Industrial Aspiration at Cannington Grain

Established in 1977, Cannington Grain has expanded steadily to its current 40,000 tonne capacity. Storage is based on twenty-five silos with combined capacity of 30,000 tonnes and a floor store for a further 10,000 tonnes.

Over the last two years the store has undergone an extensive refurbishment programme in order to meet the needs of both farmer members and consumer customers. Intake facilities with tail gate tips now ensure turn round times of no more than ten minutes. Daily intake capacity peaks at 2,500 tonnes per day while high capacity grain dryers, handling in excess of 100tph, ensure crops are conditioned quickly with no loss of quality.

Due to the low bulk densities of grain experienced in 2013 John Collins, store manager at Cannington Grain, had identified a need for a grain cleaner that would achieve more than a straightforward pre cleaning job. He approached Perry and they designed a high capacity aspirator pre-cleaner with enough air flow and adjustment to be able to pre-clean and significantly increase the bulk density of combinable crops.

The AC150 is an all galvanised unit suitable for outdoor use. It uses a triple air inlet and extraction system to maximise the crops exposure to the cleaning air to enable it to produce a good quality sample whilst keeping the unit compact. The 22kW fan is inverter controlled to enable easy adjustment of the airflow as well as hand adjusted air inlet slides.

John Collins said: “The AC150 has worked out to have many uses to us. It was initially put in to improve low bushel weight milling wheat, but since installation we have found that it will clean beans to near seed quality, it will improve bushel weight on all cereals and will also clean out bugs without the need for sprays and as an added bonus there’s no screens to change so no changeover time need between crops. We are very happy with the system and would recommend it.”

There have been over forty-five pieces of Perry equipment installed during this refurbishment period with capacities from 60tph to 350tph. There is also an 80tph M617 Perry drier and Cannington Grainstore is the home to Perry own M217 test drier, without which testing Perry’s latest products like the auto moisture control system would be a lot more difficult. Perry would like to take this chance to extend a personal thank you to John Collins Cannington grain store manager.