Handling effects of commingling and residual grain in an elevator
2003
Ingles, M.E.A. | Casada, M.E. | Maghirang, R.G.
Grain handlers have responded to an increased use of specialty grain and the resulting need for grain segregation without the benefit of experimental data in the literature quantifying the commingling that may occur during grain handling. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of handling equipment on commingling and residual grain at an average grain flow rate of 47 t h(-1) (1852 bu h(-1)) in the research elevator at the USDA-ARS Grain Marketing and Production Research Center in Manhattan, Kansas. Tests were done by first moving white corn through selected pieces of cleaned elevator equipment followed by moving yellow corn through the same equipment without any special clean out between the two operations. Commingling was calculated as the percentage of white kernels mixed in the yellow corn samples collected at selected time intervals during the second operation. Commingling was greater than 1% during no more than the first 38 sec and always decreased to less than 0.5% within the first metric ton of load (76 sec) for all tested equipment. The highest cumulative commingling for tests of one truckload (ca. 7.3 t) was 0.24% for the grain cleaner. Mean cumulative commingling values for the other handling equipment were 0.22%, 0.01%, and 0.18% for the weighing scale, grain scalper, and the combined effect of dump pit and boot, respectively. The residual grain obtained from cleaning the equipment after the test was highest at the elevator boot (120 kg), followed by the receiving pit (20 kg). The amounts of residual grain collected from the weighing scale, grain cleaner, and grain scalper were negligible (<1 kg) by comparison.
Show more [+] Less [-]AGROVOC Keywords
Bibliographic information
This bibliographic record has been provided by National Agricultural Library