How to use a grain dryer in 10 steps: Main Operations - PEDROTTI GRAIN DRYERS Tutorials 02

TUTORIALS - PEDROTTI GRAIN DRYERS - www.pedrottisrl.it
02 - MAIN OPERATIONS
In this video, Fabio Pedrotti shows and explains which are the main operations needed to use a batch grain dryer.

THE 10 MAIN DRYING STEPS:

1. Set the dryer
The first things to do is parking the grain dryer and preparing it to work. So we will join the PTO shaft to the dryer, lower the feet and lift the auger and the screens. It is possible to lift these components with our standard winches or with the optional hydraulic lift that we are seeing in the video.

2. Turn on the control panel
Once the dryer is up, we will turn it on. On the control panel, you will see a blue lever. Turn it clockwise from the 0 position to the 1. Now your Pedrotti is on and ready to dry.

3. Choose your crops kind and your target temperature
Decide and set the crops kind that you've chosen to dry.  It is a very easy operation due to the user-friendly interface on our control panel that can be fitted either with a Siemens TD, Siemens KTP 700 touchscreen or 4.0 Asem-Pedrotti HMI.
On this dryer, we are looking at our standard electronic control: so, a Siemens TD.
While setting the crops kind we can, of course, decide to change the air temperature and the crop temperature that is the real target to reach at the end of the drying session, corresponding to specific moisture level in your crop. The machine will remember your choice and retains it inside its memory.

Ok, now the crop is set, and so we can start the fourth operation:

4. the loading phase.On an automatic grain dryer, all the needed operations from now on can be performed by the Pedrotti both on its own automatically for a chosen number of batches, or in manual modality as preferred. On other machines, such as the PTO  dryer that we are watching, all the processes must be guided manually by the operator.
The loading phase is the crops intake from the loading auger. To activate it on a PTO dryer we need to lower the side red loading lever. By doing this, the crops will flow inside the machine transported by the augers system with a toroidal movement, filling the grain dryer. In our electric dryers, when the optional top level sensor is inside the machine, the loading auger will stop automatically when the dryer is full. On a PTO dryer or a manual electric one instead, it will be stopped manually by the operator.

5. Cleaning While the loading auger will stop, the recirculation process will continue. That is the moment in which, when available; the optional dust extractor is turned on by the operators. All the dust and impurities inside the crops will immediately start to be pushed outside the dryer into the cyclone, that decreases the dust speed and consents to gather all the impurities inside a sack, a trailer or simply on the ground. Once that the recirculation and the cleaning process are running, it is time for the next phase.

6.  fan start
To turn on the fan on an electric dryer, it is enough pressing the fan button on the control panel, while in a PTO machine the fan starts with the shaft movement and so we have to open the metal closing on it. Once that the sensor feels that the fan is open it gives the consense to the burner to work.

7. Burner ignition
On a Pedrotti dryer, it is really easy to start the burner, and the optional Pedrotti burners do not even need any regulation. Another great advantage: the standard Pedrotti PLC will always maintain the internal air temperature very close to the setpoint without even the needing of changing nozzles inside our burners when changing the crops kind.
If you want in this video you can see the maintenance and functioning tutorial about our Pedrotti burners.

8. Drying
Once the dryer has started the heating process, whose timing depends on the crops kind, moisture level and on the presence of dirt, it will be constantly possible to maintain the total control over the dryer by just checking the thermostats mounted on board of the machine or in the touch screen panel. A massive set of safety systems is present on board of the machine to ensure operators and owners that the risk of fire accident and of ruining the crops with a bad drying session is non-present at all in a Pedrotti. You can check all our safety systems in this introducing video by clicking here or just continuing watching this video playlist.

9. cooling
When the crop will be cleaned and dried at the requested moisture level, the machine will know that the crop is ready to be cooled down. The internal PLC will automatically stop the burner and start the cooling process. Checking the thermostats, it is possible to know when the cooling process is over, so you will be able to start the last phase:

10. unloading
To unload the clean dried crops, inside a bin, trailer, elevator or wherever it is needed, just turn the unloading chute wherever needed and pull the unloading rope. The crop will immediately start flowing and empty the dryer.

Keep on drying.