Sackett Helps CHS Expand Blending Facility, Improve Accuracy For Customers

Posted by Matt Hopkins|July 21, 2015

CHS needed a blend plant that could vastly expand their capabilities in St. Charles, MN. The A.J. Sackett & Sons Co. engineered a high speed, PFB® blend plant with an eye to the future.

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CHS expanded its blending facility in St. Charles, MN, with the help of The A.J. Sackett & Sons Co.
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For speed, a 4 ton HIM Mixer is used at the CHS plant in St. Charles, MN.
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One of the big advantages CHS found with the Sackett system was the speed of the impregnation system.
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The Sackett system helps CHS provide its customers with the blend accuracy they require, uniform coverage of impregnated fertilizer and speed.
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The new blend system at CHS in St. Charles, MN, produces completely homogenous blends.
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To help keep up with the blend speeds, a 300 TPH in-floor reclaim system was designed that feeds a 250 ton overhead hopper.
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Orders can be created “on demand” and loaded in a couple minutes.
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Sackett’s Precision Fertilizer Blending® technology allows CHS to deliver highly complex prescription blends with speed and quality.

What They Needed

“The initial reason for needing the new blend system was to combine two dry fertilizer plants,” said Jason Frinack, plant manager CHS in St. Charles, MN. “Our plant in Chester, MN, was aging and did not have room for expansion while our St. Charles, MN, plant was built in 2009 but did not have the capacity to accommodate both sites. With St. Charles having adequate room for expansion it was decided to close the Chester site and combine it with St. Charles. First of all we needed a blend system that could produce an accurate mix fast, utilizing both macro and micronutrients. With the high volume of impregnated fertilizer that we supply to our customers, Sackett seemed to be the best fit for us.

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“A big advantage we found with the Sackett system over other blend systems was the speed of the impregnation system. With the Sackett system we were able to provide our customers with the blend accuracy they require, uniform coverage of impregnated fertilizer and speed. As our customers continue to increase the speed they are able to plant their crops, we believe the blend system from A.J. Sackett will allow us to continue to meet their needs now and in the future.”

What We Designed

To meet the challenging goals of CHS, Sackett “turbo charged” their HIM tower,” said Charles Formisani, VP, Sales The A.J. Sackett & Sons Co. “For speed, a 4 ton HIM and dual weigh hopper system was used. Gates were increased to the max level to still achieve down to two-pound scale breaks. The combination provides blend speeds of +240 ton/hr. and straight product loadout of over 400 ton/hr. Another challenge was the advanced prescription blends that would be required with up to 14 liquids to be impregnated. A very sophisticated liquid feed system was designed by Kahler Automation which fed a (6) nozzle spray system in the HIM mixer where (6) liquids can be sprayed simultaneously so that speed is not compromised when impregnating. To keep up with these speeds, a 300 TPH reclaim system was designed which feeds a 250 ton overhead hopper.”