Concrete drying floor

[Khan]

We've a 90' by 30' round roof grain shed and same size lean to sharing a drying tunnel with above ground laterals to blow spring barley and rape, only use 1 in 3 laterals normally as we have moved to mobile dryer. Shed is sound but tipping is impossible in the lean to and everything is put up with grain bucket so we are looking at adding a 80' by 30' extension on the side of our main grain store (20' eaves). I'm tempted to reuse tunnel and the 40hp fan in new shed to have some overflow drying capacity on floor. Looked initially at Spanwright and Creagh concrete floors but they both need a concrete floor before putting more precast on top and not fussed on wooden floor for same reason. Anybody using the Pellcroft or Schmelzer grids and poured concrete floor? What pitch do you have them in for drying? How much of a pain was installation?

 

[S.Jamieson]

Got a pelcroft floor.

What do you mean by pitch?

Installation was fairly easy. Poured a thin floor first that the laterals then screwed to.
The flatter and smoother the bottom floor, the easier installation is.

 

[Khan]

Pitch is distance between centres of the laterals. How deep was your initial floor? Assume the channels are approx 300mm deep?

 

[S.Jamieson]

Pitch is distance between centres of the laterals. How deep was your initial floor? Assume the channels are approx 300mm deep?

Oh, ill measure my lateral distance tomorrow.
6 inch. But think that was over the top. Doesn't need much.

 

[warksfarmer]

We've a 90' by 30' round roof grain shed and same size lean to sharing a drying tunnel with above ground laterals to blow spring barley and rape, only use 1 in 3 laterals normally as we have moved to mobile dryer. Shed is sound but tipping is impossible in the lean to and everything is put up with grain bucket so we are looking at adding a 80' by 30' extension on the side of our main grain store (20' eaves). I'm tempted to reuse tunnel and the 40hp fan in new shed to have some overflow drying capacity on floor. Looked initially at Spanwright and Creagh concrete floors but they both need a concrete floor before putting more precast on top and not fussed on wooden floor for same reason. Anybody using the Pellcroft or Schmelzer grids and poured concrete floor? What pitch do you have them in for drying? How much of a pain was installation?

This kind of thing?

 

[Khan]

Yes that's what I'm considering though I would have mine running across the shed down to tunnel position. Who provided your ducts? I guess your centres are about 4' roughly? I guess you dry and cool on that floor?

 

[warksfarmer]

Yes that's what I'm considering though I would have mine running across the shed down to tunnel position. Who provided your ducts? I guess your centres are about 4' roughly? I guess you dry and cool on that floor?

Each bay is 9m wide with 8 tunnels. They came from Agrohanse. See attached. Yes dry and cool. Because there was no central tunnel in this instance we went longways otherwise it was two tunnels, two fans etc.
http://www.agrohanse.co.uk/

 

[puma power]

We Have two Pellcroft Drying floors. Absolutely brilliant. We have biomass linked to the heat exchanger and fans. Pellcroft floor is the only drying floor in my opinion that you can clean properly. Very helpful firm, we had to order through TH White who where also excellent. Helped no end with design, drawing and install.

 

[Gone Shooting]

We've a 90' by 30' round roof grain shed and same size lean to sharing a drying tunnel with above ground laterals to blow spring barley and rape, only use 1 in 3 laterals normally as we have moved to mobile dryer. Shed is sound but tipping is impossible in the lean to and everything is put up with grain bucket so we are looking at adding a 80' by 30' extension on the side of our main grain store (20' eaves). I'm tempted to reuse tunnel and the 40hp fan in new shed to have some overflow drying capacity on floor. Looked initially at Spanwright and Creagh concrete floors but they both need a concrete floor before putting more precast on top and not fussed on wooden floor for same reason. Anybody using the Pellcroft or Schmelzer grids and poured concrete floor? What pitch do you have them in for drying? How much of a pain was installation?

Have got 3 pallets of grids in good nick - unsure of the make but will post size and pics if you need any.

 

[Khan]

Each bay is 9m wide with 8 tunnels. They came from Agrohanse. See attached. Yes dry and cool. Because there was no central tunnel in this instance we went longways otherwise it was two tunnels, two fans etc.
http://www.agrohanse.co.uk/

What typical depth do you dry to and what sort of fan setup and tonnage are you putting through shed? I'd be moving my existing tunnel(metal) and fan to a new build as current lean-to shed drops from 18-12 ft eaves height, would still use adjoining round roof for grain but with pedestals to cool. If we hadn't had this summer I probably wouldn't be concerned with losing on-floor drying capacity but big difference in drying 18% vs 24% corn. We dried most of our spring barley on-floor this year and it was a godsend releasing capacity for the mobile dryer to do wet wheat but it was a big reminder how much of a ball-ache setting out laterals and putting grain up round them is.

 

[warksfarmer]

If you space the laterals close enough you can dry to any depth. But you’ll need to stir it otherwise you get a crust form at the top as the moisture is pushed through. It’s a 50kw fan which has a heat exchanger sat in front of it. Speed of drying depends on how much you put in and how wet obviously but 18% at 1.5m x 20m long x 9m wide would take 36 hours.

 

[Rooney]

Now this depends on whether you want storage drying which is fan sized about 10hp per hundred tons, slow drying at 1/2 percent per 24hrs. If you have wet grain and add heat you will get what @warksfarmer above says crusting at top of heat before it driers.
Basically warm moist air meets cooler air/grain and condenses and grain sticks together= crusting.
height of grain and spacing of underfloor ducting are related, good guide is about 1m centres for 2.5 to 3m deep grain.