Grain Journal
Grain Journal spoke recently with Scott Hudson, BinMaster executive vice president of sales and marketing, about the company’s new products and what’s hot in the industry today.

Grain Journal
To stay competitive, Midwest Farmers Cooperative set out to build a shuttle train loading terminal on the outskirts of Syracuse, NE. See how they accomplished this 2.75-million-bushel concrete and steel grain elevator with adjacent fertilizer plant when faced with space challenges. 

Chemical Processing 
3D, radar and laser scanners all provide continuous level measurement but suit different applications. BinMaster's feature article in Chemical Processing's 2017 eHandbook: Be Level-Headed About Level explains. 

Nebraska Farmer
Innovative scanning technology uses 3D mapping to allow you to check out the landscape of your grain bin, alerting to potential storage problems and allowing you to plan safe grain removal options. 

The affordable single-piece Flow Detect 2000 is a flow/no flow detector that houses the sensing element, power and output connections, and user adjustment controls in a single NEMA 4X enclosure. This compact sensor helps prevent cross contamination by ensuring flow has stopped before a new material is introduced into the flow stream. It is ideal for detecting flow conditions of solids and powders in gravity chutes, feeders, pipelines, conveyor belts, or bucket elevators.

Grain Journal
BinMaster's Flow Detect 2000  flow detector, a flow/no flow sensor that houses both its remote sensor and control console in a single NEMA 4X enclosure, was the perfect solution to a feed manufacturer's concern about preventing the introduction of incorrect addtives into its feed formulations. See how this recently updated, single-piece flow detector is serving as a preventive control and ensuring compliance with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). 

International Cement Review

Non-contact level sensors provide many benefits to the cement producer. These level measurement devices use 3D scanners, laser or radar technologies to ensure accurate monitoring of product levels. BinMaster compares the different technologies. 

Grain Journal
Learn more about the new Chisholm Trail Terminal outside of Medford, OK. It is operated by Farmers Grain Co. and features 1.5 million bushels of upright storage and has 60,000 bph of receiving and loadout capacity. There are also two big tanks 72 feet in diameter and 140 feet tall equipped with BinMaster rotary level indicators to alert when these tanks are almost full.

Grain Journal

BinMaster's sales team is here to help you select the right measuring solutions for your bins, tanks, or silos. Learn more about the people who help customers at BinMaster ... where they're from, where they have worked, and even their hobbies and favorite teams.What they all have in common is expertise in bin level measurement, inventory management, flow and dust detection, and grain temperature and moisture monitoring.

Grain Journal

This new barge loading facility features four 77,000-bushel concrete grain silos and a 500,000-bushel corrugated steel silo using BinMaster point level indicators.Barge-loading terminals are usually built close to a waterway, but Louis Dreyfus Company’s new 800,000-bushel river terminal is located closer to the railway and more than half a mile away from the river. Grain is sent via covered belt conveyor out to moored grain barges on the river. This new approach improves access to rail service and lessens the posibility of the facility being flooded.

Chemical Processing eHandbook

Today’s manufacturing operations are increasingly automated and more sophisticated. As the needs of the industry have changed, manufacturers of bin level indicators have responded with new solutions to address those demands. These solutions start by determining the sensor needs and applying the right sensor for the material and vessel. These solutions continue by deciding how to manage the data gathered. BinMaster can provide that data communication technology as well as anything from simple switches and rotaries, to advanced non-contact sensors. 

Grain Journal

New Heritage Cooperative 1.5-million-bushel rail terminal outside of Marysville, OH went on-line in January 2016. The terminal’s 12,000-plus feet of rail track has been laid out to avoid disturbing wetlands on the 277-acre site. The site includes a loop track, a grain elevator outfitted with BinMaster level controls, as well as a 30,000-ton dry fertilizer and 2-million-gallon liquid fertilizer facility.

Milling & Grain
Bin level indicators have been around for decades. From simple switches and rotaries, to advanced non-contact sensors, there’s no shortage of technologies to choose from. But there’s more to bin levels than just the sensor. Today’s grain and milling operations are increasingly automated with more sophisticated and complex systems. Plus, with increased consolidation and a global grain economy the needs of the industry have changed … and manufacturers of bin level indicators have responded with new solutions to address those demands

International Cement Review
Prioritising staff safety, a US cement works installed a level scanner to monitor bin levels in its clinker storage silo. This eliminated the need to manually measure the height of the material in the silo and thus minimised the risk of staff injury. The chosen 3D level scanner is particularly suited to the dusty and challenging environment.

Grain Journal

A Farmers cooperative Elevator based out of Hemingford, NE has recently completed two major projects, including a new 620,000-bushel elevator and adding 1 million bushels of storage at their main location. The large concrete silos constructed at Hemingford are 76 feet in diameter and 134 feet tall. BinMaster level controls were installed to monitor the inventory levels of stored materials. 

