Plant layout is very important. Coal is tested to various Standards and equipment suppliers meet those requirements quite admirably. There is an issue with siting the gear because the samples are, very reasonably, the last resort before the stuff goes into the bunkers or holds. Once it is there it is impossible to change the outcome except for the commercial implications. Final test results are usually only available once the ship is on the high seas or already burnt. Enter the contract engineers and accountants which means it is time for a tea break.

Sample weighing cannot be a criteria unless the scales are not calibrated, as if.

After all the rigmarole with coal sampling no one has devised a safe means of lowering the secondary sample, often more than 7 floors, to the lower level where it can be oven dried and stored. Tubs swing about in the wind and there is a possibility that samples get spilled. Make it safe in terms of cutter isolation and sample handling and leave the rest to the committees. ■

Roland is far more polite than I am going to be.

If somebody who is asking about sample weighing is in fact a specialist in that very same subject then it is better not to show crass ignorance. Either that or admit that you had married into the firm in the first place. The owner must be very understanding because you have done great damage to his business by asking questions that he probably spent years answering. ■