We have a conventional boom stacker - 25m boom with 1600mm belt conveyor for handling limestone/clay mix and limestone of 2 grades.
For the high grade limestone, we form a longitudinal stockpile.
The reclaim system comprise of 3 static openings in the bed with rill gates and reclaim conveyor in a tunnell.
The stockpile is reclaimed using only one of the three rill gates at any one time. We have a material sensor on the reclaim belt to detect if we have flow or not, if there is not, then the PLC will change rill gates until there is flow on the belt.
So - we have an automatic reclaim system.
But for the stacking syste,. the postioning of the stacker is done manually. The stacker has to be positioned along the stockpile where there will be room to add more limestone. The operator has to judge where to locater the stacker.
This is because the shape of the stockpile will vary depending upon the reclaim activities...the pile may have "inverted cones" of varying shpes depending on this.
As a result of this setup - the labour requirement is high and also the stockpiling operation is not continos loading...frequent stops and starts.
So......what would be nice is to have a smart PLC system and sensors that could detect the "shape" or form of the stockpile along the lenght of the pile (working in a dust environment)...do some calcs. on the "spare" capacity at various lenghts and then work out where to move the stacker to without stopping the inloading conveyors...
It would have to be smart enough to keep checking for shape changes due to reclaim activities - perhaps an comms. interface with rill gate positions and reclaim belt running.
Has anyone got any ideas or solutions to this little problem.??
Smart Stacking Control System Ideas
Hi All,
We have a conventional boom stacker - 25m boom with 1600mm belt conveyor for handling limestone/clay mix and limestone of 2 grades.
For the high grade limestone, we form a longitudinal stockpile.
The reclaim system comprise of 3 static openings in the bed with rill gates and reclaim conveyor in a tunnell.
The stockpile is reclaimed using only one of the three rill gates at any one time. We have a material sensor on the reclaim belt to detect if we have flow or not, if there is not, then the PLC will change rill gates until there is flow on the belt.
So - we have an automatic reclaim system.
But for the stacking syste,. the postioning of the stacker is done manually. The stacker has to be positioned along the stockpile where there will be room to add more limestone. The operator has to judge where to locater the stacker.
This is because the shape of the stockpile will vary depending upon the reclaim activities...the pile may have "inverted cones" of varying shpes depending on this.
As a result of this setup - the labour requirement is high and also the stockpiling operation is not continos loading...frequent stops and starts.
So......what would be nice is to have a smart PLC system and sensors that could detect the "shape" or form of the stockpile along the lenght of the pile (working in a dust environment)...do some calcs. on the "spare" capacity at various lenghts and then work out where to move the stacker to without stopping the inloading conveyors...
It would have to be smart enough to keep checking for shape changes due to reclaim activities - perhaps an comms. interface with rill gate positions and reclaim belt running.
Has anyone got any ideas or solutions to this little problem.??
Many thanks
James Morrish ■