Dear thomasswansen,

It seems that you have flow problem in your railcar.

The first 160.000 lbs. are unloaded when the cargo is properly aerated.

The rest must be properly fluidized to move the material to the railcar outlet and that is not happening.

The fluidizing system in the rail car is failing and that part must be re-designed.

Without a drawing of the used rail car tanks (round horizontal tanks with/without air slides or vertical cone tanks) it is not possible to give you an idea how.

The sledge hammer solution is the least sophisticated one and causes damage to the tank. ■

Dear thomasswansen,

From your pictures it seems that there is indeed a material flow problem in the railcar.

The pictures show Type S lime that has very poor flow characteristics.

Most likely the Type S lime has:

-A very small particle size (<20 micron)

-Platelike particle shape

-Resulting in stickiness properties.

These properties cause that the lime is not properly aeratable and fluidizable.

During pressurizing the railcar tank, there might be bubble flow creating un-fluidized volumes.

Equipping the railcar tanks with high pressure air injection spots in the cones will help the remaining pockets to destroy. (Try and test one railcar first)

But that must be made to all tanks, making them dedicated for S lime.

In the mean time use the sledge hammer and do not tell the railcar owner. ■