Engineering Notes Index
Check Natural-Air Drying Fans Every Day
It's important to check the condition of the grain in natural-air
dryers several times a week, and in addition to that, you should
check the fan every day to make sure it is operating properly. If you
live on the site where the natural-air dryer is located, you can at
least hear if the fan is operating, but someone might need to drive
to dryers located on remote sites to check them. Here are some things
that can happen to fans:
- Feed sacks, corn stalks, or other debris can block the air
intake on fans.
- Fan motors can fail; they run a lot of hours per year, and
eventually the bearings or windings will fail.
- Circuit breakers trip and fuses blow for a variety of
reasons.
- Fans controlled by magnetic motor starters stop and do not
automatically restart during momen-tary power outages. There are a
lot more of these very brief outages due to storms or other
disrup-tions on the power line than you might think. In most
cases, these outages cause no harm, but in the case of a
natural-air drying fan that doesnUt automatically restart, the
grain could start to heat unless you restart the fan within a day
or so.