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Several pieces of grain equipment are needed to transform the inedible kernels to nutritious and delicious food products. Once this material is harvested from the fields, it is usually stored in giant silos. It doesn’t stay there long before it is removed and transported to processing plant. Here, the kernels need to be cleaned, opened, milled, enriched, and separated before they can be packaged and sent to grocery stores.
Before the material can be cleaned or readied for processing, it needs to be transported to the facility. Machinery like a sweep auger is used to transport the kernels from the silo to the back of a cargo truck. This grain equipment sits at the bottom of the silo, and quickly scoops up and funnels the kernels into a chute. A vacuum then funnels the material from the chute to the back of the truck bed. Once the truck arrives at the facility, another vacuum is normally used to transport the kernels from the truck to the plant.
Cleaning the material is the first step in the process. During harvesting, inedible parts of the plant and contaminants are picked up along with the kernels. Grain equipment like scalperators, aspirators, and separators are all used during the cleaning process. Scalperators are fitted with rotating wire meshes that only admit properly sized kernels through. Impurities like rocks, sticks, and metal debris are caught by the mesh, and removed from the material stream. Length graders may also be placed in this part of the processing stream. Length graders come with a row of pitted discs that are perfectly sized for properly sized kernels. Material that is too large or small is rejected by this device. Aspirators are air cleaners that employ gentle bursts of pressurized air to blow away straw or other light inedible items attached to the material. The pressurized air is gentle enough not to damage the kernel or the machine. Separators, particularly magnetic separators, are effective at removing dangerous contaminants from the product. Tramp iron is common, but hazardous waste that normally consists of nails, screws, wire, and internal wear from harvesting machines. Magnetic separators can be installed just about anywhere, and pull tramp iron and fine iron particles that meshes and aspirators can’t catch.
Once the material is clean, other pieces of grain equipment are used to mill and enrich the product. The most common pieces of milling machinery are roller mills, hammer mills, and unifine mills. Hammer mills are simple devices that consist if a fast spinning rotary drum and several contact hammers. The hammers spin at the end of the drum, and slam into material that is fed into the machine. The product is quickly ground down as a result. Roller mills are the most common machines for producing whole flour. They are designed with two rolling surfaces in close proximity to each other. As material comes in contact with the rollers it is grabbed, pulled through, and crushed by the rollers. Unifine mills can also produce whole flour, and use a flywheel to smash the material.
Once this is done, other grain equipment is used to enrich the flour, and pressurized air systems channel the different food products to packaging and transport. Once secured on cargo trucks, the products are taken to consumers where they can be enjoyed.
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