| Grain
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 be launched at the CropTech event by Kentra, one of the UK’s leading crop dryer manufacturers.
he 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 overdrying.”
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
T
www.farmingmonthly.co.uk
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.
“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.”
“This proven technology from
Canada can save valuable time
otherwise spent monitoring and
managing a dryer manually”
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.
November 2016 | Farming Monthly | 23