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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

By Jean Van Dyke

The Midwest has gotten a lot closer to the Far East since the completion of Terminal 2 at the Port of Grays Harbor in Aberdeen, WA. In a joint venture, the Port, Ag Processing Inc. (AGP), Omaha, NE, and the Puget Sound & Pacific Railroad (PSP) created a deep water port facility which is a day closer to the markets of the Pacific Rim than any other West Coast port, cutting two days from the journey. Since Asia currently imports one-third of the soybean meal exported by the United States and represents nearly all the increase in meal demand during the past 10 years, it is a market worth pursuing.

At the groundbreaking for the facility, AGP CEO Marty Reagan shared his vision of “a steady flow of rail cars transporting agricultural products from the Midwest to the West Coast for connection with world markets.” A year and four months after that groundbreaking ceremony, the first ship arrived in the port – but the process, from inception to completion, actually took more than four years.

The Port of Grays Harbor
The development of the $14.5 million project began when AGP, the largest soybean-processing cooperative in the world, was looking for a place to store carloads of soybean meal and other products for loading ships at a port on the Columbia River.

“The port encompasses 1,400 acres, with a 600-slip marina, an airport, marine terminals and industrial properties. AGP/PGH is the first grain terminal.

To accommodate the mile-long 110-car unit trains coming in from the Midwest, the Port of Grays Harbor constructed a new 8,400-foot loop track at a cost of $5 million. The port funded $3 million and the Washington State Department of Transportation funded $2 million of the cost, to help the Port win the business, preserving jobs and rail freight service to Hoquiam.

Cooperative effort
The facility consists of a receiving building with a 100-foot-long pit, which accommodates the unloading of two railcars at once, shuttle conveyors enclosed in tubes which run from receiving to a scale and sample tower and again to the mobile loader, and the 600-footlong mobile loader itself.

A 100-ft. by 600-ft. concrete apron holds the loader, located on 75 acres of paved, secured cargo yard, near dock warehousing.

Keeping track of railcars
With 3,000 to 4,000 cars expected to arrive annually, loaded with assorted products, including soybean meal, Amino Plus, corn, corn gluten meal and specialty products which must be loaded into the correct hold, it is crucial that transloading be done both quickly and accurately. To ensure speed and accuracy, AGP called on CompuWeigh, located in Cheshire, CT, to automate the 10-car/hour rail receiving and the 60,000 bu./hour process scale and its associated controls.

“This project was more involved than other automation controls because instead of just unloading a unit train, we had to make sure that several commodities were separated into batches according to which of the seven holds of the ship they had to be in,” explains Jim Gavrish, automation manager at CompuWeigh. “As the cars come into the port, a reader scans the tags, making an initial check that the railcar is supposed to be at the facility, based on the pre-advise list the harbor receives electronically.

“If it’s not, an alert comes up to notify the operator. When the car gets to the receiving building, it is scanned again,” Gavrish continues. “Then after it dumps into the pit, it’s run onto an axle scale to be sure whether it’s empty or full. The system does a reconciliation at the end of a batch made up of a string of cars, checking against the origin weight and making sure they haven’t missed emptying a car or been shortchanged.

“The wheel sensors were specially designed for AGP – but it will become standard in future CompuWeigh projects,” Gavrish points out.

Conveying system
The engineering of the massive conveyor system was done by The Hendrik Group of Woodbury, CT, who also supplied the HEI HoverGlide air supported belt conveyor system. The conveyors are supported in totally enclosed 10-foot diameter tubes to prevent any outside contamination.

The conveyors are air supported on both the carrying and return sides. Air supported conveyors use a thin layer of air to support the load and belt in lieu of idler rolls – similar to air hockey games. There are no cracks or crevasses to retain product, and brushes and air continually cleans the belt, while a vacuum system pulls dust away from the system.

Rail service
AGP’s fleet consists of 3,500 railcars, including 900 to 1,000 large cube cars that hold 100 metric tons each, 10 tons more than regular cars. They have also created a fleet of railcars just for transporting identity-preserved products. At AGP/PGH, trains move continuously through the unloading facility. A staging area can hold approximately 300 cars in anticipation of a vessel’s arrival. Compuweigh Automation System The loop track is capable of holding another 100 cars, making it possible for Terminal 2 to continuously load up to 40,000 metric tons.

