We don't have a forum titled along the specific activities of ship loading and unloading although the machinery is often the largest and most expensive encountered in our field of endeavor.
Regardless:
I was recently asked to develop improvements for hold clean up operations. I was shown a photo of a forlorn screw extractor hovering over a hold floor. It was difficult beyond absurdity to adequately clean up this hold using wheel loaders alone although that method is always suggested to 'aid' clean up. Youtube shows many skid steer loaders and the like being aimlessly driven up and down the hold floor. Alternatively, mechanical shovels are sent in to dislodge material into the working envelope of the unloading machine. But it is already acknowledged that the skid steer loaders struggle so what chance has a mechanical shovel?
the situation can be vastly improved by sinking an open bottom bin, along with a standpipe, down onto the exposed hold floor and lowering the extractor screw down into the standpipe. When the skid steer shovel feeds the bin an annulus between the floor and the bottom edge of the standpipe allows cargo to reach the bottom flight of the extractor screw and elevate captured material between the screw and the standpipe. This process enables the loader to aim at restoring the intended cream digging rate and relieve frustrations of the folks working down in the bowels of the vessel.
Stevedoring
We don't have a forum titled along the specific activities of ship loading and unloading although the machinery is often the largest and most expensive encountered in our field of endeavor.
Regardless:
I was recently asked to develop improvements for hold clean up operations. I was shown a photo of a forlorn screw extractor hovering over a hold floor. It was difficult beyond absurdity to adequately clean up this hold using wheel loaders alone although that method is always suggested to 'aid' clean up. Youtube shows many skid steer loaders and the like being aimlessly driven up and down the hold floor. Alternatively, mechanical shovels are sent in to dislodge material into the working envelope of the unloading machine. But it is already acknowledged that the skid steer loaders struggle so what chance has a mechanical shovel?
the situation can be vastly improved by sinking an open bottom bin, along with a standpipe, down onto the exposed hold floor and lowering the extractor screw down into the standpipe. When the skid steer shovel feeds the bin an annulus between the floor and the bottom edge of the standpipe allows cargo to reach the bottom flight of the extractor screw and elevate captured material between the screw and the standpipe. This process enables the loader to aim at restoring the intended cream digging rate and relieve frustrations of the folks working down in the bowels of the vessel.
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John Gateley johngateley@hotmail.com www.the-credible-bulk.com