Originally Posted by sganesh

Dear all,

Monsoon is a tough time for me. We have open yards to store iron lump ore and pellets. During monsoon, when this material is taken from the yards by front end pay loaders , rain water is also fed along with material, causing many problems for both maintenance and operation.

I am suggesting sieve bucket for those pay loaders (.i.e., the buckets will be having many holes) to our operation engineers. So considerable amount of water will be drained out in the yard itself before the material is fed to the hopper. By this way, I feel that the monsoon related problem may be reduced, though 100% not eliminated. Our average size of pellet is 20 mm diameter. So having many 10 mm holes in the bucket is desired, to drain the water.

Have you ever seen or used such arrangements ? Requesting your valuable reply.

Thanks & regards,

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The Buckets available these days are made for sizing and the buckets for most of the loaders are pressed and rolled then welded together.

You will be further ahead doing this and saving your money-

Purchase several Milwaukee brand magnetic base drills and a large quantity of titanium coated drill bits (jobber size length) to drill the series of pilot holes and then the 10 MM holes and be done with it.

You will be able to drill all the the holes in buckets you need and with zero issues other than time and labor, and needing a water based cutting fluid to flush the chips and keep things cleaner in the shop while you do this. ■

Originally Posted by sganesh

Thank you Mr.lzaharis,

Have you done similar exercise in your plant? How is the performance ? Are you happy with end results ?

Thanks & Regards,

Greetings and salutations,

Namakar Sganesh, over here the loader buckets for underground use

have drain holes on the bottom at the rear to allow the wet muck to

drain a lot when it is dug out of the mine face or an uncovered stockpile.

The more holes you have the better the immediate drainage of material

while it is being trammed to the hopper.

.

I would start with a pair of holes first at both ends of the bucket

and then see if it drains adequately for your needs and add more

holes if desired and you will have no worries about weakening the

bucket welds.

The problem with a screening bucket is cost and its machine specific so that

looses money for you if the machine is retired.

The magnetic drill or a good welder with a plasma cutter can quickly add a

few holes to start the drainage for you.

The rule with loose material bucket is always no holes as it allows materials

to spill out and you dont want that to happen(which is why you have all the water;

if you had digging buckets they would most likely have holes in the bucket. ■