Aeration Control Australia Increases Grain Production Efficiency With AirLink Raven XE

Aeration Control Australia, part of the Industrial Automation Group, focuses on the delivery of high-quality grain aeration control systems.

Challenges

Today’s tough economic climate is seeing smaller farms bought out by larger neighbors, resulting in consolidated farming businesses dealing with more storage facilities spread out over a larger geographic area. In order to efficiently control grain facilities in multiple locations, farmers require remote monitoring of silos and control of fans from a central location. Aeration Manager™ - a grain storage control system by Aeration Control Australia - provides farmers with the means to remotely control environmental conditions, such as the activation of fans to either dry or cool grain within their silos.

Solution

The Aeration Manager system is three controllers in one, allowing for drying, cooling, and maintenance of grain. The compact form factor and external Ethernet port of the Sierra Wireless AirLink® Raven XE intelligent Ethernet gateway enables a straightforward integration within the Aeration Manager controller. Once integrated with the Raven XE, the Aeration Manager becomes a fully connected 3G remote data collection point no longer reliant on wired connectivity, which can be very difficult to install in remote locations.

“Being able to improve grain production and storage efficiencies through a simple piece of equipment is something that applies to the standard farmer,” explained Henk de Graaf, managing director at Industrial Automation Group. “Using the Raven XE devices for cellular communication allows us to provide an affordable system that works well for both smaller farms and larger facilities.”

The Raven XE gateway is powered by ALEOS™ embedded intelligence for reliable and feature-rich operation, enabling remote configuration of over 500 parameters, packet-level diagnostics, and network session persistence. In addition, AirLink management software enables provisioning, managing, and troubleshooting of remote equipment from one central location. Finally, the rugged design of the Raven XE, as well as the wide temperature ranges in which it can operate, ensures the gateway is strong enough to perform in harsh field environments.

With pervasive, two-way data communication provided by the Raven XE, farmers can access measurable silo conditions at anytime and from anywhere through a secure web interface. This centralized data access is particularly important for farmers with silos in multiple locations, allowing them to monitor and control silo conditions without having to travel to each location. In addition, farmers can set text and email alerts for notification of breaks in pre-determined environmental thresholds, which further helps them to catch potential issues before they can damage product and cause financial losses.

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