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Investment in the correct grain handling equipment to prevent costly crop deterioration is critical. For the UK market, BDC Systems offers a complete range of grain handling, drying, cleaning and storage equipment, which includes the renowned Skandia Elevator range of belt & bucket elevators and chain & flight conveyors and the increasingly popular Svegma continuous flow grain driers.

BDC Systems is the UK distributor for Skandia Elevator and Svegma driers. Skandia elevator is a company that has specialised in designing and manufacturing innovative handling lines for nearly 100 years and the Svegma drier was first introduced to the UK in 1984.

Over the last few years, Skandia has invested heavily in new manufacturing and assembly plant at their Swedish HQ in Vara. This includes state of the art 3D design capability, robotic punching and robotic folding lines. The company's batch manufacturing strategy allows products to be manufactured and stored on site, resulting in very short lead times from the company's 4500 square metre warehouse.

Product quality is one of Skandia Elevator's major strengths but it is their commitment to the customer and fast deliveries which are critical in the UK. BDC Managing director Andrew Head commented: “The attention to detail, information provided and quality of the equipment are major factors when seeking equipment suppliers and Skandia fulfil all of these requirements.”

Skandia offers three different handling lines to suit the requirements of capacity, usage and quality. Every line is a complete system of bottom conveyors, elevators and top conveyors. Conveyors can be curved or inclined to allow flexibility in plant design. All products within each line work together as a system and are matched to attain maximum flow rates and avoid unnecessary blockages.

BDC Systems has developed the Svegma drier for the UK market over the past 23 years to become a leading player in the continuous flow drier market. With the unique lateral fixing design, the driers are particularly suitable for drying specialist seed crops and malting barley due to the clean unobstructed drying column, as well as conventional wheat and oil seed rape. With various options on, capacities, fuel, control panels, fans and sizes there will be a Svegma drier to suit all situations.

In addition to Skandia and Svegma products, BDC Systems can supply, cleaning, storage and ventilation equipment so offering a complete solution.

For more information contact BDC Systems Ltd, Grafton Road, Burbage, Marlborough, Wilts, SN8 3BA. Tel: +44 (0) 1672 810851,. Email: info@bdcsystems.com, website: bdcsystems.com

CropTec 2017

Join BDC Systems this November at The CropTec Show.

Registration is free for all those who pre-register before the event.

Allmet is helping its customers to reduce drying costs and increase drying capacity thanks to the launch of the Intelligent Dryer Control (IDC) System.

This latest technical advance brought to the UK market is the result of Allmet's alliance with Tornum AB, a strategic business partnership that has seen the two companies share expertise and resources to focus on product research and development.

The IDC, is long-awaited in the grain market and will benefit customers by minimizing over drying, maximizing obtainable product quality, weight and prices and providing total process control.

Allmet Director, Charles White explained: "Drying grain precisely is a complex process that you want to get right to maximise the best possible price. When you use manual methods you run the risk of not reaching the desired moisture content levels, or over drying. The IDC takes the guess work out of this by maintaining the average outgoing moisture content of the grain, despite large variations in incoming moisture content."

To illustrate the benefits of the IDC - overstepping the mark by drying to 13 percent instead of 14 can typically add up to 20 percent to your energy bill, give you an additional 1% loss in weight and reduce your dryer's capacity by up to 16 percent.

Fellow Allmet Director, James White added: "The IDC optimizes the drying process by using intelligent software that adapts to conditions. There's no need for manual adjustments you have total control over the drying process and can change the grain type and drying recipe where ever you are, at the touch a button either from a PC or a tablet."

Available in four different standard kits, the system consists of moisture sensors and a control unit with a user friendly interface. The first sensor is positioned in one of the upper drying sections and measures incoming moisture. The second is placed in the cooling zone, close to the dryer outlet. Using information about incoming and outgoing moisture content, the control unit sets the speed of the dryer discharge to obtain the desired moisture content out of the dryer - regardless of outside climatic conditions.