Puget Sound & Pacific Railroad (PSP) brings the trains from the connection with BNSF and UP, providing that last essential link. Tom Foster, formerly of PSP and now working in sales and marketing for Rail America, which owns PSP, is enthusiastic about Terminal 2 and AGP’s initiative.

“They have invested millions – and they control their own destiny, ” Foster points out. “This is the first time anyone has put together everything from the farm to the direct loading on the ship.”

“This direct link from the Midwest to the Pacific Rim is the fastest and most cost-effective means of reaching the Asian customers, ” says Glen Heitritter, AGP director of international trade. “And it’s set up for indentity- preserved products, the direction our customers are headed.

“AGP is committed to adding value for our customers and our member cooperatives,” he continues. “Value includes a competitive and efficient transportation system.”

CASE STUDY

CRC’s Total Automation System

Commodity Resource Corp.’s unique approach to the feed and fertilizer businesses at its new Caledonia, NY facility (see page 32) requires an equally unique approach to plant automation.

Part of that approach requires a high degree of flexibility and efficiency. CRC owns none of the feed, fertilizer, or ingredients that pass through the plant. Instead, customers typically deliver their products by rail, and CRC either will load out directly to truck or unload the railcars into storage and then load trucks, often using special formulas blended while the truck is at the facility.

In addition, to avoid any potential cross-contamination between feed and fertilizer, the two operations are kept completely separated, though their control systems are similar in design.

In order to run with just six operational personnel, CRC relies heavily on the Grain Management System® (GMS) automation package provided by CompuWeigh Corp., Woodbury, CT (203-262-9400). The GMS handles all scale transactions and inventory management and uses CompuWeigh’s automation software to control and monitor all of the plant’s physical equipment.

Blended Product Loadout
Prior to a truck being allowed to haul product from the Caledonia plant, it must pass an in-house inspection. During this inspection, an RF tag is attached to the trailer, and the size of each compartment and the total capacity of the truck are recorded on the tag.

When a truck arrives to pick up feed, it is identified at the scale by the SmartTruck RF system and checked to make sure it has passed inspection to carry feed.

The operator selects the blend (or blends, if the truck has multiple compartments), and GMS ensures that the total amount loaded does not exceed the net weight allowed on the truck.

While the truck is proceeding to the batching area, GMS sends the formula to the automation system, which starts the appropriate equipment and instructs the Ranco blending system on the quantity required from each ingredient storage bin.

Once an order is completed, actual product usage is compared to the requested product usage, and if it’s within tolerance, bin inventory is updated automatically.

The truck returns to the platform scale, where it again is scanned by the SmartTruck RF system, and the gross weight is taken. GMS makes sure that the net weight from the scale is in tolerance with the weight loaded by the batching system.

Rail Receiving
Before any railcar can be unloaded, it is read first by a CompuWeigh SmartRead RF system next to the track scale, which takes the gross weight and makes sure that the railcar is authorized to be at the CRC plant.

The railcar then is taken to one of the two unload bays, where SmartRead systems again make sure that the feed and fertilizer cars are always unloaded into the appropriate receiving pits.

The railcar ID automatically brings up the transaction on the receiving GMS workstation, where the operator selects the destination from a filtered list of allowable bins for that product.

Once selected, the destination is transferred to the automation system, which determines the optimum path. An Allen Bradley ControlLogix PLC system validates the path and then starts the equipment to move the product to the selected destination.

When the receiving operator indicates the pit is empty, a purge sequence starts up, to make sure the entire system is clear of product before automatically stopping the equipment or changing the path for the next order.

With the wide variety of products handled on the feed side, the pit conveyor uses a variable-speed drive, with each product having its own default speed setting that can be finetuned from the GMS workstation.

Transloading
CRC provides a service whereby customers can sell a truckload of material that is stored in bulk in railcars at the facility’s railyard.

The truck first is identified by the SmartTruck RF at the truck scale, where the tare weight is taken. When a truck arrives at the transload area, it again is scanned and matched with the scan of the railcar that is in position. This ensures that the correct transaction and product are selected.

Because there are no scales in the transload area, a CompuWatt load monitoring system is used to provide an estimate of the amount loaded into the truck. Integration with the automation system allows the operator to select a cutoff that stops the pit conveyor and allows cleanout while still loading the truck to within a few percent of its target weight.

