Other custom solutions: Loader Interface, LED Signs, Voice, RF ID, Dispatching

Silo Load Out - What is PC Based Load Out?

It is a system designed to interface to an existing silo system using off the shelf personal computers and off the shelf control boards to control the loading of trucks from overhead silos.

The system you see at left has been in operation for many years. It uses an Allen Bradley PLC system coupled to a belt control system designed and built by one of our customers. Based on control inputs, which our load out software provides by monitoring the silo bin levels, the PLC controls the belts that load the silos. Our load out system controls the silo gates providing the actual loading and ticketing of the trucks.

Why off the shelf?

Well, would you rather buy a Dell computer for $800 and equip it with a well known $450 control card from your local industrial supply house or buy some companies custom load out computer for $8000 and interface it to a PLC for maybe several thousand? Benefits of our solution include:

What can you load out?

Can you handle multiple types of silo configurations?

Yes! We can handle all the following types:

Can you handle an existing Fractionary Plant with Silo Load out?

Yes! We are currently interfaced to a large PLC controlled fractionary plant in Ohio. PLC stands for Programmable Logic Controller. It is a specialized industrial control computer.  In this case the PLC controls a Fractionary plant with a ten bin capacity. There are two main feeder belts with five product bins over each of them. These feed the blended material across belt scales to four load out silos.

How does it Work?

When a truck crosses the inbound scale with a RF card, our Inbound Weighing System reads the RF card then checks the product code assigned to that card and places the truck In yard. If the code is a product mix code (meaning it is a Fractionary plant product) that trucks transaction info (truck #, mix code, tons wanted) is sent immediately via Ethernet connection to the Fractionary Plant Mix Design computer. The mix computer first determines in which silo it will place the material. It then displays a message on the large outdoor LED signs above each silo so the driver knows which bin to get under when he gets there.

The mix computer now looks up the mix recipe and passes that information to the master PLC. The PLC then controls the gates and belts of the Fractionary system to create a batch of that material in the proper ratio and weight. This batch is belted into the silo and the LED sign will display the Load Ready message. The driver pulls under the silo, where his RF card is read again and compared to the mix assigned to that truck to be sure he is under the correct silo. He positions his truck under the gate, and pulls a pull cord switch which tells the PLC to open the gate and deliver the batch into the truck. A traffic light alerts the driver the transaction is complete. He exits the load out area and proceeds to the outbound scales where his RF card is read once again and his load is weighed and a ticket is printed removing him from the In yard.