| Grain
Gibbons’ Plug & Dry™ accessories help farmers enhance their grain store fans
Following a successful( if short-lived) debut at LAMMA’ 18, Essex-based Gibbons Agricultural Fans is set to ease the strain on farmers during harvest 2018 with the launch of its new Plug & Dry™ crop store fan system.
P lug & Dry™ enables users to quickly and easily connect a number of optional accessories to their trusty Gibbons graindrying fan to help them save time, energy and money during
2018 and beyond.
Firstly, a direct on-line( DOL) starter fitted with thermal overload protection can be attached to the fan for direct push-button / autostart control. The compact, enclosed units are easy to use and offer high performance at low cost.
High-precision thermostats can be connected for accurate temperature control and monitoring – essential when the erratic British weather offers no guarantees.
For added convenience, Gibbons also provides heavy-duty 10 or 20-metre extension leads with 16A plug and socket. The durable IP44-rated leads offer protection against dust and are resistant to water splashes.
Each of these‘ plug-and-play’ solutions can be quickly installed by the user, removing the cost of having an electrician attend site. Clients still benefit from Gibbons’ after-sales support, with engineers available to answer technical queries.
The Plug & Dry™ accessories can be connected to both the steel and aluminium versions of the Gibbons centrifugal fan, which is powered by an energy-efficient IE3 electric motor. The motor itself has been upgraded to include a steel( rather than plastic) terminal box casing for added robustness and reliability.
Gibbons Agricultural Fans Manager Josie Knight is excited to launch the Plug & Dry™ system:“ After discussions with farmers at the LAMMA show, we decided that there was even more we could do to make their lives easier during the hectic harvest period. We set to work immediately on a range of add-ons for our fans and Plug & Dry™ was born.
“ The accessories are ready to add to the fan box prior to shipping, and the flexibility of the system means that the farmer can use a single accessory or all three together. And with electricity prices as unpredictable as ever – as well as Brexit causing uncertainty over the future economy – we’ re glad to offer a solution that will help farmers minimise their energy bills.”
The Gibbons Agricultural fan range is manufactured on-site at the company’ s production facility in Tollesbury, near Maldon and is delivered to farmers via a network of
Your guide to grain storage
With a great deal of attention focused on producing grain to the right specification, it is important that this effort continues during grain storage to reduce food and feed safety problems.
A crucial part of post-harvest management is getting grain to the target temperature – detailed within the AHDB Grain storage guide – and keeping it there. If a storekeeper can get this right, the risks associated with insects, mites and fungi that can compromise quality and lead to loss of premiums through claims and rejections can be significantly reduced.
But hitting and maintaining these targets can be a challenge, especially during mild periods of weather. Fortunately, cold spells have helped to keep down average temperatures down recently. For example, Met Office data show the mean temperature last December for the UK was just above( 0.2 ° C) the long-term average( 1981 to 2010) of 4.1 ° C. This is cooler than the same period in 2016( 2.0 ° C above average).
Annual, monthly and daily variation in temperatures means that the approach to hitting target temperatures needs to be flexible. Many storekeepers switch fans on overnight to pull cooler ambient air through warmer grain. AHDB-funded research, however, showed it is better to automate this process through the use of differential thermostats. This relatively lowcost technology instructs fans to turn on only when the air outside is cooler than the air around the grain. Typically, the automated approach causes fans to turn on more
frequently in shorter bursts. When trialled in arable farmer Stewart Vernon’ s grain store, the technology helped to achieve cooling targets and significantly cut energy use( 40 % savings in electricity costs in AHDB-funded trials), due to reduced total fan running times.
As food safety requirements become stricter and crop protection options in grain stores become more limited, such technologies
official resellers and distributors across the UK and beyond. Sized at 0.13 – 2.2 kW, the fans are available as single phase or three phase in both aluminium and steel in most sizes.
For more information on the Plug & Dry™ system or any of Gibbons Agricultural Fans’ other products and services, call Josie Knight on 01621 868 138 or email fans @ gibbonsgroup. co. uk
Image credit: Tim Scrivener
Image credit: Tim Scrivener
should be considered by anyone thinking about upgrading their stores.
Additional pressures resulting from volatile energy prices and climatic variability means that now might be the right time to consider investing in automated cooling technologies.
For more information visit cereals. ahdb. org. uk / grainstorage www. farmingmonthly. co. uk February 2018 | Farming Monthly | 21