Milling and Grain
Cable-based sensors help optimize storage space which is all important in the grain industry. Sensors for monitoring the level of grain in bins can provide an efficient way of measuring grain and often reduces the labor involved.

Grain Journal

 Aurora Cooperative and CHS begin operations in their new 5-million-bushel rail terminal east of Superior, NE. The elevator facility is designed to meet the current and future demands of farmers in south central Nebraska and north central Kansas. BinMaster SmartBob level indicators are used to manage inventory. 

Grain Journal

Cargill Pork Builds Feed Mill, Expands Pork Processing in Southeast Iowa

Cargill Pork has opened a new feed mill outside Hedrick, IA and has expanded its pork processing plant in Ottumwa, IA. Younglove Construction LLC of Sioux City, IA was hired to construct the facility. Both feed ingredient and whole grain storage are included inside finished mill's slip. BinMaster's level indicators were installed to help monitor inventory. 

Grain Journal
Cornerstone Ag LLC of Colby, Kansas has moved its fall crop handling so that it is closer to the rail terminals and has added about 1.2 million bushels of upright storage  - complete with BinMaster level sensors - at the venture’s main elevator to handle fall crop. The new storage includes a new 700,000 bushel jumpform concrete tank and two smaller jumpform tanks. Tlhey were built by HABCO Inc. and McPherson Concrete Storage Systems, Inc.

Farm Show
SmartBob sensors work by dropping a cable with a weighted probe to the grain surface in the bin. When the probe comes into contact with the grain, it automatically retracts and sends a measurement that can be accessed from your personal computer or Smartphone.

Grain and Milling

Grain and milling operations have many challenges at hand when it comes to measuring the level in bins. It’s likely that a single operation is home to bins of various construction (concrete or steel), an assortment of sizes, and a variety of materials to measure – some granular, some powder, some free-flowing and some prone to dust and buildup.

Grain Journal

Jerry Schrage took over the operation of Central Valley Ag’s branch elevator at Petersburg, NE (402-386-5483), in 2007 after working as a mechanic at a John Deere dealership in nearby Albion, NE. For the last five years of that time, he’s been lobbying the cooperative board for an expansion at its 800,000-bushel Petersburg location.

Powder Bulk Engineering
Using a continuous level sensor to monitor the material level in your storage vessel can help you keep material flowing smoothly and prevent costly process interruptions. Read more if you want know how to choose a continuous level sensor without having to wade through volumes of technical data.

Coal Age

It used to be that the coal tonnage sitting at a facility’s silos was, at best, known only by human estimation or, at worst, a near mystery. Short of constructing transparent storage vessels, the only way to truly know where a site’s inventory stood was to send someone to check it — often. Over time, technology emerged that allowed a slightly better way to pinpoint things, but not by much; there are several point-level devices available today that send an alert to the control room, but only when levels reached pre-set levels. While an affordable and safer option, it is a bit of a reactive solution; if an overfill is nearing or has occurred, the headache of rectifying the situation can be reminiscent of a terrible nightmare.

Grain Journal

Eastern Washington, with its steeply rolling hills, is known primarily as wheat country. However, near the center of the state, the land flattens out, plenty of irrigation water is available from the Columbia River, and the soil becomes suitable for corn production. Connell Grain Growers, a division of CHS, wanted to capture some of that production. “This is a corn deficit region,” says General Manager Scott Althoff, who joined Connell 2-1/2 years ago after running the Maple River Grain complex in Casselton, ND. “A lot of it is shipped in from out of state. Most of the corn grown here goes to local dairies and feedlots.”

Processing
For any means to the monitoring of bin, tank or silo inventories, a first question invariably asked is, “How accurate is it?” Unfortunately, it’s a loaded question. It can’t be answered easily. But here’s a discussion about why it’s a tough question, and what can be expected from a level-monitoring system. First to consider is the type of device used. Bobs, guided-wave radar, open-air radar and ultrasonic level sensors are the common currency. What's common is a measurement taken from a single point in the vessel. Installed properly any can be expected to perform to stated measurement accuracy.

BinMaster es una empresa certificada por ISO 9001:2008 que diseña y fabrica indicadores de nivel continuos confiables de estado sólido y sistemas de gestión de inventarios usados al almacenar o procesar polvos, gránulos, y materiales sólidos sueltos tales como el polvo de alúmina, arena, áridos, piedra, roca y minerales.

Chemical Processing Powder eHandbook

Many devices are available on the market today for detecting the level of materials in bins, tanks and silos. However, for calculating what’s in inventory sometimes level data just isn’t enough. To estimate the amount of material on hand and the dollar value of that inventory, a single measurement point might not contain enough data to provide the accuracy needed. Due to their tendency to form irregular topography in the silo, this can be especially true in powders because most don’t tend to flow freely. If inventory volume is based upon a single measurement from a single point in the silo, the volume estimate has the potential of being very inaccurate.