For more information about the IDC contact Allmet on 01325 378008.

CropTec 2016

Make sure to visit Allmet on stand A25 to discuss their IDC system.

We also have over 140 exhibitors at the event displaying the latest science and technology across the trade stands, while CropTec’s well established seminars and hubs will feature the latest thinking on a range of key arable topics delivered by leading specialists.

The event is free to attend for those visitors that pre-book their tickets. ALL visitors will be charged £15 on the day.

A new control system designed to provide reliable drying of grain and other combinable crops with minimal manual intervention will be launched at the CropTech event by Kentra, one of the UK’s leading crop dryer manufacturers.

The Dryer Master DM510 control unit and software can be retrofitted to most continuous flow crop dryers or embedded into the control panel of a new Kentra dryer. Both installations use a pair of moisture sensors – one at the intake, one at the discharge point – to calculate and automatically adjust how long grain needs to spend passing through the dryer to achieve the target moisture level set by the operator.

Barry Higginbottom, Kentra managing director, says: “This proven technology from Canada can save valuable time otherwise spent monitoring and managing a dryer manually and can bring about significant savings in terms of energy use and unnecessary weight loss resulting from over-drying.”

The Dryer Master system comprises a highly accurate moisture sensor installed in the conveyor line taking grain from the dryer and an inlet sensor usually fitted at the top of a continuous flow dryer that detects changes in the moisture content of incoming grain. The control software uses the readings from these sensors to calculate the residence time needed to hit an average target moisture and adjust the discharge rate accordingly.

“The ability to predict when, say, wetter incoming grain will fill the dryer takes all the guesswork out of managing the system and results in more accurate and consistent drying,” says Mr Higginbottom.

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With manual monitoring and control, you’re always working behind the curve, altering settings after the event – when the combine opens up in damper crop around a field boundary, for example, or as crops lose moisture after a dewy morning,” he adds. “With intake moisture sensing and predictive software, grain drying becomes more accurate and consistent.”

Both sensors automatically compensate for grain temperature to ensure accurate readings and calibrating the post-drying sensor involves nothing more than pressing a ‘calibrate’ button on the control panel, putting a couple of samples through a moisture meter and entering the readings.

“We don’t advocate a ‘set and forget’ approach; it’s good practice to have someone supervising the drying operation and we recommend repeating the sensor calibration two or three times a day as a check,” says Barry Higginbottom. “But the accuracy of this automated control system will give the store supervisor confidence to attend to other aspects of harvest management without neglecting the dryer.”

Significant cost saving is the other potential attraction of the system, he adds: “Manual grain dryer management involves responding to samples taken after the grain has been dried and to avoid being caught out there is a tendency to err on the side of caution, which often results in a lot of grain being dried beyond the optimum.”

That is costly in energy – bearing in mind it takes more energy to move grain from 14% to 13% mc than from 15-14% – and also in weight loss.

“Assuming a grain price of £100/tonne, a farm drying 20,000 tonnes of grain has only to save 1% moisture in over-drying to regain £20,000 in lost revenue,” Mr Higginbottom points out. “A farm drying 4-5000 tonnes of grain a year would recoup the £10,000-£12,000 all-in purchase of a Dryer Master system in three years – a bigger operator even sooner – while also saving time and hassle at harvest.”

The Dryer Master display provides a quick view of drying status and settings, a manual option for operators who prefer to make their own discharge rate decisions, a number of alarm alerts and a print-out for records. Where Internet access is available, the display is duplicated on a web browser accessible on a farm office computer or remotely via a smart phone or other mobile device.

CropTec 2016

Make sure to visit Kentra stand M19 at this year's event, taking place on the 29th & 30th November at the east of England Showground, Peterborough.

We also have over 140 exhibitors at the event displaying the latest science and technology across the trade stands, while CropTec’s well established seminars and hubs will feature the latest thinking on a range of key arable topics delivered by leading specialists.

The event is free to attend for those visitors that pre-book their tickets. ALL visitors will be charged £15 on the day.

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