Technology designed to save energy and labour

Drying grain precisely is complex – but doing it correctly achieves the best grain quality for the best price. Future-proofed and automated dryer control – the sophistication of Tornum’s market leading application can make this a reality.

Relying on manual drying can risk either not attaining the desired moisture content or over drying the grain which is a costly exercise – by over drying to 13% instead of 14% can typically add up to 20% to your energy bill.

The Tornum Intelligent Dryer Control (IDC) is a software-based control system which continuously monitors incoming moisture content. It also controls dryer speed to ensure precise average moisture content – irrespective of outside weather conditions

Remote data includes the number of discharges per hour, chosen moisture content, drying air temperature and a moisture tolerance. The latter is a reaction to fluctuations with incoming moisture content and is a reference to the intelligent control.

This lets the IDC counter any effect of over-drying grain caused by sudden moisture content fluctuations and is achieved by automatically releasing grain with a slightly higher moisture content, to average out in-store variations.

Labour hours are greatly reduced by not having to rely on basic monitoring systems and crucially over drying is always kept to an absolute minimum – thus having a huge impact on costs.

A recent installation of the IDC software at Laurence Kirkby Farms, Lincolnshire, has received positive feedback from George Strawson of Active Business Partnerships, who manages the 800ha estate.

“Drying grain is now a very easy process that no longer needs a member of staff permanently watching what’s going on,” says Mr Strawson.

JWI UK director Charles White says: “All of our current and upcoming projects incorporate the IDC system – so it won’t be long before our customers are reaping the benefits of this market leading application.”