Transcript
Speaker: Hello, my name is Steven Kilgore. I'm the managing editor for Feed & Grain Magazine and the host of the Feed & Grain Podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive deep into the issues affecting the feed manufacturing, grain handling, and allied industries.
Speaker: Today's episode is brought to you by the Binwhip from Numat Systems. The powerful dual impact Binwhip removes the toughest buildup and blockages in industrial storage silos without hazardous silo entry.
Speaker: Learn more today at binwhip.com. Today my guest is Jonathan Medemblek, Marketing Manager for Wollinga. Jonathan is here to discuss the 3510G Portable Emergency Bin Rescue System.
Speaker: This is a specialized pneumatic vacuum that was designed specifically for grain entrapment emergencies, helping rural fire departments and grain facilities respond faster when every second counts.
Speaker: We talk about how this machine differs from standard grain backs, why rapid response is critical in grain bin entrapment situations, and how rural fire departments can access government grants to add this life-saving equipment into their emergency response capabilities.
Speaker: I really hope you enjoy the interview. If you want to help out with the podcast or know listening to this in a podcast app, please rate us and subscribe. If you're listening online, sign up for the Feeding Grain newsletter, Industry Watch, to see when new podcasts drop and stay up to date with all the news from around the industry.
Speaker: Now, on to the show. Hey, Jonathan, thank you so much for joining me today. I really appreciate it. Yeah, not a problem. ah Thanks for having me on again, Steven. Yeah, happy to. We were chatting at IPPE and you told me about this product and I'm like, I just need to get them on after this because this is something I haven't really seen before. But before we get into all that,
Speaker: Can you tell me a little bit just about yourself and your kind of relationship with the industry? Yeah, so I'm the ah marketing manager for Wallinga. I've been doing it for a number of years now. Managing all of the marketing related items for Wallinga, whether it be our trade shows or our advertising, social media, website,
Speaker: All that kind of thing. I've got a team of a couple other people that I work with. And we're building bulk feed bodies and pneumatic and vang systems for the grain and feed industry over 70 years now. It's a family business. mean, we take a lot of pride in building quality equipment for the industry.
Speaker: It's funny. As I get older, too, people ask me how long I've been doing this. And I always have to be like, it's been 12, 13, 15. Who knows at this point? yeah It's been a while and it never gets old.
Speaker: No, no, it doesn't. I mean, I was lucky enough. I think we came into the industry not that far apart from each other. And i've so I've known you basically this entire time, which is always nice to us. We kind of we get to age with all the people we've met.
Speaker: But when I was talking to you at IPPE, you mentioned a really cool product that you guys had come out that i hadn't even really realized. It's the Walinga 3510G Portable Emergency Bin Rescue.
Speaker: So the idea is this is a ah pneumatic vacuum, correct, that you can move with your truck. And it is a lot more portable than a normal one, so it can move through things.
Speaker: But it's made specifically for grain entrapment events, right? Engulfment and entrapment events to quickly move grain out of a bin in an emergency. Do I have that right?
Speaker: Yeah. So we we've had a small portable grain vac quite a few years, 3510. It's basically a four-inch grain vac. So it uses four-inch conveying lines.
Speaker: We've offered it in a gas-powered model and an electric model. and a three-point hitch model for quite a few years. But we saw a bit of a need in the industry as far as grain bin entrapment goes. And unfortunately, grain bin entrapment has been an issue for a very long time. It continues to be.
Speaker: Our racks have been used. Our PTO machines, our self-contained units like the 3510 have i've been used in the past to help rural fire departments and elevators and things like that, do grain-made entrapment rescues and recovery and and things like that.
Speaker: But we saw a need for a specific machine that was suited for rapid response. So we basically, we took our 3510, And kind of tailored it specifically towards the rural fire departments for their bin rescue operations.
