JP6601681B2 - Grain dryer - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a grain dryer.

Patent Document 1 describes a grain dryer equipped with a moisture meter and a weight meter.
When this grain dryer detects that the target moisture value has been reached by the moisture meter, the drying operation is terminated. During the drying operation, the drying speed is adjusted by the weight meter.

  Patent Document 2 describes pause drying in which a drying operation is temporarily stopped at an intermediate moisture value (for example, 18%), and the grain is conditioned by stopping drying for a set time.

JP-A-61-213481 JP-A-4-244241

  In the case of non-drying operation in which the combustion burner is not burned as in the case of rest drying, the grain may absorb more than necessary if the outside air humidity is high, and the quality may deteriorate if left as it is. However, the moisture absorption state of the grain is invisible and difficult to distinguish. In particular, the above-described ventilation operation and pause drying are often performed at night, which is difficult for an operator to understand.

  The present invention aims to solve this problem.

  In order to solve such a problem, the invention described in claim 1 is a grain dryer comprising a storage chamber in which grains are placed, a drying chamber in which grains are dried, and a scale for detecting the weight of the placed grains. Grain drying, characterized by having a control unit that determines that the cereal grains have absorbed moisture from the outside air humidity when the weigh scale measures that the grain weight has increased more than the set value during the drying operation. A machine.

  The invention described in claim 2 is the grain dryer according to claim 1, wherein the non-drying operation is a ventilation operation or a pause drying.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a grain dryer comprising a storage chamber in which grains are placed, a drying chamber in which grains are dried, and a weigh scale for detecting the weight of the grains. When the measurement result of the weight is memorized and the ventilation operation is performed after the end of the tension operation, if the increase in the set weight is measured after the set time has elapsed from the start of the ventilation operation, the tension grain has absorbed moisture from the outside air humidity. It is set as the grain dryer characterized by having provided with the control part which alert | reports and notifies that.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a grain dryer comprising a storage chamber in which grains are placed, a drying room in which grains are dried, and a weigh scale for detecting the weight of the grains, and the drying operation is performed until a set moisture value is reached. After performing dry drying, when performing dry operation to the target moisture value, memorize the weight of the cereal grains at the start of the pause drying, and after the set time has elapsed from the start of the pause drying, the grain weight is equal to or higher than the set value. When the weigh scale measures the increase, it is determined that the cereal grains have absorbed moisture from the outside air humidity, and the grain dryer is provided with a control unit that notifies the fact.

  The invention according to claim 5 connects the control unit and the portable terminal of the operator by communication, and transmits the moisture absorption information to the portable terminal. Use a grain dryer.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in a non-drying operation, a control that does not count the weight of the moisture absorption is performed for an increase in weight over a set time within a set time. Cereal dryer.
Thereby, the fluctuation | variation of the weight by disturbance can be processed appropriately.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent deterioration of grain quality due to moisture absorption by appropriately notifying grain moisture absorption information during non-drying operation.

Perspective view of grain dryer Illustration explaining the inside of the grain dryer as seen from the side Diagram explaining the inside of the grain dryer as seen from the front Diagram showing the circulation mechanism Operation panel The figure explaining the inside of the moisture meter attached to the elevator Graph showing the relationship between moisture value and drying operation time and grain weight and drying operation time Fig. 7 shows the graph of Fig. 7 as a table. flowchart Block Diagram

A grain dryer according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described.
A storage chamber 1 for storing grains and a drying chamber 2 for drying grains are provided in the box H. The drying chamber 2 includes a hot air chamber 3 through which hot air from the combustion burner 17 passes, a downflow passage 4 through which the hot air and grains pass, and an exhaust air chamber 6 through which the hot air that has passed through the downflow passage 4 is sucked by the exhaust fan 5.

