Choosing a Grain Conveying System for Your Brewery

The supporting transportation of craft beer equipment originated from the grain processing industry, and if you looking from a distance, you can see some large warehouses for grain storage. There are scraper belt conveyors for horizontal conveying on the top and bottom of the warehouse, which can complete the in and out conveying of grain when it is in operation. The food conveyed to the mill is usually conveyed by wind, and the vehicle for collecting grain is equipped with a screw conveyor.

Conveying Equipment

The conveying equipment used in craft beer is also the pipe chain conveying used in the breeding industry, but it is improved to make it meet the hygiene standards of the food industry, and the processing technology is also becoming more and more perfect.

（1）Bucket Lift Conveyor

The most common is the bucket elevator，it is installed , and it was made of carbon steel, with plastic buckets on the belt. It can lift the material in the lower material hopper to the desired height, and has high transport efficiency.The disadvantage is that there is a large amount of residual material under the hopper after each use. If it is not cleaned in time, it will become moldy and deteriorate. It will affect the next use at least, and affect the sanitary environment of brewing and affect the quality of beer. This problem cannot be solved by changing the material to stainless steel. Bucket lift conveyor Is more used in large-scale brewery factory larger than 5000L brewhouse.

（2）Screw Conveyor

There are two types of screw conveyors: shafted and shaftless, and the shaftless one is called flexible screw conveyor; screw conveyors are generally standard configurations. The screw conveyor has been used in the small and medium-sized beer brewing industry now, and it is also cost-effective and has high conveying efficiency.

Pros：

• Shafted ones are more efficient than shaftless ones;

• The shaftless conveyor is more flexible, not limited to straight lines, and can change direction in the middle;

Cons：

• There’s alsoa problem of residual material at the bottom like in the bucket lift conveyor;

• The conveying capacity of the axial screw will decrease with the increase of the elevation angle;

• Due to the high speed of the shaftless flexible screw conveyor, there will be a problem of loud noise, and the material in the tube may be crushed twice to form excessive crushing;

（3）Wind Conveyor

Wind conveying has always been a standard configuration in the grain processing industry. Relying on the suction generated by the large fan at the end, the grain is transported to the destination along with the wind.

Pros：

• It can realize long-distance, three-dimensional and multi-angle transportation

• No residualgrain;

• Low-noise conveying materials;

Cons：

• The discharge port is equipped with a cyclone separator, which can only be installed vertically, with a height of about 1 meter,so it cannot be used if the height of the venue is limited;

• There is a dust bag behind the fan, which will generate a small amount of dust, which will affect the sanitation of the crushing site

• Because the wind is used as the carrier for conveying, the proportion of materials cannot reach 100%, and the conveying efficiency will not be too high;

（4）Pipe Chain Conveyor

Pipe chain conveying used to be a standard configuration in the livestock and poultry breeding industry, but now it has become a high-end configuration in the craft brewing industry after improvement.

Pros：

• It can realize long-distance, three-dimensional and multi-angle transportation to any position within 100m;

• No retention, no gap, full pipe and efficient transportation;

• Low-noise conveying materials;

• It is a perfect combination with the middle-discharge double-roll mill;

Cons：The price is relatively high