TLDR: Furst-McNess feed mill transformed their dangerous monthly cleaning routine—requiring 4-5 workers on overtime using scissor lifts to clean 40-foot tall areas—into an automated solution with SonicAire fans. The system eliminates the safety risks of elevated manual cleaning, saves $10,000 annually in overtime costs, and ensures continuous OSHA compliance for combustible dust management in their feed manufacturing facility.
Key Points:
• Previous cleaning: 4-5 workers, 5 hours monthly on overtime with scissor lifts
• 40-foot tall load-out areas previously impossible to maintain safely
• $10,000 annual savings in overtime labor costs
• Eliminates catastrophic grain explosion risks
• Now offers Division 1-rated units for interior mill applications
Video Transcript:
I’m Ron Kerkhoff. I’m Regional Operations Manager for the Midwest for McNess. I oversee Lodi and then we have other locations in Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Illinois that I oversee.
We make livestock and poultry feed, but what that means: could be beef, swine, sheep, chicken, duck, all kinds of different feeds. It brings in a lot of different ingredients. Corn, soybean meal, salt, calcium — all things that you need in your diet goes into an animal diet. And I’ve always said that animals eat better than humans because we give them what they need every time and every bite.
You’ll bring in the raw ingredients, you’ll bring in the corn. When you grind the corn, roll the corn, it’s potential for dust. You try to have an enclosed system, but even then a little bit of dust leaks out so it’ll be in the air, so it’s a constant challenge to keep it clean. Then once you weigh it up, it gets mixed up. We end up pelleting it, and then we cool it off. Then we put it in a bin to either be shipped out in bulk form, or we put it in a bin to be bagged off. So, anytime you’re weighing up product, there’s a little bit of dust that emits as you’re dropping into a bag. There’s a little bit of dust that emits when you’re dropping into a bulk feed truck.
It’s very important to control your dust. We’ve all seen explosions over the years or seen it on the news, and those things are just simply devastating. One of your big worries as a manager of a feed mill or a grain facility is you want to make sure you’re keeping the people safe. You got to keep your dust levels at a certain level. The last thing you want is to have to tell a family member that your son or your daughter or your husband died in a grain explosion. So, it’s always on the top of mind to do the right thing.
Before we got the SonicAire system, we’d bring in about four to five people, five hours on a weekend so it was all overtime help. We’d do that like once a month. We’d bring in a scissor lift, elevate to the top. We’d bring in brushes and air wands and blow off the ledges. And then after you’re all done, then people would come in and sweep it all up. So, it was a big, dirty job. Even helped a few times myself and it’s not fun, but just something you have to do when you’re in a feed mill.
These side walls in the load out receiving area: it’s 40 feet tall and it’s hard to reach those areas with a broom or air wand. And then you’re putting people at risk by elevating them clear up there and blowing things down. It’s a problem area. It’s hard to keep clean. So why not put in a system that will automatically do it for you? So, I’m glad that Furst-McNess allowed us to try this system. I think it’s a very good application. I think it’s gonna be positive for us to keep that area clean and meet the OSHA requirements.
Everybody has to deal with OSHA. You try to do everything you can, do the right thing for the employees and the team to make sure you have things right so it’s a safe environment. But then, if something does happen, then OSHA would come in and then it’s all over with. You can’t really react to it; it’s too late.
In our feed mill, and other typical feed mills, you have Class II Div 1 areas, then you also have Class II Div 2 areas. The Class II Div 2 areas is where dust can be in the area occasionally. Then Class II Div 1, that’s where dust can be in the air all the time, or there’s a big potential for dust. So, if you have an ignition source, then you’d have a chance for an explosion. Here in the load out receiving area, we consider that a Class II, so we’re able to put the SonicAire fans in. I’m excited to hear that SonicAire now has a Div 1 fan so we can apply it in the interior parts of the feed mill area, too. I think other mills in the country have probably been looking for the same solution.
I’m excited about the SonicAire fans. This is gonna save us a lot of time and overtime labor. I estimate it’s gonna save us $10,000 a year just in overtime cost alone. Right now we’re trying to do it once a month, but as anything goes, sometimes that gets pushed off to six weeks, you don’t get as clean as you want to be. So, I’m just excited we’re gonna really be able to keep that area clean on a constant basis going forward.
We went with a turnkey system mainly because we wanted to make sure that it got done right, was installed by professionals. And the other factor was just time. We’re all busy managing other things and didn’t have time to do another project like this. So, once the turnkey was available, it’s like, “Yeah, let’s go.” And it was a competitive price.
I’ve been very pleased with SonicAire. I think you guys have a good team. You communicate well. After we decided we wanted to go with it, I mean, you guys were out here two or three times looking at the process. You guys just do a spectacular job, and you pay attention to the details.
As long as these things work long-term like I think they will, I’d have no problem recommending the SonicAire fans. I think it’s a good solution for feed mills or grain facilities that have difficult areas to clean and I think it’s a winner.
