The sample is sent via pneumatic tube to the receiving shed, where it is graded and the results entered into CompuWeigh’s grading workstation.

The trucker proceeds to the inbound scale, where a second SmartTruck system reads the RFID tag, ensures that the truck is correctly located on the scale, and then takes the gross weight without any human intervention. The SmartView outside message board displays the gross weight and tells the driver which dump pit to go to. After dumping the grain, the driver proceeds to the outbound scale. This scale also is unattended, and once the truck has come to a stop, SmartTruck reads the RF card, checks that all wheels are on the scale, calculates the net weight, which is displayed on the SmartView outside message board, and then prints the ticket on the OTP outside ticket printer, which is right next to the driver’s cab. Without leaving the cab, the driver takes the ticket, and then can leave the facility.

Although both scales are unattended, each has a SmartTalk intercom next to the driver’s cab, so that the driver can communicate with the control room staff, if necessary. At no point during the weighing process does the driver get out of the cab.

Moseman reports significant gains in traffic flow and grain handling efficiency, as a result of the new system.  “Before, we had a 20,000-bph leg next to a dump-through pit, and sometimes it was running empty,” he says.  “Now, we only run the leg when it has something to move.  “We require less help at the scalehouse and receiving pits now. We’re more professional in terms of weight and grade accuracy. We’re managing traffic better, getting better segregation according to grain quality, and overall, there’s less stress.”

Ed Zdrojewski, editor

CASE STUDY – COURTESY OF BIOFUELS JOURNAL

Truck Manager

COMPUWEIGH SYSTEM KEEPS TRUCKERS MOVING AROUND PLANT

From the day it began manufacturing ethanol and distillers grains in 2008, Hankinson Renewable Energy’s 132-million-gallon-per-year (MMGY) plant in Hankinson, ND was designed for fast turnaround.

“We typically unload 150 to 200 trucks a day,” says Elizabeth Thiele, shipping and receiving manager for the plant in North Dakota’s Red River Valley (701-242-9400). “The average turnaround is six minutes.”

Company managers credit this outstanding performance to the operation’s high degree of automation, notably the plant’s SmartTruck loadout management system from CompuWeigh Corp., Woodbury, CT (203-262-9400), which was specified during the plant’s construction. Plant Manager Wes Plummer comments that a similar CompuWeigh system exists at Hankinson’s sister plant in Hereford, TX, and managers were impressed with its performance and with the degree of support the manufacturer provided for it.

Hankinson currently uses CompuWeigh automation in three operations:
• Receiving corn brought to the plant by truck.
• Loading both distillers wet and dried grains (DDGs) onto trucks and railcars.
• Providing data through an interface to the plant’s Great Plains accounting software.

Corn Receiving
While it can be configured for a completely unmanned receiving operation, Hankinson uses its SmartTruck system in a partially manned operation focused on a pair of inbound and outbound scales.

When truckers first begin to deliver grain to Hankinson, they are issued an RFID card. When a trucker arrives with a load of corn at the receiving area, a CompuWeigh SmartScan reader scans the card, captures the data, and stores it as part of a transaction record. The card identifies the hauler to the scale operator and can pull up any special orders applying to that specific driver or account.  Meanwhile, the truck is probed for a grain sample. Then, the driver is instructed by a SmartView message board to proceed onto the inbound scale. The scale operator makes note of the driver identification and vehicle gross weight and grades the sample.

Any order information such as product, intended destination, gross weight, etc. can be displayed in bright red letters for the driver to confirm on a SmartView message board positioned adjacent to the scale. An image of the truck is recorded for the transaction, the traffic control light turns green, and the message board directs the driver to the correct receiving pit. Hankinson operates two truck receiving pits.

Thiele notes that by being able to view grade and weight on the message board, the driver has the option of taking the load home for more drying, for example, instead of automatically depositing the load into a receiving pit and taking a dockage on the price.

After the driver empties the load into the correct pit, he or she proceeds to the outbound scale, where another SmartCard reader scans the driver’s RFID card. The transaction is opened without any user input required, photo eyes identify the truck and confirm it is on the scale, and the outbound weight is taken. The system computes the gross, tare, and net weights.  Then, a CompuWeigh OTP-4600 printer prints out a scale ticket with final weight and grade. The message board instructs the driver to exit the scale, and the transaction is complete.

“The system has been working very well for us,” Thiele comments. “The truckers have been very happy with it, because they can get in and out very quickly.”

Distillers Grains Loadout
Loading DDGs onto trucks follows a similar procedure with the SmartTruck system. In this case, it’s an empty truck that pulls onto the inbound scale for weighing. Afterward, the SmartView message board sends the driver to the correct loadout bay.  At the loadout bay, the driver tells the loadout operator what he or she wants.  For example, the order might call for 50 tons of dried distillers grains, with 30 tons concentrated over the rear axle.

Then, the driver proceeds to the outbound scale. If the weight turns out to be incorrect, the system can send the truck to a receiving pit to drop some of the load or to the loadout bay for more DDGs. If the weight is good, the driver gets a receipt from the scaleside printer.

Scale Interface
Plummer comments that the system also includes a CompuWeigh SmartLink data interface linked to the plant’s Great Plains accounting system. This interface includes a scheduler that regularly extracts ticket data and creates an export file to send to the accounting system.  The accounting software, in turn, uses that data to create settlements, track performance against contracts, and create monthly reports for facility managers to review.

“This interface eliminates the need to re-enter a lot of data manually, and that saves a lot of time and labor and eliminates some possibility for human error,” Plummer says.

Currently, managers at Hankinson Renewable Energy are considering the possibility of installing a CompuWeigh SmartFlow system to manage loadout of ethanol onto rail tank cars, but no final
decision has been made.

Ed Zdrojewski, contributing editor