Oats arrive at the mill via bulk railcar or truck and are sampled to ensure suitable quality for milling. Once the grain is deemed acceptable, the oats enter the mill, they pass under a magnetic separator to remove foreign metal objects.
The oats are then cleaned, mainly on the basis of physical properties of the grain. Sieves are used to remove contaminants on the basis of size.
The cleaning process utilizes several devices to take advantage of particular physical properties of the grain.
The oats experience a series of rotating or oscillating screens that can both retain large objects (such as straw, sticks and stone) and let small objects such as underdeveloped oats, dirt, weed seeds and dust to pass through. The retained oat stream is then subjected to aspiration to remove more of the light materials.
This is followed by a dry stoner that removes high-density but similar-sized particles such as rocks and other grains, such as maize.
Oats processing: Cleaning
