Measure grain uniformity - Improve milling performance

Uniform wheat performs better in the flour mill and uniform barley results in better malt yields. The SKCS 4100 makes it possible to objectively test for uniformity.

Instead of determining the average quality of an entire sample of grain kernels, the SKCS determines the characteristics for each kernel individually, in a fully automatic mode. Moisture, hardness, size and weight are analyzed for each individual kernel. For flour millers and maltsters grain uniformity information makes it possible to increase yields, and the SKCS is a tool which rapidly returns its equivalent investment cost.

The SKCS 4100 isolates individual kernels, weighs them, then crushes them between a toothed rotor and a progressively narrowing crescent gap. As a kernel is crushed, the force between the rotor and crescent and the conductivity between the rotor and the electrically isolated crescent are measured. This information is analysed to give weight, size, moisture and hardness information on each kernel.

Average hardness index, weight, size, moisture and their standard deviations are then calculated from the data obtained over 300 kernel samples. Hardness classification is constructed from the average hardness index of the sample and the distribution of individual kernel hardness measurements within four hardness ranges as defined by the USDA/GIPSA. Results are obtained as mean values and standard deviations for each of the four parameters. Distributions of kernel data are displayed in histograms. Further, the SKCS 4100 classifies the wheat according to the Hardness Index.