A grain processing plant handling rice and wheat for milling and storage, with intake pits, cleaning machines, storage silos, and milling equipment across multiple levels.

The plant initially relied on inclined belt conveyors and screw augers for vertical grain movement.

• Space Constraints: Long inclined belts occupied valuable floor space.
• Frequent Downtime & Maintenance: Screw conveyors wore out quickly, and belt conveyors had tracking and spillage issues.
• Spillage and Grain Damage: Transfers between multiple conveyors led to 1-2% grain loss and breakage, along with dust and safety concerns.
• Limited Capacity: The system bottlenecked during peak harvest, causing truck waiting times.

The plant installed a main bucket elevator (~25m tall, 120 tons/hour capacity) to handle the primary vertical lift into silos, replacing two inclined conveyors and an auger. A second, smaller bucket elevator (~10m height, ~50 tons/hour capacity) was installed to feed the mill upstairs, replacing three shorter augers.

• Space and Layout Optimization: The bucket elevators’ small footprint cleared floor space, allowing for wider drive paths and an additional packaging station.
• Increased Throughput: Main elevator improved intake capacity, cutting truck unload times by ~30% and enabling the facility to handle 15% more grain per day during harvest.
• Reduced Downtime & Maintenance Costs: Near 100% uptime for the main elevator in the first year, with over 50% reduction in maintenance hours and elimination of auger replacement costs.
• Gentle Handling & Quality: Noticed ~20% reduction in broken rice content, attributed to less grain damage in conveying. Negligible grain loss and improved air quality due to enclosed system.
• Safety Improvements: Less clutter and spillage led to zero slip-and-fall incidents. Built-in backstops and sensors prevented overloads and equipment damage, enhancing overall safety.