Materials Handling

Mobile Harbour Equipment

The Aumund Group, including Schade and B&W Mechanical Handling, are developing and diversifying their activities throughout the ports and terminals industry worldwide with major new projects involving bulk material export, storage and handling, including dust-controlled equipment

By Andrew Mitchell, managing director, B&W Mechanical Handling Ltd

obile shiploaders offer an attractive achieve loading rates from truck to ship in conventional fixed installations. option for the export of dry bulk excess of 2,000 tonnes/h. Reacting to the demands of clients, B&W Mcargo direct from truck to ship, With the addition of powered travel have developed their mobile shiploader with eliminating costly fixed-conveyor installations facilities, the high-performance mobile facilities specifically geared to the handling and port infrastructure, and allowing almost shiploader offers a viable alternative to of cement clinker – an extremely ® any berth to be utilized for bulk exports. By combining Group resources, Aumund Fig. 1 are able to offer a comprehensive range of solutions, including the B&W surface- mounted Samson feeder, Stormajor mobile radial-boom stacker and mobile shiploaders, along with the established range of Schade stacking and reclaiming solutions for enclosed dust-controlled storage applications. Samson surface feeder By incorporating a Samson surface feeder into the shiploader as a single mobile unit, almost any bulk material may be received direct from tipping trucks, providing integral buffer storage and controlled-rate discharge to minimize truck turnaround times. As illustrated in figure 1, for maximum performance twin Samson feeders may be mounted to a single shiploader chassis to

March 2010 www.Agg-Net.com 25 Fig. 2 Fig. 3 aggressive and dusty material. The mobile shiploader shown in figure 2 is one of two units delivered to the port of Gizan in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is dedicated to the export of cement clinker and typically loads ships of Handymax size at rates of up to 1,200 tonnes/h. In this project clinker is produced at the cement plant of Southern Province Cement, located some 50km inland, and transferred to the port by a fleet of tipping trucks working on a merry-go-round principle. At the port the clinker is stored locally and transferred from storage to the shiploader, mainly by loading shovel. The equipment includes an integral Samson surface feeder unit mounted to the machine chassis and designed to accept material by loading shovel or direct from dumptrucks bypassing the local storage facility. Fig. 4 This is a fully mobile unit with powered travel and an independent on-board diesel genset, thus eliminating the need for any permanent conveyor system, shore-side power supplies or fixed port infrastructure. As illustrated in figure 3, the mobile shiploader has been extensively developed to include full dust-control measures, such as the Cascade chute, to control dust pollution down to the hold floor. In the application shown, the equipment is handling kaolin at a peak rate of around 1,000 tonnes/h direct from tipping trucks via twin integral Samson feeder units. In this case, simple, flexible, PVC-clad enclosures are provided for the Samson Fig. 5 units and the out-loading boom, with no fan-assisted or other type of dust-extraction For receiving material from tipping trucks, Stormajor radial-boom system, even though kaolin is an extremely the Samson surface feeder offers a flexible stacker dusty material and the equipment is operating and economical alternative to conventional at the Port of Par, which is located in an underground pits or hoppers, with the added For barge-loading operations the B&W extremely popular tourist area of the UK. benefit of much-reduced dust generation Stormajor radial-boom stacker (fig. 4.) is By virtue of the handling characteristics of and complete flexibility of location irrespective proving popular in a number of diverse the Samson feeder, material is effectively of local ground conditions. Being surface industries and different global locations. drawn into the Samson body by the forward mounted, the Samson unit can offer real cost Thanks to the long outreach of the moving belt, thus eliminating free fall and advantages in a port environment where the cantilevered out-loading boom, the traditional substantially eliminating dust generation at normally high water table makes conventional B&W Stormajor can operate on a simple river source. deep pits extremely expensive to construct. berth and discharge direct to barges moored

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Fig. 6 to a pontoon or similar berth, thereby capabilities, allowing the unit to move along Stormajor unit will be used to export hard eliminating the need for any permanent civil the wagon train and eliminating the need for stone (gabbro), which is delivered to the works and providing maximum operational a locomotive, thus saving on operational shipping berth in large off-highway flexibility. costs while maximizing flexibility. dumptrucks. For importation in the port or bulk A second new and significant order, being This is the largest Stormajor to be designed terminal, the B&W mobile Stormajor radial- manufactured for Basalt AG of Germany but by B&W to date and it incorporates a boom stacker offers considerable flexibility destined for Russia, is shown in figure 7. This large Samson 1600-Series feeder plus a ® and can be used for stacking, barge loading and rail-car loading, making it an extremely Fig. 7 versatile piece of equipment. Figure 5 shows a new machine constructed for the port of Neuss Düsseldorf, in Germany. The Stormajor receives imported iron ore from bulk carriers via grab crane and loads directly into rail wagons at a controlled rate. In this application, the Stormajor features a continuous weighing system to monitor the contents of each rail car in order to avoid overloading. Figure 6 shows a similar machine loading rail cars direct from tipping trucks at a siding in northern France. In this case the Stormajor is equipped with powered travel

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Fig. 8 30m long outloading boom with sufficient outreach to load barges moored to offshore dolphins. Developed for the mining and cement industries, Samson 1600-Series feeders are designed to handle as-mined rock with lump sizes up to 500mm, acting as primary feed units for crushing or similar primary intake plant. Available with holding capacities up to 100 tonnes in mobile configurations, the Samson 1600 expands the application range of the Stormajor to extreme-duty operations in the most arduous conditions. In this particular case, the equipment will be designed and built for operations in extremely low temperatures (down to –40°C). This will require specialized construction techniques and component selection to ensure reliable operation. At the opposite extreme, Salgaocar Mining Industries of India have chosen the Stormajor for the loading of iron ore on to barges at a rate of 1,250 tonnes/h in temperatures up to 45°C. A total of six Stormajor units were delivered for operation on various river berths in and around Goa. Since there are no deep-water ports nearby, the iron ore is transported by self-propelled barges to a floating transhipment facility anchored offshore, where, typically, vessels up to Panamax size are loaded. In this application the Samson 800-Series feeder section, with its extended loading area, receives material from up to three tipping trucks simultaneously to achieve the required average loading rate. Figure 8 shows one of the units during commissioning. Fig. 9

Eco-Hopper the reject grill, dust is contained within the Group products are designed to offer port or For bulk material imports, the B&W Eco- hopper bowl and fugitive emissions terminal operators effective materials- Hopper offers a solution for the grab- are minimized to reduce environmental handling solutions, while providing maximum discharge handling of heavy and abrasive pollution. operational flexibility and minimum materials, such as cement clinker, or light and The Eco-Hopper is available for direct investment risk. dusty materials, eg biofuels. discharge to a belt conveyor, as shown in For further information, contact B&W The hopper includes integral dust filters figure 9, or with an Aumund dust-controlled Mechanical Handling Ltd on tel: mounted between the inner and outer cones truck-loading spout for direct discharge to (01353) 665001; fax: (01353) 666734; around the periphery of the hopper inlet. tipping trucks. email: [email protected]; website: Combined with flexible baffles directly below All of the above examples of B&W Aumund www.bwmech.co.uk

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