  A rotary valve 7 for feeding out the grains in the drying chamber 2 is provided at the lower part of the drying chamber 2, and a lower spiral 8 for transferring the grains to the front side is provided below the rotary valve 7. On the front side of the box H is provided a bucket 9a type elevator 9 for cerealing grains, and on the upper part of the box H is provided an upper spiral 10 for transferring grains cerealed by the elevator 9 to the storage chamber 1. A diffusion blade for diffusing grains into the storage chamber 1 is provided on the transfer terminal side of the upper spiral 10. In the present embodiment, the lower helix 8, the elevator 9, the upper helix 10, the diffusion blade 15, and the rotary valve 7 are circulated grain dryers that circulate the grains, and the above-described members for circulation are used. Are collectively referred to as circulation mechanism J.

The elevator 9 is provided with a moisture meter 11 for storing grains sown from the bucket 9a and measuring the moisture value. The moisture meter 11 crushes the grains with a pair of crushing rolls 11a and measures moisture.
A weight scale 12 is provided at the bottom of the box H. The weigh scales 12 are provided at the four corners of the box H so as to be able to detect the tension weight of the tension grain. Specifically, for example, a load cell is used.

  On the front side of the box H, an operation panel 13 incorporating the control unit S is provided. The operation panel 13 includes a tension switch 20 for carrying out a tension operation in which the grain stretched on the tension hopper 14 to which the elevator 9 is attached is transferred to the storage chamber 1 by the elevator 9 and the upper spiral 10, and the exhaust fan 5. A ventilation switch 21 for driving the circulation mechanism J to circulate while passing the grain, a combustion switch 17, an exhaust fan 5, and a drying switch 22 for driving the circulation mechanism J to dry the grain, After the drying operation is completed, the circulation mechanism J is driven, and a discharge switch 23 for performing a discharge operation for switching the discharge shutter 16 at the upper part of the elevator 9 to the discharge side and discharging the cereal grains outside the apparatus is provided. Further, a stop switch 24 for stopping the tension operation, the ventilation operation, the drying operation, and the discharge operation is provided.

  Further, a target moisture setting switch 25 for setting a target moisture value, a drying speed setting switch 26 for setting a drying speed, and a grain variety setting switch 27 for setting a grain variety are provided on the screen 28. A set moisture value adjustment switch 30 for changing the set moisture value for switching from the drying operation by the weight meter 12 to the drying operation by the moisture meter 11 is provided.

  The screen 28 is configured to be switchable between a screen for setting the drying operation conditions such as the target moisture value described above and a screen for displaying various information during the drying operation.

  In addition, an indicator type indicator 29 for alternately displaying the hot air temperature, the moisture value, and the remaining drying operation time that need to be displayed during the drying operation is provided.

Next, the drying operation will be described.
When the operator sets the drying conditions and turns on the drying switch 22, the combustion burner and the circulation mechanism J start driving, and the grains are exposed to hot air in the drying chamber 2 while circulating, and the drying operation is started.

  In the present embodiment, the grain variety is boiled, the target moisture value is 15%, and the drying rate is “fast (drying rate 1.0% / h)”. And the amount of cereal grains measured with the weigh scale 12 is set to 5000 kg. The moisture value measured with the moisture meter 11 at the start of the drying operation is 25%.

  7 and 8 are examples showing the relationship between the grain weight and the drying operation time, and the moisture value and the drying operation time. When the target moisture value, the drying speed, the grain weight, and the moisture value at the start of the drying operation (initial moisture value) are input to the control unit S, the reference lines for the moisture value and the drying operation time as shown in FIG. (A) A reference line (b) of grain weight and drying operation time is created, and the drying operation is performed along the reference line. Note that various data used as the basis of the reference line is set in the control unit S as so-called table data in advance.