The truck returns to the scale, where the gross weight is taken, a ticket is printed, accounting updated, and the railcar, which is treated as a ‘virtual’ bin, is reduced by the net weight.

Inventory Management
CRC uses CompuWeigh’s SmartBin system, which provides realtime inventory by tracking every transaction in and out of every bin. The system shows the commodity, owner, amount, and quality factors for all bins and railcars at the facility.

Ed Zdrojewski, editor

Automation from Start to Finish

HOW AGMARK’S NEW TERMINAL IS CONTROLLED FROM FOUR STRATEGIC WORKSTATIONS

The AgMark L.L.C. rail terminal in Concordia, KS, is one of the most automated grain handling facilities in the United States, thanks to an electronic Grain Management System developed by Woodbury, CT-based CompuWeigh Corp. (203-262-9400/ www.compuweigh.com).

AgMark’s control systems are the most advanced GMS package developed by CompuWeigh to date. As a result, within weeks of startup in May 2000, the elevator routinely was processing 600 trucks a day and loading out three 110-car unit trains a week. “I’ve been very comfortable with the functioning of the GMS,” says Terminal Manager Mark Paul. “It provides us with good inventory control and excellent on-the-go blending capabilities. “The GMS is basically tied in to our inbound scale system, but it controls the movement and handling of grain from the time the truck arrives for weigh in to rail load out.”

System Overview
The GMS system is designed to achieve three things:

• It minimizes the number of people required to operate the facility. It does this by removing unnecessary functions such as “walking the track” to identify railcars, elimination of repetitive data entry through tight integration with the facility’s AGRIS grain accounting system, and allowing the computer system to manage the operation of all the equipment.
• It improves facility worker safety by constantly monitoring key components to make sure they are operating within specifications. It automatically takes action to shut down equipment or perform other necessary functions if the operators fail to act in time.
• It increases profits by increasing throughput, eliminating accidental grain mixing, providing timely data about operations and inventory to the operators, and by optimizing blending of outbound grain by providing accurate quality information about the contents of each bin on a real-time basis.  GMS controls the elevator from four strategic points:
  1. The truck receiving operation.
  2. The receiving pit.
  3. The rail load out system.
  4. The supervisor’s workstation.

Truck Receiving
This part of the system handles the weighing and grading of inbound trucks, and the operator controls it from the computer screen shown above.  In many respects, this is a conventional operation, but the GMS has these additional enhancements:

• Truck receiving is designed so that the driver remains in his or her truck at all times, except to open the truck gates at the receiving pit. After weighing, GMS prints the driver’s scale ticket remotely at the outbound scale, so there is no need to return to the control room.
• The Gamet Apollo probe station is unmanned. To accomplish that, initial truck identification is handled from the office by intercom. The operator takes a sample from the truck, guided by a CCTV video camera, which is then sent to the control room via pneumatic tube for grading.
• Inside the office, Kansas Grain Inspection Service (KGIS) inspectors test the grain and determine its factors. Once these factors are entered into GMS, the automated system calculates the U.S. Department of Agriculture grade. This information is available to the receiving pit operator at his or her station.
• Because the GMS system is fully integrated with the AGRIS grain accounting system, data entry is reduced to a minimum. The GMS operator can find the correct contract information in the AGRIS system with two or three keystrokes. The system is capable of handling split accounts ‘on the fly.’ Completed transactions are sent back to the accounting system automatically, and the AGRIS system updates the contracts. There is no retyping of data at any point.

Receiving Pit
Receiving pit automation is one of the biggest differences between a conventionally operated elevator and an automated one. At the receiving pit, the GMS system allows the operator to perform the following functions:

