Originally Posted by gregory

Hi Guys,

What would be the best and quickest way to clean transfer chutes on conveyer systems,delivering iron ore to ships at ports?

The conveyor system delivers 4000t per hour running at 11-12meters per second..

I would like to use air and vacuum,to clean transfer chutes between material types changing,to reduce contamination.

Any thoughts,or am i in the wrong place for this question...i am new here..

Thanks..

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Its an opportunity cost question; can you afford to really clean the transfer points and the time it takes and is the time spent woth it?

If the transfer points are open it would be relatively easy but if they are closed it become a time problem.

If the chutes are designed properly their will be little to no build up anyway-but saying that you have not mentioned how much clay is in your ore.

Are you intent on cleaning the head pulley scrapers and tail pulley plows too with this method? they collect fines as well dont forget that part.

Shoveling and cleaining under the tail pulleys and the drive units when the belts are off and locked out are good housekeeping any way.

Do you really want to do all this which may include blowing any residue off the top of the belt?

I could see having a super sucker and an air lance to clean spills and save time zeroing the shoveling time but not between grades of hematite.

Fugitive dust is always a problem and then the problem becomes one of whether it is hazardous to health.

if your not doing any housecleaning as metioned above you will have a lot of build up anyway. Any it will have an effect on the belt due to friction. ■

Now that I know a bit more;

An air lance and a trailer mounted vacuum system- the small ones such as the

Vactor jet rodder and others are used to clean sewers, catch basins etc.

the trailer mounted units have hoses to reach long distances etc., deciding what model to narrow it down to is another issue.

The trailer mounted units are self contained with power plants, rotary lobe vacuum systems, and hoses and piping extensions.

Cleaning a transfer point is not fun especially if the idiot that did the damage walked away after leaving the belt control on manual and walked away.

The units now have high pressure air on some models used to clean holes looking buried utilities safely.

here is small list of sewer cleaning machines that vacuum as well as offer high pressure air.

www.vector-vacuums.com

www.aquatechinc.com

I do not know what your budget is but the vector unit and others can clean spills, buried transfer points etc. with one person simply sucking everything up

and dumping it for retrieval as it is not waste etc., and the units have hoses and if you want to you could use solid 4 inch drainage tubing as a sucker hose as it is less

weight to handle and more flexible.

The thing you have not mentioned is if the transfer point is closed etc. , If so you could simply have a port to plug the hose into and use an air lance to break up the build up inside the

transfer point and use the vacuum to suck it to the trailer while you are cleaning it.

One would want to use a dust mask, a hard hat with a flip down chaff screen, and goggles while cleaning as the air and debris will want to go all over of course.

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Of course the use of a "Rigid" or "Shop Vac" vacuum is an option but would get heavy with iron ore fines and hard to pull around while filling;

The issue of extension cords and a portable generator is an issue if 110 volt power is not available.

lzaharis ■

[QUOTE=gregory;59109]Hi,

Thanks for that..

We have already gear like that,but it not as simple as that..the chutes have very un-userfriendly enviroment to clean all the time,so i will know more after tomorrow as we are going in them to ascertain the degree of difficulty.

But,what you have suggested was my first option with water being last.

I like the sound of these liners..so far..

Friday i will have schematics of chutes to share i think..[/QUOTE

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A very large tank cleaning nozzle using air pressure would work for this as they spin in circles and rotate suspended from the bottom of a drop pipe etc.

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I may be even simpler to use a dilute phase pipeline to deliver the wood chips as

large diameter pneumatic pipelines using rotary lobe blowers delivering high volume low pressure air for hundreds of feet for heavier commodities have been in use for many years.

Wood chip dust build up will be simple to remove with a cable drawn or pressurised pipeline pig to remove build ups when they occur on occasion

by pressurising the pig and blowing it through the pipe to the cyclone .

The system could be installed with two rotary lobe blowers- one for pressure service at the loading point and one for suction service at the end point using a cylone to recieve the wood chips and remove them from the delvery pipe.

The one thing you have failed to mention is the lenth of the transport distance would you be so kind as to tell me what it is?

here is a link to one firm dealing with wood chops and other commodities.

allied blower

www.abgg.ca/mediahpconveying.pdf

lzaharis ■