  When the moisture content of the moisture meter 11 is high, the measurement accuracy decreases because the variation in grain moisture is large. Therefore, the drying operation when the moisture value of the cereal grains is equal to or higher than the set moisture value at the start of the drying operation displays the moisture value data by the moisture meter 11 on the screen 28 for each set time. Based on weight data. When the set moisture value is reached, the variation in grain moisture is reduced and the measurement accuracy of the moisture meter 11 is improved, so that the operation is switched to the drying operation based on the moisture value data by the moisture meter 11. In the present embodiment, the set moisture value is set to 18%.

  That is, as shown in FIG. 9, the drying operation based on the weight data of the weigh scale 12 is performed until the grain reaches 18% (drying control along the reference line (b) is performed). And when it reaches 18%, it switches to the drying operation based on the moisture meter 11 (it switches to the drying control along a reference line (A)). Then, the drying operation is continued until the target moisture value is reached. Here, a drying operation that automatically switches from a drying operation based on the weigh scale 12 to a drying operation based on the moisture meter 11 is described, and the pause drying in FIG. 9 will be described later.

  When the drying operation based on the moisture meter 11 reaches the target moisture value of 15%, the combustion burner 17 is stopped, and the cooling operation (so-called post-purge) for cooling the combustion burner 17 and the grains by the ventilation operation for a set time (for example, 20 minutes). ) Is performed.

  If the operator determines from the grain condition at the end of the drying operation that the operator wants to dry a little further, the additional drying operation is performed. In this case, when the target moisture setting switch 25 sets a target moisture value for additional drying (for example, 14%) and the drying switch 22 is turned on again, the additional drying operation starts. In the additional drying operation, the amount of moisture to be removed is calculated from the difference between the moisture value at the end of the drying operation and the target moisture value for additional drying, and the drying control based on the weigh scale 12 is performed. That is, when the weight 12 detects the target weight (4485 kg in FIG. 8 in this embodiment), the additional drying operation is stopped. When the drying operation based on the moisture meter 11 is performed in the follow-up drying operation, the moisture meter 11 measures the moisture value at a certain point in the whole of the cereal grains. Is larger than necessary until 14% is measured immediately after the follow-up drying operation and the drying operation is stopped, resulting in insufficient drying of the whole cereal grains, or until the moisture meter 11 measures 14%. This is to prevent overdrying due to the operation time required.

  In addition, the conventional additional drying operation based on the timer has a disadvantage that the operator's intuition does not allow the operator to perform the intended drying, but the amount of water that needs to be removed by performing the drying based on the weighing scale 12. Can be dried. In addition, since the amount of moisture that needs to be removed by additional drying can be calculated from the difference between the moisture value at the end of the normal drying operation and the target moisture value for additional drying, it is possible to perform drying with high accuracy. It can be carried out.

  When the operator operates the discharge switch 23 after the drying operation or follow-up drying, the discharge operation is performed, and the grains in the storage chamber 1 and the drying chamber 2 are driven from the elevator 9 through the discharge shutter 16 by the circulation mechanism J. It is discharged outside the machine. The moisture meter 11 collects a sample grain from the grain conveyed by the elevator 9 and determines that there is a grain, that is, a discharge operation. When there is no grain to be discharged and the moisture meter 11 detects that the sample grain cannot be collected for a set time (for example, 2 minutes), it is determined that there is no grain to be discharged, and the discharge operation is automatically stopped. Of course, the operator may stop the operation by operating the stop switch 24.

  Next, a characteristic configuration of the weighing scale 12 will be described.

The timing of measurement and display of the weighing scale 12 will be described.
Since various data are displayed on the screen 28, it is desirable to display the weight data at an appropriate timing for each of the tension operation, the drying operation, and the discharge operation. The process that the operator most often needs to look at the weight display is during the telescoping operation. This is because the operator determines the work process of harvesting such as combine to be performed next while observing the tension weight. Therefore, the measurement data by the weighing scale 12 is displayed most frequently during the tension operation (for example, it may be displayed every 10 seconds or in real time).