• Review each truckload’s grade factors.
• Select the destination bin from a browse list of bins containing only that commodity, thereby preventing mixed grain. The operator selects the destination bin while the truck is being dumped. The GMS determines whether this is the same bin as the previous truckload. If so, the pit gate will open immediately. If this truckload is going to a different destination bin, however, the pit gate will not open until purge timers run to ensure that the legs and conveyors are clear of product. At this point, the GMS will redirect the electronic Schlagel distributors automatically, set the diverters and gates to their new position, and only then open the pit gate. This feature is an essential element in handling identity-preserved grains that require segregation.
• Using the screen shown on the left side of page 46, the operator can monitor the status of all key equipment. At AgMark, this includes 17 bins, five legs, two belt conveyors, 11 drag conveyors, two screw augers, three distributors, 24 gates, two diverters, a Rotex Megatex cleaner, a dust collection system and a stationary tripper.If any of this equipment begins functioning outside of its normal parameters or fails to function at all, GMS immediately sends the operator an alarm. If the operator fails to act in time, GMS automatically turns off the equipment in a logical sequence.In addition to the PLC, GMS also continually monitors other key equipment, including Rolfes bearing, belt alignment, motion and grain temperature monitoring sensors, plus a Kistler-Morse ultrasonic bin level monitoring system. As a result, the operator can see the level, grain quality and grain temperature inside each bin in ‘real time’.

Rail Load Out
An automated load out system like AgMark’s differs dramatically from a manually-operated one.

• It almost completely eliminates clerical work. The AgMark facility uses a CompuWeigh SmartRead RF tag reader, which automatically identifies each railcar by its radio frequency tag. This information is read into GMS, which instantly consults its internal database of 270,000 rail cars, the constitutes the entire fleet of railcars in grain service in North America.
• From this data, GMS instantly calculates the maximum amount of grain that can be loaded into each rail car, while still meeting the weight limits set by the Rail Carrier.  It also ensures that the grain will fit physically into each rail car.
  
• The use of the SmartRead system also completely eliminates the need to walk the track, enter this information into the scale workstation, or re-enter the information into the AGRIS accounting system at the end of the transaction.
• Since the Burlington Northern Santa Fe typically offers a $10,000 bonus if a 110-car unit train is loaded in 15 hours or less, elevator operators are under tremendous pressure to achieve both speed and reliability. Any downtime is of major concern.
• AgMark’s rail load out workstation is equipped with CompuWeigh’s SmartTech software, which automatically diagnoses any problem with the InterSystems bulk weigh scale. GMS shows the operator on the workstation screen what the problem is, where it is and how to fix it.
• In most cases, the operator will be able to fix the problem right then and there. But even with more complicated problems, the operator will be able to tell the scale dealer the exact nature of the problem, so the dealer can bring the correct replacement parts.
• All of the physical equipment needed to load railcars is under the direct control of the GMS system. Once the correct blend has been determined, the equipment will start up automatically in the correct order.
• To ensure that the blend is correct, the system can be started in ‘slow flow’ mode, in which each gate contributing to the blend is opened to a smaller extent but still in proportion to the overall blend. At that point, a sample is taken and sent to the KGIS lab and adjustments are made until the blend is correct. At this point, the operator moves a avolume’ slider on the screen to ‘full flow’ mode, and all the gates contributing to the blend will open to the correct percentage while maintaining their proportion of the blend.

Supervisor’s Workstation
Automation provides the elevator supervisor with a set of tools that are not available with a manual system. Among these:

• The supervisor has complete visual monitoring of the entire elevator from his office. The supervisor’s screen shows the whole operation in real time, including what is happening at the receiving pit and at rail load out.
• The GMS system automatically logs all key information, so that events that happened in the supervisor’s absence can be viewed later, both in report and in graph format.
• This information shows exactly how the equipment was being used, when the computer logged a problem, how quickly the operator acknowledged that there was a problem, and then how quickly the problem was fixed.
• A completely unique software module at AgMark is the real-time inventory system (shown above), which displays the bins graphically in 3-D, showing by color the commodity in each bin, the level in each bin and the quality of each bin by grade factor.
• To calculate quality, the GMS takes the level data provided by the Kistler-Morse ultrasonic sensors, taking into account the most recent transactions that brought the bin to that level and then calculating the weighted average quality for each factor.
• This completely eliminates the need for a manual bin board and provides more accurate blending information than could possibly be expected from a manual system. The inventory system requires no manual work – it’s completely automatic.
• Real-time information is always at the supervisor’s fingertips. Six standard reports can be run at the press of a button. In addition, the GMS Wizard Reporting System allows the supervisor, even without any computer skills, to design his own report, which can be printed, illustrated with graphs, e-mailed or dropped into a spreadsheet for further analysis.

“Using the GMS, so far, we’ve loaded out 1,500 railcars and completed twelve 110-car unit trains in times ranging from nine to 13 hours per train,” Mark Paul commented late in July.

Ed Zdrojewski, editor