Flaman Rentals Blog

New to the Industry

Posted by Sheldon Ball Mar 07, 2012

As a new employee at Flaman Sales, and a new resident to Saskatchewan, I’m excited to be starting a new career in the grain cleaning industry. With a background in the field of computer technology, I’m definitely starting from square one. Being new to the field is a little daunting, but I hope my “fresh” perspective can provide valuable insights and new ideas.

With the problem of ergot across the prairies over the last few years, there has been an ever increasing demand for efficient and effective grain cleaning. Ergot is a fungus which is toxic. It can cause infertility in humans and animals in fairly small doses and can cause a host of other health issues including death. Color sorters have been proven to be excellent tools to engage this problem with.
 
They are capable of removing almost all of the ergot from contaminated loads of grain. Since the tolerance level of ergot in the market (for wheat) ranges from about 0.04% to 0.01% depending on the spec, these machines are very necessary in sorting grain to a saleable product.
 
This is where I fit in. I have been hired as the new color sorter field technician. Basically, these machines are designed to separate “good” grain from “unwanted” grain. These machines are full of electronic, mechanical, and pneumatic components. The high flow machines are capable of sorting up to 25 tonnes of grain per hour. Flaman primarily sells two models; the Alphascan II and the Evolution. The Alphascan II is a monochromatic machine which is excellent for sorting high volumes of product with color differences in one light spectrum. These are the work horses for dealing with ergot. The Evolution is a full color sorting machine which is best utilized for sorting product with many different colored defects.
 
From what I’ve seen, both of these machines are phenomenal sorters and I’m excited to be a part of the industry which is providing better, cleaner products to the world’s markets. I’ll be traveling all over the prairies this year making sure these machines are in tip top shape and making their owners (our customers) money. I’m looking forward to meeting all existing customers and hopefully some new ones as well.
 
-Sheldon
Posted in Division News | Tagged with Grain Cleaning and Handling Colour Sorter Ergot | More articles by Sheldon Ball

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