Speaker: You guys kind of saw that there was this need. I mean, obviously, people were already using your vacuums for this need um and then decided to design around it. ah Did you get a lot of like responses from grain handlers, rural fire departments on what they needed for this particular type of machine? And what what kind of stuff did they want?
Speaker: Yeah, so we had this idea together with our sales team and our product development team and input from a handful of rural fire departments. We built a couple of them, right, and sent them out into the field and to our sales team and got a couple of different fire departments in the U.S. outfitted with the vacs and custom built them to fit on a trailer and make it so that the hoses were easily accessible,
Speaker: We had it so that the nozzles and things were ready to go. So just making the whole entire unit ready to go at a moment's notice. And then we were able to outfit the machine with different hose connections, right? Whether they be a Wollinga hose connection or what they call a cam lock connection, that kind of thing. And then just adding things to like work lights and tie downs for safe transport and things like that.
Speaker: So the machine is is kind of versatile, whether it's mounted to a trailer with everything ready to go, or maybe it's mounted in the back of a a dedicated rapid response truck that works as well. And then there's other things on it too, like the motor is fuel injected, for instance. So it's always ready to go. And that's that's a big factor.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, you'd think it would need to be because it's one of those situations where every second counts. So you really you kind of need it to be easy to use and flexible in a lot of situations.
Speaker: Can you walk us through a little bit about just like, what would a typical call be? So someone hears a rural fire department, hears an emergency call come in, what do they do? How do they get it there? And how does it operate it?
Speaker: Yeah, so from my experience and what I've seen from the sales team and the different training sessions that we've done recently with some fire departments is ideally when the call comes in, the 3510 bin rescue vac is ready to go. So typically I think what they're doing is having it mounted to a trailer with all the hoses and all the equipment and everything you could possibly need ready to go so they can hook on and get on site as soon as possible.
Speaker: And then I think what happens quite often too is when the vac arrives, typically they're going to want to go in through the top of the grain bin, through the the access um hatch at the top of a bin.
Speaker: And then they basically have to get the the grain out from around the person that is trapped in the bin. So typically they would set up some sort of, you've probably seen those three or four piece tubes that they can slide around somebody in the grain. Yeah, call for dams. Yeah, or even sheets of plywood or something like that. And then the idea with the bin rescue vac is once they've got that cofferdam around the person, they can suck the grain out a whole lot quicker than scooping it out by hand or using maybe one of those cordless augers or something like that. So it's it just because of the capacity of it, it just makes it a whole lot quicker.
Speaker: Yeah, I'd imagine so. The capacity has to be like the big, big advantage because you're right. They make those little like drill power or like auger things that people use. And you've seen people do stuff like, you know, tall shot backs, stuff like that. And that just isn't enough, especially if they say you're once you're like up to your chest, you pretty much can't breathe anymore. So you really got to get in there quick.
Speaker: If you're in grain up to your waist, you can't be pulled out. They have to get the grain down below your waist. So yeah, the faster you can get that grain out. And like you said, when you're up to your chest, it makes it increasingly difficult to breathe too. Every time you exhale, right, push the grain more and more against your chest. So it's it's very important to get in there and and get that grain out of there as fast as possible.
Speaker: And it makes sense having it kind of permanently be on a trailer because originally my thought would be like, oh, be kind of like, you know, times of the essence. it' be hard to get it on the back of a truck or whatever and put it out. But having a kind of dedicated rain rescue trailer with this on it, maybe, you know, one of those coffer dams seems like a really good solution for a lot of rural fire departments.
Speaker: It also means that you can hook it up to like a pickup truck, right? You don't have to worry about whether a fire engine can get out and into a farm field. Because we wish bins were always easily accessible, but that's just not the case.
Speaker: Yeah, typically that's what we're doing with fire departments is mounting it to a dedicated trailer with everything they could need on site to do a grain bin rescue. We mentioned the portability a lot, but what I thought was kind of cool is it seems like it's pretty slender too, right? It's a smaller design, so it can do stuff like fit through doors and get into kind of nooks and crannies that you wouldn't think this type of machine would be able to do.
