Construction, repair and modernization of elevators in Russia

The elevator is most often called a mechanized silo silo. Among other things, such complexes include points of reception and loading of agricultural products. From ordinary warehouses and barns elevators differ in that they are designed to store very large volumes of grain. The construction of such facilities should, of course, be carried out with exact observance of the laid technologies. The same goes for their repair and modernization.

Statistical data

Unfortunately, there are not enough facilities for storing grain in Russia, unfortunately. According to Rosstat's research, the total capacity of grain elevators, warehouses and KKZ, available in our country, is about 118 million tons. Formally, this is more than what is required to store the entire crop harvested in the fields of the Russian Federation. However, out of 118 tons of capacities, about 66 tons in Russia account for the capacity of agricultural producers, which have a morally obsolete design. In most cases, these are warehouses and barns built in the 50s of the last century. When using them as storage, up to 20% of the collected grain is lost.

Actually, the domestic industrial capacities themselves are very worn out (up to 70%). At the same time, Russian elevators are usually equipped with silo and bunker structures that do not meet modern technological and logistic requirements.

All this leads to significant losses of harvested crops and a rise in the cost of grain storage. Solving this problem in Russia can only upgrade the elevators built last century, or the erection of new structures of this specialization.

Varieties of industrial storage facilities

By appointment, all elevators can be classified into:

• Bread-accepting universal;

• Production (usually located near factories that produce cereals);

• Transshipment (located near the railway nodes or ports);

• State, designed to store a grain reserve.

Also there are specialized feed mills. In addition, today in Russia established and the production of silos of small capacity, designed specifically for small and medium-sized farms.

Other types

The main types of granaries were considered above. However, the term elevator has a broader meaning. Such systems can be used not only to store agricultural products. For example, drilling elevators are tripping equipment included in the rigs of the towers, designed to hold casing pipes. Structurally, they are a massive body with a hole in the center. If they fail on the rig there are serious accidents. Therefore, maintenance and repair of such drilling equipment should, of course, be carried out in a timely manner.

Another type of elevator is used in heating systems. Designs of this type are designed to reduce the temperature of the network water to a normal level. They represent heating elevators unpretentious pumps that do not require energy from outside. Thanks to a special design, inside of them there is mixing of cold water with hot water.

The disadvantage of such equipment is basically the impossibility to control the temperature of the coolant at the outlet. Therefore, today, modernization of the heating system with the elevator is often carried out by including an electric drive in the design. The latter is responsible for the movement of the conical needle, if necessary, overlapping the nozzle of the device. Due to its presence, it is possible to adjust the amount of water passing through the elevator body.

Construction of granaries: features

Drilling and adjustable elevators are important elements in the construction of towers and heating systems. However, more often than not, this term is used to mean the granary. Therefore, in what follows, we will examine in detail how the construction, repair and modernization of such complexes is carried out.

Any grain elevator has a silo working tower. It can be built from different materials. However, most often brick or reinforced concrete is used for this purpose. The roof, windows and doors of silo towers are arranged in such a way as to completely exclude the possibility of getting moisture inside the storage. The floor is compulsorily waterproofed to protect the grain from groundwater.

Build a silo tower always on a slab foundation. At the same time, the floor of the first floor in the towers is buried at 80-250 cm. This is done primarily because of the need to link reception devices and platforms of railway and road transport.

In addition to production facilities (control room, control panel, etc.), silos are arranged in working towers. They are designed to store the grain itself. Most often, the construction of elevators involves the installation of 2-3 large silos. These structures can be made of metal or reinforced concrete.

In addition to the silos, silos are mounted on elevators intended for grain release. From silos they differ in that they have a bottom resembling a pyramid overturned.

Industrial Storage Equipment

The construction of elevators is entrusted to companies specializing in this type of activity. The same firms usually supply all the equipment necessary for the granary. In addition to silos and bunkers, the tower can be mounted, for example:

• Cleaning constructions (separators, scalpers);

• Aspiration system (cleaning from light impurities);

• Flow scales.

Moving of cereals through the departments of the granary is carried out with the help of norias (lifts) and conveyors of different designs.

