| Cereals
New grain dryer control
system simplifies
harvest management
A new control system designed to provide reliable drying
of grain and other combinable crops with minimal manual
intervention will feature at the Cereals Event for the first
time.
ntroduced by
Kentra Grain
Systems (Stand
1012), 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 fi ll
the dryer takes all the guesswork
out of managing the system and
results in more accurate and
consistent drying,” says Mr
Higginbottom.
“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
I
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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.
June 2017 | Farming Monthly | 27