Woldgrain Storage Ltd expands with the help of Guttridge Equipment

Woldgrain Storage Ltd based at Hemswell Airfield in Lincolnshire was established in 1980 to store grain on behalf of its members. As a farmers' cooperative it works on a non-profit basis and the storage space is owned by the membership of shareholders. A board of eight farmer members oversee the store management and the primary objective of the business is to provide a cost effective storage option for farmers.

Over the last 25 years, it has expanded to its current capacity of 30,000 tonnes of ventilated storage and recently has just completed phase one of a major expansion programme which will see the capacity eventually rise to 57,000 tonnes.

A grant from the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) which is managed in the region by East Midlands Development Agency (emda) provided 37% of the capital cost, has allowed for the building of 26,000t of new storage with 13,000t available for harvest 2010 with the remainder available for harvest 2011. The new facility will include five new intake pits, a new high capacity drier, new colour sorter, high capacity cleaners and a gravity separator.

As part of this first phase expansion Lincolnshire based Guttridge Ltd who are a leading bulk material and powder handling equipment specialist, has worked closely supplying equipment to Game Engineering who were awarded the phase one contract to design, supply and install all the handling and processing systems for Clugston Construction Ltd.

Working with a tight time scale of three months Guttridge supplied a bespoke solution of thirteen chain and flight conveyors in three widths, ranging from 7- 95 metres in overall length and two 300mm wide soft flight chain conveyors all rated at a capacity of 250tph @ 750 kg/cu.m. Five Hiload 230 and two Hiload 370 Mk 11 belt and bucket elevators ranging from 12-24 metres in length were also supplied. The equipment supply was completed with a screw feeder and included eighteen associated inline electro-pneumatic slides to fit the chain conveyors.

With a wide variety of build options and special features to suit customers' requirements and applications Guttridge Mark 11 elevators feature a 45° angled inlet and outlet to minimise loss of height whilst maximising elevator efficiency. Further features include a heavy duty curved, close tolerance boot radius plate, large access panels above outlet and on sides of boot and a special sealing plate arrangement on elevator boot bearing mounts eliminating dust leakage. Any maintenance issues have been improved by incorporating top and bottom pulleys secured to shafts with taperlock bushes and top hood splits at shaft level allowing removal of shaft, pulley and bearings in one piece.

Guttridge Ltd is a provider of a wide range of services and is a leading UK manufacturer of equipment which can fulfil most bulk handling requirements. With an extensive in-house portfolio of equipment Guttridge has also partnered with a range of Pan European equipment and solutions providers allowing them to potentially fulfil any requirement.