Drive systems provide conveying power in grain mill

Gone are the days when mills depended on a strong stream of water or steady wind to power their wheels. In today’s mills, electric drives carry out various tasks, ensuring efficient and reliable performance. A special challenge lies in the fact that grinding is bound to create dust atmospheres that call for safe, explosionproof drive configurations. The manufacturer NORD Drivesystems has decades of experience in the industry and, drawing on a complete range of mechanical, electric, and electronic drive components, can swiftly provide suitable systems for any of the various applications in a grain mill, for instance fans and bucket elevators.

Based in Wallern in Austria, Arnreiter Mühle processes grain, malt, and oilseeds mostly for the baking and food industry. The family-owned mill has a history of nearly 200 years. Since the early 20th century, it has been continuously modernised and expanded. 2009 saw the most recent exhaustive modernization. A high-capacity mill with separate, state-of-the-art grinding technology and refining facilities was erected. The new building accommodates a wide range of processes that are carried out with a high degree of automation.

The Arnreiter mill has a 1,400 kW connected load. Up to 80 tons of grain can be ground daily. In addition, the refining facilities have a capacity of up to 20 tons per day. All processes, from raw produce storage to bagging and loading, are automated. There is control level access to all applications via Profibus. “We need highly flexible facilities,” says Walter Arnreiter, managing director of the mill. “First of all, they must enable variable and parallel processes with separate product flows and additives that can be released from one source into different lines. And we must also ensure product flow with minimal residues.” The main raw materials are temporarily stored in silos located in the upper stories. Geared motors from NORD Drivesystems drive the belt and bucket elevators that transport the materials from there. Consecutively, the major part of all product transport takes place in the extensive pipe system that has a total length of 2,500 metres. Free-flowing and non-flowing products are volumetrically dispensed by means of a great number of rotary dischargers, all of which need reliable geared motors. “NORD systems carry out many different tasks in our machines,” says Arnreiter.