Principle of elevator operation

The production process of any granary includes the following basic procedures:

• Acceptance of grain;

• Its processing (drying and cleaning);

• storage;

• Leave to the consumer.

At the reception point of the grain elevator, the grain is pre-sorted according to several characteristics (quality, humidity or soiling, etc.). In the working tower, it is weighed, cleaned, dried and routed through the conveyor to the storehouses. The shipment of grain from bunkers to railway cars is usually done through lowering pipes or using special equipment.

Repair of elevators: features

Since equipment in granaries is used in most cases to be old, it is necessary to approach the organization of its maintenance and repair as responsibly as possible. Thus, it is possible, albeit insignificant, but still improve the quality of storage of agricultural products and reduce losses to a minimum.

Most often, elevators have to carry out such types of repair work as:

1. Sealing of inter-panel joints of structures. Under the influence of negative environmental factors, the joints of storage facilities and silo bunkers are gradually deformed and destroyed.

2. Cleaning of silos and sealing of cracks in their walls. The constructions of this designation at the elevators are constantly subjected to severe horizontal and vertical loads, which leads to the appearance of various kinds of defects. Fill cracks in the walls of silos, usually using a cement-sand mortar. Silos can also be strengthened by the method of use.

3. Replacement of technological windows and elimination of interlace spillage.

4. Restoring the bearing capacity of reinforced concrete structures.

5. Repair of roofs using mastic.

6. Repair of ventilation systems.

Painting of structures and equipment

Of course, inside the storage silos should always be dry. The concrete surface is characterized by porosity and can have many microcracks. In order to prevent the increase of air humidity inside the storage facilities, their walls should be periodically painted. In this case, use special crack-resistant coatings.

Of course, the silos themselves should be painted not only by the storage facilities themselves. Such treatment should be followed by equipment installed in the premises: dryers, conveyors, noria, etc. For processing such structures, silver is used most often.

Benefits of modernization

Repair, thus, allows you to somewhat reduce the loss of grain on the elevator of the last century. However, it is possible to make the production process as efficient as possible, of course, only by performing such an operation as upgrading the elevators and reconstructing them. As already mentioned, in most cases, the equipment and equipment available in the Russian Federation, grain storage facilities are morally obsolete. The advantages of upgrading the elevators built in the last century can, therefore, be considered:

• Improving the quality of grain storage;

• Increase in energy efficiency;

• Improvement in terms of ecological compatibility of grain storage;

• The possibility of a clear automatic control over the work of all departments, and, correspondingly, a reduction in the number of involved workers.

Modernization of elevators in Russia: replacement of equipment

A set of measures aimed at optimizing the work of the old granary may include the following activities:

• Increase in drying capacity;

• Replacement of transport mechanisms with modern ones;

• Equipment with additional storage and reception points;

• Replacement of obsolete thermal equipment with a new one.

Also, the modernization of elevators often implies the elimination of various social problems. This may be, for example, lack of lighting, dustiness, the presence of grain debris in the immediate vicinity of the functioning equipment, etc. Sometimes, the reconstructed granaries also perform such procedure as re-planning of premises.

The need for modernization of thermometry systems

Equipment of this type is one of the main ones at the elevators. It is from its uninterrupted operation that the safety of agricultural products depends to a large extent. The fact is that with grain in bunkers very often there is such a negative phenomenon as self-heating due to excessive humidity.

If the permissible temperature in the seams is exceeded, measures to save agricultural products must be taken immediately. Unfortunately, in most cases, elevator thermometry systems are also obsolete by now and require replacement or improvement.

Features of modernization of the control system

Reconstruction of equipment of this type already available in the granary usually allows:

• Quickly obtain accurate information about the temperature in different layers of the stored mass;

• Easily and quickly analyze all the data obtained;

• Keep archives of measurements.

Modernization of elevators involves the organization of control systems of various types. Very popular, for example, is thermometric equipment that operates on the basis of analog sensors. In the process of introduction of the latter, among other things, it is allowed to use the already existing suspensions of the previous generation.

Sometimes the monitoring system of the granary is supplemented and insensitive to interference by digital sensors. In any case, with a lack of funds, modernization and automation of thermometric equipment can be carried out in stages without the need to make changes in the production process.