What sort of truck???

Rail truck???

Road trucks, rigid body, articulated body??? ■

Most N European logistics specialists would consider a central take out conveyor similar to those used to discharge potatoes & sugar beet at their respective processing plants eg British Sugar & Walkers Snack Foods.

There are several manufacturers around but I'm not doing a web search myself. According to experiences there is/was a lot of room for improvement in the technique. But the explosive dust & degredation considerations are less of an issue than with some other methods. ■

OK, road transport.

Most commonly for grain this would be an articulated trailer with either an end door and tipping body, or multiple bottom outlets. With a rigid truck this would usually be with a tipping body. Both of these arrangements allow the grain to be tipped into a ground hopper with a conveyor at the hopper outlet. This allows for high discharge rates, 500 te/hr.

if you haven't got tipping bodies then use a tipping platform. Drive the truck onto the platform. It tips the entire truck for end discharge. Again, you can have high discharge rates.

There is also the option to have a self discharging lorry. You can have a conveyor built into the base of the truck body which has to be hoppered to achieve self discharging. Alternatively the truck can be fitted with a roots blower and rotary valve to pneumatically convey the grain. Generally only lower discharge rates can be achieved using these methods.

It would always be possible to drive the truck under a vacuum pneumatic unloader to discharge the grain from above.

Google can provide further information for your consideration.

Also I seem to remember you have a number of large grain silo complexes in Iran built in the 1970's. These must have truck unloading facilities. ■

There are a number of options.

1) Use a truck with its own hydraulic tipping body

2) Drive the truck onto a hydraulic tipping platform

3) Use a scraper shovel and winch arrangement - these are normally used to discharge railcars, but could be adapted for road trucks.

4) Adapt a hydraulic excavator with a blade to pull the grain out of the truck.

5) Build a truck body with hopper discharges.

Methods 1, 2 and 5 are the most commonly used. Its also common practice to construct a dust suppression hood around the discharge point with fans and dust collectors. ■

Lest we delve sideways into the realms of truck discharge fantasy...what is the intended recipient? Sorry I didn't ask before.

You cannot reasonably have a bottom dump body if there is a propshaft in the way so please confirm your understanding of rigid. Rigid trucks are vehicles with a single wheelbase, however measured.

How does the grain get into the waggon in the first place? This gives us a clue as to how to get it out. If you put it in through a spout then there's a start. If it goes in over the side then..there's easier for you. ■

Dear Mr. haghighi,

It has been mentioned by you that you intend to unload bulk wheat from the road truck (i.e. usual trucks being used for transport), by mechanised means. There are various mechanised means as mentioned by the earlier respondents. However, the important issue is how many trucks are to be unloaded in one hour and in one day. For example if one has to unload only few trucks in a day, then it is economical to have unloading simply by manual means. However, if say 20 trucks are to be unloaded in every hour and for 12 hours in a day, then it demands for sophisticated unloading arrangement. Finally, the investment has to justify the returns. The usual method for unloading large number of trucks on a regular basis could be done as below :

1) Use the trucks with in-built tipping body. The truck has simply to come at the unloading hopper, tip the body and discharge the material in to hopper. This is to be immediately conveyed by underneath vibrating feeder and conveyor, continuously.

2) The other method is to have a truck tippler i.e. truck comes and parks on the platform. The hydraulic mechanism tilts the platform together with the truck. The material flows from the back of truck into the hopper. In this case the truck is properly held on the platform for safety etc.

3) The other method could be to rely on a hopper of about two to three truck lengths, flush with the road and having grids on the hopper mouth. The trucks have to come on such hopper and open the doors from three sides. Substantial portion of the material will fall down and balance would be pushed out manually. This is applicable if you do not have a truck with the tipping system and trucks are of varied sizes etc.

Regards,

Ishwar G Mulani.

Author of Book : Engineering Science and Application Design for Belt Conveyors.

Author of Book : Belt Feeder Design and Hopper Bin Silo

Advisor / Consultant for Bulk Material Handling System & Issues.

Email : parimul@pn2.vsnl.net.in

Tel.: 0091 (0)20 25871916 ■

For wheat, vibrating feeders are not normally used. The ground hopper usually terminates at a chain conveyor, especially the En-Masse type. These can convey away at up to 1000 te/hr, but typically a 500 te/hr machine is adequate for a single tipping point. This is based on the lorry turn around time for "drive through" ground hopper discharge points. ■

Haghighi,

Once more, with tears on my tachograph chart, which are overflowing onto my ADR tanker certificate, what do you mean by 'rigid body'??

Without a properly defined query you will continue to elicit replies anywhere from shovelling to waggon tippling & perhaps beyond.

Consistent manual shovelling is not an option in a modern society & would not meet the Health & Safety bits without incurring high overheads. Waggon tipplers are, from personal experience, one of the daftest gadgets in creation & certainly the daftest I've ever driven into.

Please advise what kind of truck you mean; to tie down the options. ■