Dear Heman,

the board members and I need more information,

please tell us the type of storage used, bin size,

delivery method to storage, and the unloading method used, and length of stoarge time for sunflower cake in your mill from the storage in question.

By the sounds of your description you do not have a massive flow of material at any time.

I probably missed something but it is a start for you and my fellow board members to help you.

lzaharis ■

A rathole develops because the effective size of flow channel is too small for the nature of the bulk material. There are various ways in which this problem can be addressed, but more information is needed on the installation to determine the best approach. We have recently modified the outlets of a bin containing 40,000 Te of fine coal to overcome serious ratholing dificulties and have rectified many other bins and hoppers to cure this problem.

If you care to send the constructional details of the silo and a description of the operation and current findings to tech@ajax.co.uk we will try to advise and send some background information. ■