SGrain Near Infrared Grain Analyser
Infracont SGrain is a portable NIT (Near Infrared Transmission) grain and flour analyser designed to analyse whole grains and oil seeds as well as flour content parameters. Infracont SGrain is the only portable grain analyser in the world operating with a high-precision scanning grating monochromator optics inside and with a built-in printer. Besides this, Infracont SGrain is the only portable grain analyser in the world that can be used to analyse wheat flour, soymeal and other powdery materials.
Application areas
Infracont XGrain and SGrain instruments can be used to analyse the composition of grain and flour without sample preparation. The devices primarily serve to measure protein, moisture, gluten, ash, and oil content, but the Zeleny index can also be measured.
Main application areas of the instruments are:
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Grain production
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Grain receival and storage
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Grain trade
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Milling
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Bakery
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Pasta manufacturing
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Soybean pressing and extraction
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Row material analysis for animal feed
Principle of operation
Infracont XGrain and SGrain instruments are spectrophotometers operating in the Near Infrared (NIR) wavelength range. Infracont grain analysers are transmission mode (NIT - Near Infrared Transmission) instruments that apply light of 780-1064nm wavelength range for the measurement. Some biological materials, like grains and flours transmit light of the above wavelength range in a measurable extent. The instruments scan the material to be analysed and measures the intensity (spectrum) of the transmitted light at several wavelengths. The measurement of the spectrum is done at some selected wavelengths: the light of these wavelengths are produced by a so called scanning grating monochromator.
Based on the light intensities measured by a photodiode, the built-in computer calculates and displays the characteristics of the analysed material. Before the analysis we have to determinate the mathematical correlation between the spectrum of the transmitted light and the component to be measured in advance – this mathematical equation is called calibration. For each product and component different calibrations are needed. Developing a new calibration requires the measurement of the spectra of a large number of samples analysed with ‘traditional’ methods in laboratory. We calculate the calibrations based on these spectra. The instruments can only measure a component of a product after installing the relevant calibration.
Instruments equipped with a scanning grating monochromator represent the premium category of NIR grain analysers as their higher optical resolution enable higher accuracy of measurements.
Calibrations
Infracont develops calibrations for Infracont grain analysers with Partial Least Squares (PLS) or MLR (Multiple Linear Regression) method, based on sample series analysed in laboratory. The calibrations are transferable from one instrument to another. The instruments are delivered with the calibrations installed according to the requirements of the customers.
The list of the available calibrations can be downloaded here.