A grain elevator would gain tremendous advantages if it could quickly empty its grain pit. Farmers and truckers would seek it out because they wouldn’t waste fuel and time waiting to deliver their products. Due to this, elevators could increase their profits. Of course, this scenario requires a grain pit capable of achieving this feat, and that doesn’t exist.
Or does it?
In the biomass industry, automated processing facilities receive woodchips in live-floor bins equipped with a mechanical feed system, such as rotating screws. Biomass processors use such devices because biomass isn’t free-flowing like grain, so they can’t rely on gravity to move it. Biomass also tends to bridge, which makes metering it through slitted hoppers impossible. Thus, they rely on mechanical means to feed and meter the material.
Grain operations could learn from this method of receiving bulk goods. By adapting it, they could shorten times between trailer deliveries dramatically, even those of different products. Because screws pull and meter grain into the receiving conveyor, the system could achieve faster and more consistent throughput rates than one that depended solely on gravity.
While it’s nice to dream about such a scenario, reality would be better. And it’s a reality that exists.
That’s why BE&E is now offering screw-equipped grain dump pits. For us, screw-based receiving systems aren’t novel. They’ve been a standard solution we’ve delivered to the biomass industry for years. We place one of our receiving bins in the pit, add sheet metal to direct the product to the screws, and use them to feed a SMART Conveyor™, an advanced drag-chain conveyor we manufacture.
Your gravity-fed grain pits may be choking your infeed rates, but you don’t have to let that slow you from inquiring about how to speed up your receiving process. Our technical sales representatives are ready to answer your questions and assist you in determining whether our solution is right for your facility. Contact us today!
