Reaping the benefits

A collaboration between Kilic Engineering and SEW-EURODRIVE has changed the game for grain handling in Australia.

WITH THE AUSTRALIAN GRAIN

industry experiencing record harvests, the performance of grain handling equipment has become increasingly important – it can make all the difference to an operation’s productivity levels during harvest.

Agriculture’s contribution to the Australian economy – when factoring in all farm production inputs – accounts for an estimated 12 per cent of the gross domestic product, with the wheat industry alone valued at $8.5 billion.

Despite bushfires, drought, COVID-19 and global trade disruption, the sector has seen substantial growth, especially in cropping. The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resources Economics and Sciences (ABARES) attributes the volume growth and improved productivity seen in cropping partly to the adoption of new technologies and management processes.

The sector has also enjoyed back-toback bumper harvests. The 2020-2021 marketing year reported the second largest wheat crop ever on record. Forecasts predict the 2021-2022 season will fall just two per cent shy of that figure but achieve 25 per cent more than the five-year average. In fact, the September 2021 ABARES agricultural overview report determines that Australia’s total agricultural production will surpass the $70 billion mark for the first time due to a combination of high commodity prices and optimal seasonal conditions.

Threats to productivity

Regardless of these favourable conditions, labour shortages and border restrictions have threatened agribusinesses’ ability to deliver on the bumper season. While the sector has lacked skilled workers for the past decade, demand for unskilled labour is now considerably elevated adding additional pressure on businesses looking to secure seasonal workers.

The Federal Government announced a new agricultural visa in late 2021 but conceded that overseas workers would unlikely be available for immediately upcoming harvests. In some instances, where labour had been obtained from Pacific nations, workers were unable to enter Australia due to differing state quarantine controls and caps.

Disruptions to the global supply chain have also proven to be a serious roadblock in the availability of harvesting and commodity handling equipment and parts. Demand has surged in tandem with heightened cropping volumes, but many agribusinesses have gone without muchneeded equipment for lengthy periods.

Engineered to address challenges

Since its inception 45 years ago, Adelaide-based equipment manufacturer Kilic Engineering (KE), has been building bespoke handling solutions that are explicit to Australian conditions and challenges.

Craig Dennis, General Manager at Kilic Engineering says the founder of the company, Tony Kilic, is a mechanical engineer who had a vision to create hardworking machinery that would improve the safety, reliability and productivity of Australian materials handling operations.

“That vision has been realised with KE’s expertise in providing solutions that are truly fit for purpose,” he says.

The KE BunkerStacker agricultural equipment range exemplifies the company’s ability to tackle the pain points felt among grain handling operations.

Designed for rapid intake, these self-propelled machines speed up the offloading of grain for storage in a userfriendly, safe way.

“A lot of Australia’s grain is exported and the challenge during harvest season is to store this product until it can be shipped overseas. In warmer regions, the grain is usually stored in bunkers, which appear as big piles or stacks covered by large tarpaulins,” Dennis says.

“Like the namesake, the BunkerStacker machines are built to make that process easy and efficient. A key shared feature of this equipment range is the discharge chute which can be manipulated to shoot grain in virtually any direction. This enables customers to build a stack that makes optimal use of their storage capacity.”

The machines have been popular among grain handlers, farmers, and truck drivers alike because they are so efficient.

Susan Collier, KE Operations Manager, says they’re designed to minimise spillage which is a known pain point.

“The multi-directional chute and large bed ensures they can get the most grain into each stack without the need for sweeping and shovelling up spilled product,” she says.

“Truck drivers delivering from the farms love the BunkerStackers because they have long, gently sloped ramps and provide a large target zone for the efficient dumping of grain. Drivers will go the extra mile to offload at a BunkerStacker because the more loads they can do, the bigger their pay packet.”

While KE’s first BunkerStacker came to market in 1999, the equipment has had multiple upgrades since then.

“It’s important to point out that not only is each machine unique and exclusive to every customer, but every iteration comes from listening to our customers,” Collier says.

“We have post-harvest reviews where customers give us feedback on machine performance, and often they provide us with a wish list of features they’d like to see or have upgraded. Depending how viable these suggestions are, we will incorporate them into the next generation of equipment. We also meet regularly with our stakeholders to discuss new technology or changes to existing technology that what we could adopt to improve the equipment.”

Often the primary objective of updating the technology is to improve the safety of the machinery. For example, the KE BunkerStackers have features such as hydraulic jacks, automated takeup

systems, on-board compressors, pendant controls, shade canopies and easy access ramps.

“Our aim is to make these machines user friendly and safe for seasonal workers,” Collier says. “The more the machine can do automatically, and with simplistic controls, the less stress that puts on workers who aren’t necessarily experienced in using grain handling equipment.”

Importantly, the BunkerStacker equipment uses reliable, quality componentry such as SEW-EURODRIVE gearmotors.

“Grain handlers prefer our machines because they see the SEW-EURODRIVE drive technology and they recognise that these machines will give them the best chance of being productive for the whole harvest,” Dennis says.

“Drive motors are critical components in this equipment, and the fact that we use SEW EURODRIVE drive technology helps when we put out proposals to a prospective customer – it gives them confidence that we’re going to deliver a quality product.”

A collaboration driven bysharedvalues

A commitment to quality and customerfocussed support are values that KE and SEW EURODRIVE share. For KE, working with SEW-EURODRIVE gives them peace of mind that the drive technology will perform to its optimum.