Grain Journal

When the Frenchman Valley Farmers Cooperative looked to expand beyond local truck markets, a new rail shuttle-loading terminal with an 8,800-foot loop track, along with the use of BinMaster level sensors, gave the 22-location cooperative that ability. The terminal at Culbertson, NE, with 2.32 million bushels of storage, was constructed to give the coop access to a Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) main line, says Mark Friehe, location manager for both the new elevator and a coop elevator at McCook, NE.

Grain Journal

United Grain Corp. opened three new 1-million-bushel rail terminals across the Northern Plains in 2013, two in Montana and one in North Dakota. That would be unusual in itself for any U.S. grain company. What makes it especially unusual in this case is that the three grain elevators – in Conrad, MT (406-278-9183); Culbertson, MT (406-787-5867); and Bucyrus, ND (701-567-6751) – are identical. With the use of BinMaster Level Controls, the corporation is boosting grain originations in the countryside.

Grain Journal
To meet higher demands, Blanchard Valley Farmers Coop added corrugated steel tanks using BinMaster level indicators at two of its locations – Fostoria, OH, and West Findlay. In Fostoria, Blanchard Valley added 730,000 bushels of storage capacity, while its facility in West Findlay added 550,000 bushels.

Chemical Processing Powder eHandbook

Powders have a tendency to create myriad material handling headaches, but with the advent of 3D non-contact technology, many of the hassles of level and volume measurement can be cured. A relative newcomer to world of level measurement, the 3D sensor provides highly accurate level and volume measurement in challenging materials contained in bins, tanks, silos, domes and warehouses. 

Grain Journal

After a storm featuring straight-line winds devastate the Meadowland Farmers Cooperative in Delhi, two new 515,000-bushel corrugated steel storage tanks were built doubling the storage capacity at the branch's elevator. The new tanks are outfitted with level indicators from BinMaster.

Grain Journal

Operating three large rail terminal elevators, covering a wide swath of north central Ohio, and handling 50 million bushels of grain annually, Sunrise Cooperative often finds itself needing to make facility improvements.  While severe drought devastated crops elsewhere in the Midwest in 2012, rains were a little more timely in northern Ohio. Sunrise Cooperative found itself needing to handle and dry a surprisingly large amount of grain and added a 1.1-million-bushel behlen corrugated steel tank outfitted with BinMaster level controls.

Grain Journal

Good success with two other jumpform concrete silos made the decision easy to add another 450,000 bushel silo added at its headquarter's location. The 1,500 farmer-member community continues to increase crop production, with most hauling their soybeans to town right out of the field. BinMaster rotaries are used in the new silo.

Chemical Processing Powder eHandbook

Whether referred to as weight and cable, plumb bob, cable-based, or yo-yo-type sensor, the principle of its operation is simple. The device works as an automated tape measure that repeatedly takes measurements from the top of the silo at a consistent location. This eliminates the need to climb silos to take manual measurements.

Canadian Process Equipment and Control News

BinMaster's 3DLevelScanner has improved inventory accuracy in bins, tanks and silos in the most challenging materials. The sensor's low frequency signals are able to penetrate dust in environments where radar and ultrasonic can perform inconsistently. Four case studies describe how it is proven to perform in frac sand, large grain bins, alumina powder and soymeal.

Grain Journal

Tuscaloosa, AL-based Peco Foods Inc. had been producing feed for its poultry producers in Mississippi from an all-steel feed mill in Sebastopol, MS. After 40 years in service, that facility was nearing the end of its useful life and lacked the capacity to meet the needs of the company’s producers. The new, modern 8,800-tpw, slipform concrete mill built 20 miles south of Sebastopol as a replacement is centrally located to producers and its bins are equipped with BinMaster level sensors.

Global Milling Advances

To select the device that is best for a particular bin, it is helpful to consider the material being measured, whether the material surface tends to be even or irregular, the regulatory environment (such as with food), the size of the tank, and whether you need to know when inventory has reached a certain level in the bin - which calls for a point level device - or you need continuous level measurement.

Biomass Products & Technology

Every time a bin measurement is off by just a percentage point, the error can be worth thousands of inventory dollars. As both raw material costs and the corresponding inventory carrying costs escalate, a sound inventory management system (IMS) becomes increasingly vital to a company’s fiscal bottom line. Modern inventory “tools” are like today’s word processing software replacing the Underwood typewriter. Systems like the 3DLevelScanner and SmartBob not only replace the old-fashioned method of tape measure, they also minimize a serious hazard – preventing operators from accidentally – sometimes tragically – falling from silo ladders.

