Sukup Manufacturing Co. wins 2 AE50 Awards

SHEFFIELD, Iowa – Two new products from Sukup Manufacturing Co. have been honored by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) as among the 50 outstanding innovations of 2012.

The award-winning products are the Sukup Modular Tower Dryer and the Triangle Aeration Duct. The Modular Tower Dryer provides cost-effective heat/vacuum cool drying and is easy to assemble on-site. The Triangle Aeration Duct provides better airflow under deeper grain in hopper bins.

The awards were announced Oct. 29 and will be presented Jan. 28 at the ASABE Agricultural Equipment Technology Conference (AETC) in Kansas City, Mo.

“We’re very pleased and honored to receive AE50 Awards for these two products,” said Charles Sukup, president of Sukup Manufacturing Co. The recognition “underscores the emphasis our company puts on innovation,” he said. Three other products made by the company won awards last year – the Single-Phase Centrifugal Dryer, the Grain Buster bin unloading aid, and the Safe T Home®.

The annual awards competition is sponsored by Resource magazine, published by ASABE.

Charles Sukup said it is an honor and very gratifying to be recognized by agricultural engineers for products that help make grain handling more safe, efficient and profitable.

To be eligible for an award, products must have been introduced and made commercially available between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2012. Products or systems nominated must be intended principally for use in the production, processing, research, storage, packaging or transportation of agricultural and food products, and have the potential for broad impact.

Following are profiles of the AE50 Award-winning products from Sukup Manufacturing Co.

Modular Tower Dryer

The Modular Tower Dryer provides farmers the capacity and vacuum-cooling advantages of tower dryers typically found at commercial elevators, but without the expensive setup costs of a built-on-site tower dryer. Alignment pins are used to stack the factory-built sections rapidly, and centrifugal inline blowers provide quieter, higher-pressure airflow than other models. A crew of 4 to 6 can assemble the modules in six to 10 hours. The rapid assembly time makes the dryers affordable on farm sites, where the need for a crew to be onsite for several days makes traditional tower dryers cost-prohibitive. The use of a centrifugal inline blower instead of an axial fan provides more airflow at higher pressures and quieter operation than competing brands. A Sukup Modular Tower Dryer can dry up to 1,500 bushels of corn per hour. As grain yields continue to increase, so does the need for affordable, state-of-the-art on-farm drying systems. The Sukup Modular Tower Dryer meets this need.

Triangle Aeration Duct

The Triangle Aeration Duct is a high-strength product for aerating grain in a hopper bin or other storage structure. Developed primarily to withstand deep grain, the Triangle Aeration Duct exceeds strength and airflow capabilities of traditional round ducts, and allows quicker clean-out. Triangular support ribs allow air to flow through the duct. Perforated metal panels are bolted to the ribs using nutserts. The duct is then attached to the inside of a grain structure and an opening is cut in to allow entry of air from a fan outside of the bin. The entrance can be adapted to accommodate use of axial, low- or high-speed centrifugal fans, or inline centrifugal fans. By accommodating a wide variety of fans, aeration can be easily customized. Withstanding grain pressure without collapsing is critical to the success of any aeration system. Sukup’s Triangle Aeration Duct provides a better combination of strength and airflow than previously available options.

For more than 20 years, companies from around the world have nominated products for AE50 awards. An international panel of industry-leading engineering experts select up to 50 products thatbest reflect engineering advancements for the agricultural and food industries.

Sukup Manufacturing Co. is a family-owned business that has been providing top-quality products to agricultural producers since 1963.

Sukup is the fastest-growing bin manufacturer in the world. Its product line includes farm and commercial grain bins, portable and tower dryers, centrifugal and axial fans and heaters, stirring machines, bin unloading equipment and bin floors and supports.

Sukup also makes a line of material handling equipment that includes bucket elevators, drag conveyors and chain loop conveyors, and sells agricultural and commercial buildings under the name Sukup Steel Buildings.

Sukup products are sold throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as in more than 50 other countries.