The present disclosure is directed to an agitating system having a sub-hopper configured to receive particulate material, an agitator disposed within the sub-hopper and configured to promote movement of the particulate material through the sub-hopper, and a deflector configured to block a portion of the particulate material from exerting a force onto the agitator as the particulate material flows through the sub-hopper. The deflector is positioned such that the agitator extends beyond a first distal edge and a second distal edge of the deflector along a lateral axis.

A bean roasting system includes a roasting subsystem and an air handling subsystem. The roasting subsystem includes a housing, an agitator actuator, an agitator, a bearing and a door. The housing has an inner surface defining an inner chamber for holding a batch of beans during a thermal roasting process. The agitator is coupled to the agitator actuator and includes a central shaft and a blade set mounted to the central shaft. The bearing supports the central shaft and is configured to prevent the blade set from contacting the inner surface of the housing. The door has a transparent window to allow viewing of the thermal roasting process. The air handling system is coupled to the roasting subsystem, includes a blower and heater, and is configured to circulate heated air through the roasting subsystem during the thermal roasting process.

An agricultural incline conveyor having belt guards extending longitudinally through a curvilinear portion from a tail inlet to a head outlet. The belt guards protect linear edges of a belt within the curvilinear portion during mixing operations. A plurality of mixing baffles positioned within the curvilinear portion induce turbulent backflow of a metered stream of seed being transported through the curvilinear portion. The longitudinal guards prevent the loss of transported seed from entering between the belt and a trough of the curvilinear portion.

The controller that receives at least one sensor signal indicative of a measured profile of a particulate material within a storage tank of an agricultural system. The controller also determines whether a variation between the measured profile and a target profile is greater than a threshold value. The controller outputs a first output signal to a user interface indicative of instructions to inform an operator of a profile variation, outputs a second output signal to an agitator indicative of activation of the agitator, or a combination thereof, in response to determining that the variation between the measured profile and the target profile is greater than the threshold value.

A conveyor having a conveyance structure, mixing components, belt, and gas manifold. The gas manifold disposed within or on an exterior portion of the structure. The gas manifold having one or more manifold outlet ports to dry, condition, or treat a metered stream of seed within the conveyor. The manifold may be operably connected to a recirculating air system providing the vacuum source and pressurized air source of atmospheric or conditioned air. A filter and vacuum port may extract debris or humidity from the metered stream of seed within the conveyor. A plurality of mixing baffles may be longitudinally spaced apart through the conveyor in a laterally alternating manner to mix the metered stream of seed. The conveyor may be used to transfer, mix, dry, condition and treat the metered stream of seed between multiple stages of treatment.

High Specific Mechanical Energy extruder screw assemblies (14, 88, 98) and complete extruders (10, 86, 96) are provided, which include wide-flight intermediate screw sections (104) having axial flight widths greater than the flight widths of the inlet and outlet screw sections (102, 106) on opposite sides of the intermediate sections (104). The intermediate sections (104) provide increased friction and shear serving to enhance the SMEs imparted to comestible food materials during processing thereof.

A particulate material sensing and agitation control system of an agricultural system having a drive system configured to operate an agitating system, and a controller having a memory and a processor. The controller is configured to receive at least one sensor signal indicative of a profile of a particulate material within the agricultural system, and output a control signal to instruct the drive system to operate the agitating system in a selected operating mode of a plurality of operating modes based on the profile of the particulate material. The agitating system is configured to interact with the particulate material in each operating mode of the plurality of operating modes, and the plurality of operating modes includes an agitation mode and a leveling mode.

A system for preparing recipes with components coming from closed containers (S1-S5) provides for using one or more robotic units (1), each of which withdraws a selected container, arranging a plurality of hoppers (7.1-7.5), in each of which the withdrawn selected container is inserted by the robotic unit (1), and in each of which the container is automatically opened for loading the component into the hopper (7), discharging a preset component dose from each hopper (7), and collecting the dosed components for preparing the required recipe; a driving and control unit (15) provides for driving and controlling all of these operations as a function of the required recipe. Thereby, an automatic system for preparing recipes is achieved, which is fast, with a low processing cost, and free from risks related to the processing.

A particulate material agitation and leveling control system includes a controller having a memory and a processor. The processor is configured to receive a sensor signal indicative of a measured load on a drive system coupled to an agitation and leveling system, select an operating mode of the agitation and leveling system from an agitation mode and a leveling mode based on the measured load, and instruct the drive system to operate the agitation and leveling system based on the operating mode.

A seed treater having upper and lower ends includes a mixing bowl. The mixing bowl includes a stator having an annular upper inner surface defining an upper portion of the open interior of the mixing bowl, and a rotor defining a lower portion of the open interior of the mixing bowl. An air duct is fluidly connected to the mixing bowl and is configured to be fluidly connected to an air mover. The air duct includes a duct outlet configured to direct forced air from the air mover into the upper portion of the open interior defined by the upper stator to direct the seeds flowing in the upper portion of the interior of the mixing bowl inward toward a generally vertical axis of the mixing bowl as the lower rotor rotates relative to the upper stator.