Solutions for Cement

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Posted in: , on 8. Feb. 2008 - 20:56

INBULK TECHNOLOGIES CREATES NEW LOGISTICS SOLUTIONS FOR CEMENT

During 2006 Lafarge North America became the first North American owners and operators of the intermodal bulk container known as the ISO-Veyor.

Lafarge North America’s Montreal office completed successful trials of the 20 ft. H type ISO-Veyor for marine shipments by Oceanex of cement powder to Newfoundland customers from the Port of Halifax and Montreal.

The ISO-Veyor is truly intermodal, facilitating easy transition between road and rail and sea. It consists of a cylindrical vessel with a 25 m capacity constructed within the frame dimensions of a 20ft ISO unit. It can be handled exactly as a standard ISO container, utilising currently available trailer chassis and rail car rolling stock. It can be filled at source and remain sealed until the point of delivery thus removing the need for intermediate handling or storage of the contents.

Once the ship arrives at the port, the ISO-Veyor is lifted from the Quayside onto a conventional skeletal trailer. The rest of the journey takes place by road. On arrival the ISO-Veyor can be loaded onto the ground. It now becomes a temporary silo. No need for the driver to wait around.

The ISO-Veyor can be stacked up to 9 high. The units can be drawn upon and discharged as demand dictates, ensuring a smooth and seamless supply of cement and cement substitute materials.

The ISO-Veyor represents a step forward in dry bulk transportation.

Pressurised ‘dry’ bulk containers have been available as tipping tanks which require hydraulically operated tipping chassis. These are expensive and also carry H&S issues at many sites, as there is the possibility of being blown over during high winds. So far, horizontal discharge tanks have been an extension of the ‘belly tanker concept’, where the internal cones take up valuable space and reduces payload.

InBulk Technologies recognised a significant opportunity to extend their 30 years of expertise within the ‘dense phase pneumatic conveying’ industry by applying their knowledge to pneumatic discharge tank containers.

Jim MacLean, InBulk’s Business Development Manager for Canada and North America comments:

“ We are delighted with this additional sale of ISO-Veyors to Lafarge NA. We are pleased to build on this contract with the World’s largest cement producer. The whole flexibility of the ISO-Veyor is an excellent way for cement suppliers to minimise the risks, keep costs to a minimum and maximising their supply chain efficiencies whilst recognising their sustainability obligations”.

In conjunction with the ISO-Veyor technology, work has recently been completed on InBulk’s new storage concept: The ISO-Silo.

The idea is simple – it’s a combined storage silo and pneumatic transfer system. The ISO-Silo is available in 40ft dimensions offering up to 53m3 capacity.

The major advantage over traditional silos is that the ISO-Silo can be erected and ready to operate in a matter of hours. The completely prefabricated unit only needs to be lifted into position and placed onto a precast concrete base to hold it in position in case of high winds.

An important design criterion was to have all serviceable equipment at ground level, avoiding the need to access the top of the silo (a big safety benefit). All units are supplied with integral plc control systems and self contained dust filtering system.

Another prime benefit over traditional equipment is that the ISO-Silos can be considered as a ‘temporary facility’ therefore planning permission may not be necessary.

Transportable silos for dry powders and granules that are filled by road tankers have been known for many years. These simple holding devices of 20 – 50 tonnes need to be accompanied by a mechanical or pneumatic conveying system to move the material. The ISO-Silo overcomes many of these problems. The ISO-Silo is a self contained pneumatic conveying vessel; as an option, it can come supplied with mechanical feeding devise such as screw feeder for short distances.

The ISO-Silo can be easily transported on trucks, rail or sea by using the infrastructure and equipment already used throughout the world to lift and move containers. On arrival at its end location, it is lifted vertically by a crane onto a concrete base.

The ISO-Silo is also a pressure vessel, which is designed to 2 Barg. After filling, the ISO-Silo itself can be pressurised to become a pneumatic conveying system that can convey the material to the point of use, avoiding the need for an additional conveying system that would be required with a conventional silo.

As the ISO-Silo can be pressurised, the airflow from the tanker truck can be restricted at the filter outlet so that the pressure in the filter and silo rises to approximately half the tanker truck pressure. By restricting the air flow through the filter, the surge of airflow at the end of the truck unloading can be avoided. The net result is a filter of approximately 1/3 the filter area of a conventional silo. The ISO-Silo filter has a much smaller pipe or duct, 100mm diameter due to the fact that it operates under pressure and has a flow limiting restriction on the filter outlet.

To avoid the requirement to fit a high level probe in the top of the ISO-Silo, a level probe is mounted on the small hopper underneath the filter unit, at ground level. If the ISO-Silo becomes ‘overfilled’ by accident, the bulk material being unloaded will be conveyed down the vent pipe into the filter unit hopper. This level probe will automatically close the airflow valve at the filter and will prevent any further transport from the tanker truck.

To enable the customer to know how much material is left in the silo at any time, load cells can be fitted between the ISO-Silo and the concrete base as an option.

For applications where it is not necessary to transport the material more than a few metres from the base of the ISO-Silo, the filter unit is located above the screw conveyor as it exits the base. The screw conveyor is also capable of being pressurised. The valve on the screw conveyor outlet is closed during ISO-Silo filling and the dust collected in the filter will fall into the screw conveyor.

For powders, the design of the ISO-Silo can be changed to incorporate a fully fluidised cone with a low angle to the horizontal, providing maximum storage capacity.

InBulk Technologies are working with a number of companies looking to explore the concept for various applications & industries. Many of the companies are looking at new ways to cut back on the number of hours that drivers are required to wait around to discharge loads. ‘Driver controlled deliveries’ can greatly assist haulage companies that are looking to combat the negative economic effects of the Working Time Directive. Indeed driver controlled deliveries are common in the retail petroleum market and as a result tanker fleets used in this market obtain very high utilisation rates compared with other industries.

ISO-Silos can be controlled by the truck driver, ensuring that their time is utilized more effectively, a situation made worse by the recent working time directive for truck drivers. ISO-Silos effectively hand this control to the drivers.

A full prototype unit is available for trials very soon. Jim MacLean, continues: “If there are any US and Canadian companies wishing to examine the possibilities of transportation and storage solutions utilising ISO-Veyor’s or ISO-Silos, we urge them to pick up the phone and give us a call”.

For ore information, please visit:

https://edir.bulk-online.com/profile...chnologies.htm

http://www.google.com/search?client=...UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

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