Speaker: Yeah, it's definitely versatile. It's, I mean, it's relatively lightweight. It's designed to fit through a standard size door. It's a handy little machine. There's a lot of different things you could use it for. But I think as far as grain bin entrapment goes, it'll surprise you with how much grain it'll move for being how small it is.
Speaker: And it seems like you guys have really worked on making it pretty universal, right? You don't need Walinga parts are like, you know, hoses and things. seems like it works well with other equipment and it can be kind of part of an overall package. Not necessarily that everything has to come through Walinga, correct?
Speaker: Yeah, and a lot of our dealers will carry parts for it. We typically on these machines are using what is called a cam lock coupling, which is pretty standard that you would use in the the fire rescue industry. so Plus you guys painted it red for everybody, and that's always useful.
Speaker: And it could be used to transfer all kinds of grains, right? What about kind of thicker materials, DDGs and stuff like that? Can it be used to move that stuff as well?
Speaker: Not a whole lot that it won't do. You'd be very surprised at what it will will convey. I've cleaned out pits with it and things like that. High moisture corn is not an issue whatsoever for this machine.
Speaker: And even lighter, fluffier bulk materials is normally not an issue either. And is it rated to be used in dustier environments, more hazardous locations?
Speaker: Yeah, we've got them equipped with explosion-proof motors and that kind of thing as well. So we've also offered high-efficiency receiver tanks on them too for things like a lighter, fluffier material.
Speaker: We've even incorporated or offer air purge-style receiver tanks as well on these machines. So there's a lot of different options when it comes to the 3510 grain Which is good, especially if he's going to a rural fire department. I mean, I guess a large enough co-op or grain company could technically buy one of these and have it for their locations. But it's part of a donation to a rural fire department and part of their equipment, however they get it. It just seems like it's for the community. So there's a lot of different commodity types and a lot of different situations it could be put into. So that flexibility seems really valuable, especially the ability to move wet grain, which a lot of these accidents have.
Speaker: happen because of, you know, wet or badly conditioned grain. And we've worked with a number of rural fire departments in helping them get government grants and things like that. a lot of areas in the U.S. have grants available for these fire departments, too, that make it a little bit more affordable to put together a bin rescue, rapid response, rain vac package, something like this, too. So we've worked with some departments on that as well.
Speaker: That's a really cool idea. That way, even if you or your company can't afford to or doesn't want to donate everything to a fire department, just seeming to be able to get the ball rolling, working with you or their local fire department to kind of go out there and start this process, look at the grants that are available. That seems really neat.
Speaker: If people want to know more information, where should they go? Where can they find you? on our website wallinga.com there's a bunch of information available on this machine in particular the 3510 bin rescue pack also lots of other information about our other versions of thirty five ten s there's a place where you can locate your nearest dealer or even nearest wallinga sales representative if you looking for some more information on that.
Speaker: And yeah, reach out to us via the website for a free quote or more info. And you'll know it is the 510G by it being read. and All the other brochures are green, so this one's really easy to pick out.
Speaker: Yep, there you go. And quite often we'll have one of these on display at some of the various trade shows that we go to across Canada and the US. So there's ah there's a trade show schedule on our website as well. So I think the next... trade show that you i'm not sure when this podcast will air but i know our next trade show that you might be able to see one of these machines at will probably be the farm progress show and then got ag in motion which is up in canada as well and ohio farm science reviews is a good show to see us at as well so yeah you guys get all over the place don't you yeah do a lot of trade shows
Speaker: You're a busy man. Well, I appreciate you coming by and talking to us about this today, though. It's a really cool thing that I think more people should be aware of. Not a problem. I appreciate you having me on again. Happy to do it and hopefully have me on you again in the future.
Speaker: Thank you so much for joining me, Jonathan. Yeah, have a good day. And for everyone out there listening, thanks so much for doing so. And until next time, stay safe.
