About Seed & Oil Production:
Prior to being processed into various kinds of oils, seeds or nuts are delivered to a production plant and stored in large storage silos to ensure adequate material is available for production. One seed and oil operation can house and process a variety of seeds like sunflower, canola, palm, safflower, sesame, and grape seed; or nuts including peanuts, soybeans, almonds, and walnuts.
Large silos are used to store raw materials which can be greater than 50’ (15m) in diameter and be over 130’ (40m) tall. Monitoring the amount of raw material exiting storage silos and entering the oil-extracting machines is essential for tracking inventory and maintaining production efficiency. Byproducts from oil processing (such as meals, hulls, lecithin, hominy/dried maize, and others) are stored in silos before being shipped for use in the production of fertilizers, animal feeds, cosmetics, and other products.
Challenge:
The material builds up inside silos and, as the temperature rises over time, the quality of beans diminishes. This can ultimately cause spoilage and result in hard clumps of material that cannot be used. Silo operators hope to address this challenge by detecting areas of buildup as soon as they begin to form.
Solution:
BinMaster’s 3DLevelScanner’s visualization tool allows production managers to see the topography of material inside the silos in real-time, detect buildup, and schedule maintenance and cleaning before damage is caused to the material or unexpected interruptions of production occurs.
BinMaster’s 3DLevelScanner addresses the need for accurate inventory as well. Accurate inventory control is required to ensure a sufficient supply of raw materials to meet the production plan, taking into account delivery times which can vary considerably. By using multiple-point surface mapping technology, the 3DLevelScanner system provides end users with accurate, reliable, and continuous noncontact volume measurement enabling them to better manage inventories.
