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Fast Way To Fill Grain Bins, Silos
"It'll do everything a bucket elevator will do - plus it has the added advantage of being portable," says Bill Fritz, president of Middle State Manufacturing, manufacturer of the Airhand, a pneumatic grain handling system designed for low-cost loading of grain bins, and silos up to 100 ft. or more high.
The Airhand "floats" granular or kerneled grain of varied moisture content (from 12 to 30% or more moisture) on a cushion of air, with minimum damage. "There's less than 1% kernel breakage in most cases, compared with 95% or more where a regular silo blower is used," Fritz, inventor of the new system points out. "The Airhand's ability to preserve the integrity of the kernel is especially important when storing high-moisture corn and other grain in either conventional or oxygen limiting structures."
Capacity of the Airhand, powered by a 100 hp tractor, is about 2,000 bu. per hr. using 12 in. pipe, and 1,000 bu. using 9 in. pipe and a 60 hp tractor.
Quick-tack valves are available for easy hookup of the Airhand to permanently attached filler pipes on individual silos, allowing the portable unit to be moved from one silo to the next in a matter of minutes.
The Airhand can also be used in bucket-elevator fashion to serve a cluster of grain bins. Such an installation, according to Fritz, would require a vertical support structure for an overhead cyclone unit to remove grain from the air stream, and a distributor head directly below it to spout grain to individual bins in the cluster.
If the pipe should plug, a switch automatically shuts off the auger feeding grain into the Airhand. "In most cases, simply revving up the blower is enough to blow out the slug," says Fritz.
Cost of the 9 in. Airhand (1,000 bu. per hr.) is right at $2,800.
For more details, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Bill Fritz, Pres., Middle State Mfg., Box 788, Columbus, Neb. 68601 (ph. 402 564-1411)


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1977 - Volume #1, Issue #2