Upgrading grain plant to PLC controller

FBain4532

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
North Yorkshire

I'm looking into modernising my grain plant on the control board side of things, Running elevators and conveyors through 3 control panels (relay logic) at the moment and would like to look into streamlining this into one PLC touch screen. Has anyone done this and could recommend a company to be tasked with this job?
 

PostHarvest

Member
Location
Warwick
Sounds as though you are looking for a SCADA system? Its the sort of job that Kings and Barnham of Thetford or Coldcurve of Inverness can do. Probably won't be a cheap job though.
 

FBain4532

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
North Yorkshire
The current set up is becoming a clutter with recent add on's and feel PLC with the ability to remote monitor would allow use to reduce labour requirement, would rather have the existing plant running 24hours a day as opposed to spending £200K upgrading drying plant capacity.
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
Thanks for the tag, but I’m not sure if I can help much on this. A chap in Yorkshire by the name of Graham Potter can monitor and control his drier via an app on his phone. He has been in Farmers Weekly a few times. I don’t know if he is in TFF though.

Is this your kind of thing @grainboy ?
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Not PLC but we have just had some changes and update made to our system

Allmet did the work

E862EB96-A6EB-48AA-8D1A-5C0D11D2B15A.jpeg
 
Last edited:

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
My previous set up had control boxes made by Devizes Control Services. They are good. Had a bit of a wobble when the main man retired but back on form now.
 

PSQ

Member
Arable Farmer
Had our current install put in with an expensive PLC in 2003. It ran very well and efficiently, right up to the day we had torrential rain and a north wind, which blew water under flashings and into the control box killing the PLC in the process.
That model of PLC is no longer made, we now run the system in 'manual' mode :facepalm:
 

jorgenbg

Member
Location
Oslo, Norway
Im building a new grainstore at the moment. I ordered a complete enclosure with PLC from a company which only make electric panels. Its about half price compared to buying it through the dealer of grain store equipment.

I just sent the spec of all the motors I need to control and the switches I will use. They then build it an connect everything down to terminals. So easy to connect field devices.

Biggest reason I do it this way is because I want full control over this, and Im a bit of a geek. My cousins new grains store would not work because of some programming glitch, and it took days before they fixed it. During busy harvest I dont have patience for that.

And if the HMI(screen) would stop working, then you just control everything with a computer instead.

I chose Siemens PLC. Just because internet is full of information and tutorials of Siemens. Not the cheapest and probably not the best.

A PLC guru told me to go "soft plc", which means you just have it on your computer. He said its much cheaper and more options.
 
Last edited:
I've used a few grain handling systems, and if I were doing anything with my own money, I'd do everything the old fashioned way with proper switches and relays in a well designed panel like Clives. Allmet do a good job IME. A PLC will be fantastic for five years, then it will break, you won't be able to buy a new one, and you'll end up putting a manual panel in anyway.
 

sjt01

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North Norfolk
if your going for touch screen buy two and keep one spare as it is often difficult to get an exact replacement.
Touch screens are overpriced. Get the HMI installed on a PC, with an easily transferred software key. The screen will fail long before the PLC. We replaced the Rockwell PLC on our digester with a Mitsubishi ourselves, as the licensing on the Rockwell was a nightmare. We update the program most weeks, as the digester finds a new way to fail quite regularly.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.9%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 63 34.2%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.3%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.3%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,287
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top