After harvest, the grain begins its journey from the farm to grain terminals and then on to be used directly or manufactured into various products. An operator oversees that grain is loaded into trucks or rail cars, transporting it from farm to cities around the world. In one particular grain mill, the operator knows that the cost of shipping dry bulk materials can be the most expensive part of a product cost and loading rail cars and trucks can be a little tricky. If the operator fills the car too full, the company is handed a large fine. But leaving space in the car means the company is paying to ship air.

Siemens recommended using a dry solids flowmeter as it can reduce shipping costs by measuring the bulk material as it's loaded into the vehicle. With an accuracy of ±1%, this flowmeter gives our operator the ability to load rail cars and trucks to 99% of capacity, reducing total shipping costs by as much as 9%. The SITRANS WF100 measures dry bulk materials as they are gravity fed through a pipe. Material enters the meter through a flow guide, which directs the material to impact the sensing plate. The force at which material strikes the plate is measured and used to calculate the instantaneous flow rate. That flow rate is then integrated with time to calculate the accumulated total.