  Next, the process in which the operator needs to see the weight display is the discharge operation. This is because, during the discharging operation, the operator looks at the remaining grain weight in order to estimate the remaining time until discharging is completed. However, since the frequency of viewing is lower than that of the tension operation, it is displayed at intervals longer than that of the tension operation (for example, every 30 seconds).

  During the drying operation, since the operator is often not in front of the grain dryer, the weight display interval may be long (for example, every 10 minutes).

In this way, the measurement and display timing of the weighing scale 12 can be varied for each operation process, whereby measurement and display can be performed at an appropriate timing.

Next, the characteristics of the weighing scale 12 during the tension operation will be described.
The control unit S stores the above-described automatic stop of the discharge operation or discharge stop information due to the stop of the operator. When the tension switch 20 is operated during the next tension operation, the data of the weigh scale 12 is reset. Originally, since there is no grain after the end of the discharge operation, the weight scale 12 should be zero, but actually, grain, dust, and the like often remain in the box H. Therefore, at the time of the next drying operation, the weight of the actual cereal grains can be measured by resetting the weighing scale 12 and performing the weight measurement. During the tension operation, the moisture meter 11 collects a sample grain from the grain conveyed by the elevator 9 and determines that the grain is present, that is, the tension operation. Normally, the tensioning operation is performed every time the grain is harvested, so that the tensioning operation is not terminated by one tensioning operation, and a plurality of tensioning operations are performed. In this case, when the first extension operation is completed, the operator operates the stop switch 24 to stop the extension operation. Then, when the tension switch 20 is operated in order to perform the second tensioning operation for pasting the harvested grain, the weight data of the weigh scale 12 is added and is not reset. That is, when the moisture meter 11 detects the presence of grain during the tension operation, the weight data of the weight meter 12 is not reset by the subsequent operation of the tension switch 20, but is added to the previously measured weight. As a result, the operator can appropriately measure the weight in a normal tension operation.

  Further, when a weight exceeding the set value (for example, 10 kg) is detected when the weight is measured with the weighing scale 12 when the power is turned on, a message indicating that the residue remains may be displayed on the screen.

  The residue includes, for example, grains remaining in the lower spiral 8, the upper spiral 10, the rotary valve 7 and the elevator 9, and dust remaining in the exhaust chamber 6.

  In addition, during the tension operation, the weight data of the weigh scale 12 is little increased even though the load current value of the drive motor 19 that drives the circulation mechanism J indicates the load current value that can determine the grain conveyance. In this case, it can be determined that the weighing scale 12 is abnormal or incompletely installed.

  Next, control features based on the weight scale 12 during non-drying operation in which the combustion burner 17 is not burned will be described below.

  After the drying operation is performed from the start of drying to an intermediate moisture value (for example, 18% “set moisture value” in FIG. 9), there may be a case where the drying operation is temporarily stopped as shown in FIG. In particular, there is a case where after the harvesting and stretching operation is finished, the drying operation is performed to the intermediate moisture value at night, and the drying is paused in the middle of the night (for example, from about midnight). In this case, if the outside air humidity is high, the stretched grain absorbs moisture more than necessary, and if it is left as it is, the quality of the grain may be deteriorated. The degree of moisture absorption is difficult to understand from the appearance, and it is difficult for the operator to understand, especially during the nighttime pause.

  Therefore, the control unit S stores the grain weight at the start of the rest drying, and when a set time (for example, 3 hours) has passed since the rest drying, the weight meter measures an increase in weight more than the set, and the moisture absorption is more than necessary. It is determined that it has occurred, and the fact is notified. In this embodiment, a notification is given when an increase of 2% or more in the weight of the cereal grains is detected. In the case of FIG. 8, if the weight of the cereal grain is 4600 kg at 18%, an increase of 92 kg, that is, 4692 kg or more after 3 hours from the start of rest drying is detected.