“As we’re custom-building these large, complex machines, we try to strategically reduce risk around the critical componentry, and that’s what we’ve done through our partnership with SEW-EURODRIVE,” Dennis says.

“We can effectively rely on their expertise, safe in the knowledge that when we get the drive to fit, it will deliver the required amount of power and torque. We don’t have to worry, meaning we can focus on other aspects of the machine such as the belts, idlers or mechanical design.”

The collaborative relationship KE have built with SEW-EURODRIVE – which began when the global drive manufacturer opened its facility in Adelaide over 13 years ago – also affords them security when it comes to parts supply. This has proven beneficial to KE’s customers throughout the pandemic disruptions.

“We share a high level of trust and transparency with SEW-EURODRIVE and they’ve been able to advise us regarding stock, including keeping reserves of particular componentry in store for us,” Dennis says.

“As a result, we’ve been able to maintain production and supply machinery to customers such as TPorts and The Manildra Group during COVID-19.”

The fact that SEW-EURODRIVE has approximately $35 million AUD worth of local stock holdings has certainly aided their ability to meet KE’s requests.

Robert Justice, the State Manager for SEWEURODRIVE in South Australia, says it’s a major point of difference with SEW.

“We’re very much in a league of our own when it comes to stock holdings and componentry,” Justice says.

“Because of the modular nature of our units, many of the parts are interchangeable, so together with the company’s heavy investment into spares, we’re able to provide customers such as KE with the security of available stock and short lead times.”

A supportive partner

According to Kilic Engineering the assurance of support it receives from SEW-EURODRIVE is comparable to the company’s approach to customers.

“We’re a family company, and our values are aligned with those that a family have – we don’t sell machines to our customers and leave it at that, we provide end-to-end solutions and support that begins with the initial consult and continues well beyond the sale so that we can guarantee the machinery is working how it should,” Collier says.

“SEWEURODRIVE are similar in this regard. Even though they are a global company and can draw from a breadth of technical expertise and product knowledge, they provide us with a highly personalised, local service. There has never been a time when we haven’t felt supported.”

Justice says his company’s attitude towards support is that it should be personal.

“There is a set theme at SEWEURODRIVE which is that we are never far away from our customers,” he says.

“We have centralised manufacturing in Germany but decentralised assembly here in Australia, meaning that the stock is where our customers are, and so is the service and technical expertise.”

The relationship that KE and SEWEURODRIVE have developed has meant the two companies have developed a type of ‘shorthand’ when it comes to drive requirements.

“A long-term benefit of our collaboration is that we’ve both come to understand and draw from the other’s knowledge, expertise and competencies, which also extends to how we

In warmer regions, grain is usually stored in bunkers, which appear as big piles or stacks covered by large tarpaulins.

communicate – there is a type of implied or intuited understanding,” Justice says.

“That comes from trust, and often we can anticipate their needs successfully.”

KE values the face-to-face customer service they receive from SEWEURODRIVE and take advantage of the online support.

“We access CAD drawings online and when we figure out what we need with gearbox ratios, torque and power, we will enter that information and share our design with SEW,” Dennis says.

“They will then check that information – make changes or recommend alternatives if required – and come back to us with a file which we can put in our software and see exactly how that motor model is going to work.”

For the BunkerStacker equipment, KE use standard SEW-EURODRIVE gearmotors, which have the advantage of a compact and modular design.

“There are thousands of potential mounting shaft and power configurations, with these and they are backed by relatively short lead times and assembled to order locally in Australia,” adds Robert.

“They also have ingress protection and meet international standards in terms of being explosion-proof, which can be a hazard in grain handling applications where there is a lot of dust.”

Leveraging global export-ise

SEW-EURODRIVE’s drive technology is built to meet global standards and requirements.

“While we provide a standard gearbox range for the Super Roo BunkerStackers, we provide a wide range of products to KE for their different machinery that includes geared motors, geared reducers, AC motors, VSDs and motor controllers,” Justice says.

“In some applications we supply our Generation X.e heavy industry gear motors. What all our products share, however, is increased energy efficiency, and this is complemented by an in-depth understanding of energy regulations across the globe.”

This has been especially useful in instances where KE have had orders from overseas.

“We have relied on SEW-EURODRIVE significantly when it comes to exporting our machines to countries such as Japan and Qatar where we had no clue as to what the electrical regulations or voltages were in those countries, or what was required on the nameplate to clear customs,” Dennis says.

“We leaned heavily on SEWEURODRIVE and they helped us straight away. As a global company that moves motors and gearboxes on a daily basis around the world, they knew exactly what documentation and nameplate insignia to supply. Also, their motors are built for global use, and they just had all that information available and made it a seamless process.”

Without SEW-EURODRIVE’s expertise, Susan says KE would’ve struggled to calculate and deliver the machinery to exact requirements.

“Our biggest nightmare is to send a machine across and have it fail to clear customs, or find out that it is not compliant when it’s on the water – it’s not just the financial expense of doing that, but the potential damage to our reputation and brand,” she expands.

“SEW-EURODRIVE give us absolute confidence that the power outputs are correct and that we are delivering the right amount of torque on the machines supplied. Honestly, they’ve been immeasurably helpful and just being affiliated with their company and brand has made the whole export process from our perspective very smooth so far.”

BunkerStacker machines have been popular among grain handlers, farmers, and truck drivers alike because they are so efficient. The agriculture sector accounts for an estimated 12 per cent of Australia’s gross domestic product.