Grain vacs | Increased safety with lots of power and suction
FARGO — Stricter safety regulations in the United States that govern people working in bins have prompted equipment innovations such as a grain vac capable of pulling grain 30 metres.
“OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) really clamped down on the practice of people entering bins with sweeps,” said Peter Kingma of the grain handling company Walinga.
“And there’s no doubt that auger driven sweeps are a major danger. So the rules now state that no person can be inside a bin while a sweep is running.”
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Kingma said some elevator companies and their lawyers have taken the safe road, interpreting the law to mean that a drag conveyor under the bin also exposes employees to grave danger. They keep staff out of bins when the drag conveyor is running.
“Most elevators don’t have the tractor power to run a large grain vac. They need a portable grain vac with it’s own power source. So as the safest alternative, many of the large companies like Cargill are buying high-volume, self-powered grain vacs like our 7614D.”
Powered by a 185 horsepower JD 6068T diesel, the big vacuum is capable of moving corn and barley at a rate of 5,000 bushels per hour, wheat at 4,500 bu. per hour and beans at 4,000 bu. per hour.
While positive displacement blowers are generally known to be excellent at pushing material, pulling material is not typically thought of as their strong point.
With some of these big bins going up now, operators need 100 feet of suction.
“The 7614D is a dual blower unit. It’s good on long sucks, even up to that 100 foot (30 metre) mark.”
The pump is a Walinga #614 Super Chrome positive displacement blower, while the airlock is a reversible, hydraulically driven #1618 shell with 10 vane rotor stainless steel tips.
Line sizes are six and seven inches, and minimum discharge height is 14 feet. There are two inlets on the 7614D, two suction nozzles and a clean-up hose package.
The truck loading kit is hydraulically raised and rotated. There are three 12 foot stainless steel delivery lines.
For more information, contact Kingma at 616-877-3470 or visit www.walinga.com.