  Specifically, the notification method connects the dryer and the portable terminal K of the operator by communication, and notifies the above-mentioned moisture absorption information from the control unit S to the portable terminal K by mail (the server is not shown). The operator can then go to the dryer and take the necessary action. For example, the steaming of grains due to moisture absorption can be reduced by performing a drying operation for a set time (for example, 1 hour) by low-firing combustion, or by operating a ventilation switch by operating a ventilation switch. Of course, even if the moisture absorption is determined, there is no need to notify if the rest drying time ends and the drying operation based on the moisture meter 11 resumes as shown in FIG.

  Similarly, when the ventilation operation is performed instead of the pause drying, the notification is made when the moisture absorption is detected after the transition to the ventilation operation after reaching the intermediate moisture value.

  In addition, for example, the ventilation operation may be performed after the first tensioning operation is completed and before the second tensioning operation is performed.

  In addition, the moisture absorption notification may be applied even when the drying operation is performed up to the target moisture value described above and the grain is temporarily stored in the dryer with the power on. In this case, moisture absorption can be eliminated by performing the additional drying operation described above.

  Even if the weight of the cereal grains during non-drying operation is increased, it may not be determined as moisture absorption. For example, this is a case where the weight suddenly increases more than a set value (for example, 10 kg or more) within a short time (for example, within 1 minute). This is a case where it cannot be determined that the weight has increased due to humidity, for example, when the operator goes up to the ceiling of the dryer for inspection, or when tools are placed on the ceiling t of the dryer. In these cases, the weight is ignored. When the weight of the cereal grain is 4600 kg at the time of 18%, and then the drying is paused, if an operator weighing 80 kg brings a 10 kg tool box and climbs to the ceiling t, 90 kg increases in a short time. Even if the value is memorized, it is not set as a target for moisture absorption. Then, when the operator gets off the ceiling with the tool box placed on the ceiling, 80 kg is subtracted, but the 10 kg tool is stored, and the processing for not counting from the weight of moisture absorption is performed. Thereby, the fluctuation | variation of the weight by disturbance can be processed appropriately.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Storage chamber 2 Drying chamber 11 Moisture meter 12 Weigh scale 25 Target moisture setting switch 30 Setting moisture value setting means S Control part K Portable terminal

Claims (6)

In a grain dryer comprising a storage chamber for cereals, a drying chamber for drying cereals, and a weigh scale for detecting the weight of the cereals,
Grain characterized by having a control unit that determines that the cereal grain has absorbed moisture from the outside humidity when the weigh scale measures that the grain weight has increased more than the set value during non-drying operation, and notifies that fact. Dryer.   2. The grain dryer according to claim 1, wherein the non-drying operation is a ventilation operation or pause drying. In a grain dryer comprising a storage chamber for cereals, a drying chamber for drying cereals, and a weigh scale for detecting the weight of the cereals,
When the measurement result of the weight of the cereal grain is memorized after the end of the tension operation, and when the ventilation operation is performed after the end of the tension operation, it is measured that the set weight has been increased after the set time has elapsed since the start of the ventilation operation. A grain dryer characterized by comprising a control unit that determines that the cereal grains have absorbed moisture from the outside air humidity and notifies that effect. In a grain dryer comprising a storage chamber for cereals, a drying chamber for drying cereals, and a weigh scale for detecting the weight of the cereals,
After performing the drying operation until the set moisture value is reached, when the drying operation is performed to the target moisture value and then the drying operation is performed until the target moisture value is stored, the weight of the stretched grain at the start of the pause drying is stored and set from the start of the pause drying. Grain drying characterized by having a control unit that determines that the cereal grain has absorbed moisture from the outside humidity when the weigh scale measures that the grain weight has increased more than the set value after a lapse of time, and notifies that fact. Machine.   The grain dryer according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein a control unit and an operator's portable terminal are connected by communication, and information indicating the moisture absorption is transmitted to the portable terminal.   The grain dryer according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein a control for not counting the moisture absorption weight is performed for an increase in weight over a set time within a set time during non-drying operation.