Bin Business Going Up
Jun 17, 2008
This past week I visited
Sukup Manufacturing in Sheffield, Iowa. The grain bin and storage accessory business is doing well as
farmers have increased their demand for on-farm storage,
biofuel plants have been erected with new storage structures, and
sales overseas are strong.
Just recently, Sukup installed an additional machine to build bin sidewalls that doubles their production capacity for sidewalls. This is all demand-driven says Charles Sukup, President of Sukup Manufacturing.
Charles gave me a tour of their manufacturing facilities, and I got a sneak peak at a
first unit off the production line. Although it was still in production and not quite complete, here’s a look at this new model of centrifugal dryer which boasts increased efficiencies.
· Sizes available: 16', 20', 24'
· Single module or double stack units available
· Can run in full heat or pressure heat/vacuum cool mode.
· Pressure heat/vacuum cool operation is more efficient than pressure heat/cool because some of the heat off of the cooling grain is recovered, requiring less fuel to raise the drying air temperature.
· Centrifugal fans are quieter than axial fans and work well with the pressures of vacuum cooling.
I’d like to thank all members of the Sukup family for hosting me for the day. Look for more information about Sukup Manufacturing and the Sukup family in an upcoming issue of Farm Journal–they’ll be featured in our
Machinery Maker Series.