Grain Journal

If you ask the managers at Western Iowa Cooperative the reason for adding storage capacity at two of the cooperative’s nine locations, Mapleton and Correctionville, you’ll get a fairly common answer. The volume of grain continues to grow year after year, and the cooperative needed someplace to put it. To maximize capacity, they are measuring the bns with SmartBob sensors!

Chemical Processing Powder eHandbook

The vibrating level sensor or vibrating rod is a piezoelectric driven vibration type level switch that is used for point level detection in bins, silos, hoppers and other vessels filled with powders or dry bulk solid materials. One of the technical advantages of a vibrating rod compared to other point level devices is its high sensitivity. A vibrating level sensor can detect extremely light, fluffy materials as light as 1.25 lb./ft.3, such as aerated powders or flakes as well as heavier, coarse materials of larger particle size.

Grain Journal

Featuring nine million bushels of storage capacity, Blanchard Valley Farmers Cooperative’s terminal elevator at Fostoria, Ohio, is one of the very largest grain facilities in the State of Ohio. And it’s getting bigger ... and faster. Over a two-year period in 2010-11, the facility added two receiving pits, a 30,000-bph leg, enclosed belt conveyors, a 730,245-bushel steel tank, and a new scalehouse ... plus a few BinMaster level controls!

Grain Journal

In 2011, TopFlight built a large steel rail loading annex in tiny Milmine, Illinois consisting of about 850,000 bushels of upright storage (equipped with BinMaster level controls), two receiving pits, four legs, a 40,000-bph bulk weigh loadout system, two gravity screeners, and a 5,000-bph grain dryer. The Milmine elevator is located along a main rail line, with enough space for extra siding track to handle trains up to 75 cars, for shipping grain to the big processors in Decatur or to the southeastern feed markets.

Processing's Powder Handling Solutions

It’s all about inventory and controlling its related costs. Your job is to figure out just how much material you have on hand and when you need more. Simple in theory, not quite so easy when you are running multiple production lines or asked for month-end inventory in about an hour. However, there are devices that can help make your inventory more accurate and your job easier. To select the device that is best for a particular tank, it is helpful to consider the material being measured, whether the material surface tends to be even or irregular; the regulatory environment; the size of the tank; and whether you need to know when inventory has reached a certain level in the tank, which calls for a point level device, or you need continuous level measurement.

BioMass Products & Technology Magazine

“We need better inventory accuracy.” If you work at an ethanol facility, chances are you have heard those words or said them yourself. Ethanol plants are challenged with large silos that are constantly emptying and filling. These active silos also are very dusty, so taking measurements and continuously tracking inventory is a challenge. Having reliable, highly accurate inventory data is essential to help ethanol plants optimize operational efficiency, schedule deliveries and accurately report their inventory value.

Processing Magazine

When you need better inventory accuracy in your bins, tanks and silos — more is better. That is, measuring more than one level point in the bin is better. Measuring multiple points in a bin and calculating inventory based upon a sampling of measurements versus a single measurement will provide improved volume accuracy. Revolutionary advancements using acoustical-based technology features multiple-point measurement and employs 3-D mapping software that graphically depicts the topography of the bin to deliver volume accuracy that surpasses the performance of single-point measurement devices.

Concrete Technology Today

The SmartBob2 sensor is installed one-sixth in from the outer diameter of the silo, which is the best location for the highest accuracy of material. The weight (“Bob”) at the end of the cable suspends downward and penetrates the dust and measures the settled solid or powder material based upon how much cable is released at the precise time the weight (“Bob”) stops. The measurement, which can be displayed as height or product or distance to product (headroom), can be read from the eBob software installed on a PC, a SmartBob C-100 Console, or a Remote Start Unit (RSU).

Grain Journal

Ag Partners LLC in Alton, IA was faced with rebuilding their entire terminal after an explosion largely destroyed the elevator in July 2008. The explosion essentially wiped out the 1.1-million bushel elevator which is a joint venture between locally-owned Albert City Elevators/MFC, a 13-location cooperative, and Cargill Inc. BinMaster level controls help the newly rebuilt operation manage inventory and optimize storage capacity.

Canadian Processing Equipment

With just-in-time manufacturing and companies looking to minimize inventory levels, effectively managing material supplies is more important than ever before. Monitoring bin levels helps companies optimize material storage and save money. Furthermore, climbing to the top of bins presents a potential employee safety issue, to say nothing about the time and people it takes to scale a yard full of tall bins. Point level controls can provide simple alerts to prevent bin overfills. Continuous bin level management systems can help optimize inventory levels, virtually eliminate the need for employees to climb bins, and save valuable time by allowing bin measurements to be read from a personal computer or other centralized location.